THE FAMILIES OF murdered student Jastine Valdez and her killer Mark Hennessy have met to exchange sympathies.
24-year-old Jastine was killed on Saturday 19 May after being abducted by Hennessy, a married father-of-two, in Enniskerry, Co Wicklow.
Hennessy murdered Valdez 45 minutes later and left her body at Puck’s Castle in Rathmichael, Co Dublin.
He was killed himself by a Garda bullet when apprehended in his black Nissan Qashqai in Cherrywood, south Dublin, the following day.
A Garda release this evening has acknowledged that both grieving families have met.
“In the midst of our grief both the Valdez and Hennessy families met on Friday morning where we exchanged sympathies with each other on the tragic circumstances that resulted in the loss of our respective love ones,” the families said in a statement released by gardaí this evening.
Both families request privacy at this very difficult time.
Mark Hennessy was cremated in a private funeral service yesterday in Harold’s Cross in Dublin.
The Irish Times reported that Hennessy’s father Mick told the service that the family is living a “nightmare”.
“Hennessy’s father, Mick, told the funeral service the family was living a “nightmare”.
“I fix things. That’s my job. I go to work and I fix things,” he told the service.
“But for the past week I have been waking up in the morning to see my darling sweetheart wife broken. She’s broken. And I can’t fix her,” he said.
I look at my sons and daughters… and they’re broken. I can’t fix them. I look at Mark’s uncles, aunties, cousins, nephews, nieces and his beautiful, beautiful daughters. They’re all broken and I can’t fix them.
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