Jastine Valdez’s parents have said that they were “disappointed” that their daughter’s murderer was shot by Gardaí.
Danilo and Teresita said that they are “not angry at Ireland for what happened,” and added that they could “never repay” the public’s kindness.
“Whatever was going on in his mind was only in his mind and it’s not for us to blame Ireland, Ireland has been good to us,” they said.
24-year-old Jastine was reported missing on the evening of May 19 when she didn’t return home from work.
She had been abducted and murdered by Mark Hennessy. Her body was discovered one day after she was reported missing.
Jastine’s parents told Miriam O’Callaghan on RTÉ’s Radio 1 that when Jastine didn’t arrive home, they “knew” that something had happened.
“There was this gut feeling inside me,” said Teresita, “I knew that something was wrong, something terribly wrong had happened.”
The next day, Gardaí confirmed to the couple that they had found their only daughter’s body. Soon afterwards, they were informed that Hennessy had murdered her.
He had been shot dead by Gardaí in Cherrywood.
Danilo and Teresita said that Hennessy’s death “didn’t ease the pain at all.”
“We didn’t like that he was killed. It didn’t change anything (…) Jastine was gone and we were also sad that he passed away.
“We felt bad that he was killed straight away, quite quickly. We wanted to find out what was running in his head, we wanted to know more about why.
“We were quite disappointed that he was killed.”
The couple recently returned to Ireland and are hoping to start a new life.
