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It was May of 2018 when 24-year-old Jastine Valdez got off at her bus stop in Ireland only to be abducted moments later in broad daylight.
Jastine was born in 1993 to parents Teresita & Danilo Valdez, who went by Tess & Danny. She was the only child who was born in Aritao which sat about 150 miles or 255 kilometers north of the Filipino capital of Manila. As Jastine grew up, she attended St. Teresita’s Academy which was a Catholic secondary school in her hometown.
Tess & Danny relocated to Ireland for work while Jastine stayed in the Philippines with family until 2015 when her parents were able to bring her over. The family settled in the small village of Enniskerry in County Wicklow which wasn’t far from the Dublin/Wicklow border.
When Jastine arrived in her new home of Ireland, she wasted no time picking back up on work, studying & building a new life for herself. When she wasn’t at home, she was in frequent contact with her parents since the three had a very close relationship. On top of studying accounting at IT Tallaght, Jastine was also working two part-time jobs; one as a care worker & also as a waitress at a cafe in the busy coastal town of Bray.
In November of 2017, Jastine started a relationship with Joseph Squire who later described her as happy, active & someone who never got into trouble or did drugs because she was far too innocent for that & added that she was “literally the most innocent person I ever met in my life.”
Saturday, May 19, 2018 started as a bright but gray day in County Wicklow with the cooler temperatures ranging from 39-68 degrees fahrenheit that afternoon. Jastine was away from home for much of the day & it was believed that she had been working in the cafe in the morning & headed over to Bray Garda Station, a local police station, where she had a 2 pm appointment to review her residency permit.
After Jastine met with the immigration officer she went to workout at Ben Dunne Gym at Cherrywood Business Park in South County Dublin. As per her usual routine, Jastine kept in contact with her parents & messaged her mom from her Facebook Messenger app where they exchanged a total of 63 messages. In the last message Tess sent her daughter at 4:20 pm, she asked Jastine if she could pick up bread before heading home, which she did.
At 5:20 pm, still wearing her gym clothes which included gray leggings, a white t-shirt, gym shoes & a dark jacket, Jastine got on the 185 bus from Bray to Enniskerry, arriving at about 6 pm. From there, her walk home would have taken about 15-20 minutes which was a journey she never had a chance to complete.
Because Jastine was abducted in broad daylight, there were witnesses that saw exactly what happened. One woman, Susan Forsythe, was driving along the R760 road between Enniskerry & Powerscourt Estate at about 6:15 pm when she noticed a car that was parked on the road. As she passed, she heard screaming & noticed an Asian woman sitting in the back of the SUV, looking out towards her. She heard a slapping sound & a male voice yelling angrily which prompted her to pull her car over & dial 999 as she was convinced that something sinister was happening. As she dialed, the car sped away.
Ten minutes later, at about 6:20 pm, another witness, Gareth Thompson, was leaving Bray, traveling toward the N11 which is a major road that runs along the east coast from Dublin to Wexford. As he went along, a Nissan SUV pulled out in front of him & he saw what he believed was a child in the back of the car who was holding her hands up, waving. Her position in the car didn’t seem comfortable or natural as she was sitting on an angle & she had a concerned look on her face.
Gareth was convinced that what he was seeing was of concern & couldn’t shake the feeling that something wasn’t right. He made the decision to report what he’d seen at 7:22 pm to the police after he had gotten home & discussed the situation with his wife. Jastine had a small stature & stood at only 5 feet tall so it wasn’t surprising that Gareth mistook her for a child.
In the meantime, police arrived at the scene of Jastine’s abduction after Susan called about what she had seen. When they arrived, they found several items scattered along the ground that included Jastine’s smashed cell phone as well as a plastic bag that contained the bread she had picked up at her mom’s request.
Police began to interview witnesses & search for Jastine via helicopter & patrol car, knowing that because she was taken in a car & being transported to a secondary location, they would need to move quickly as the chances of finding her in time were not good.
Police began to scour CCTV & traffic cameras in hopes of tracing where the car had taken Jastine & tracked every matching vehicle in the Dublin & Wicklow areas in the hours after Jastine’s abduction. They finally found a suspect, when, at about 3 am the next day, Sunday, May 20, 2018, police knocked on the door of a property in Bray, County Wicklow as this was where the owner of a Nissan Qashqai, Nicola Hennessey, lived. Police could immediately see that the car in question was not on the driveway & Nicola indicated that her husband Mark, who had the car, was not home & hadn’t been since the previous evening & she was unsure of his whereabouts. By 10 am on Sunday morning, police had a solid lead in the case with a viable suspect.
They began speaking with Mark’s family & described his parents & brother as lovely, salt of the earth people who are decent & hard working. They attempted to send Mark messages & track him down, but there was no response. Police were well aware of the fact that they needed to find Mark quickly if they had any hope of finding Jastine alive. It was a race against time at this point.
Nicola’s husband, 40-year-old Mark Hennessey, was born in 1977 & worked as a banksman or signaller on building sites where he was in charge of crane movements from the point of loading & unloading. He & Nicola had two daughters together which included an eight month old baby that had been born the previous September. Police began to trace Mark’s footsteps on the day of Jastine’s abduction & learned from Nicola that he had left for work at 7:30 am on Saturday morning, returning at 3 pm.
At 5:25 pm, he told Nicola that he was going out for a drink & left the house; she presumed he was going to a local pub, but he hadn’t returned & Nicola hadn’t heard from or seen Mark since. As police interviewed Nicola as well as immediate family, they discovered that the couple was not happily married despite what Mark tried to project. Rather, his life was spiraling out of control.
Not only was his marriage on the brink of divorce but he was buried in debt & a frequent cocaine user. Many criminologists would indicate this as a potential trigger or stressor for violent behavior in the life of a previously non-violent offender. Mark did have a previous assault conviction dating back to his early 20s when he headbutted a customer in a pub & was also facing a DUI charge & leaving the scene of an accident & appeared in court only days earlier. Some neighbors described him as a quiet, hardworking man while others said he was an oddball & a heavy drinker.
Tess was immediately concerned when Jastine didn’t come home as expected & instantly felt that something terrible must have happened. The two had been messaging each other all day when the responses from Jastine suddenly stopped. Jastine was absolutely not the type of person that would change plans & fail to notify her loved ones. She gave her daughter a little extra time, hoping that she would suddenly arrive home & when she didn’t, Tess reported Jastine missing.
By Sunday morning, the media was covering Jastine’s case, now that they had the identity of the woman in question as well as the likelihood of who had abducted her. Media was assembled & a press conference was held on the afternoon of Sunday, May 20. Police informed the public that they were on the search for a black 2017 Nissan Qashqai & also released Mark’s physical description. An abduction in broad daylight was exceptionally odd & had captured the attention of the public who were very motivated to help in any way that they could.
A Dublin woman, Christina Connolly, came forward & indicated that when she was leaving work on Sunday evening, she spotted a Nissan Qashqai that matched the description of what was described by the media. In a brave & bold move, Christina made the decision to follow the vehicle & called police as she drove. As the car eventually pulled into Cherrywood Industrial Estate, a business park, Christina stopped following to protect her own safety. She later indicated that the driver of the car was aware that she was following & continued to monitor her through his rearview mirror. An armed Garda Response Unit arrived at this location, unsure of what they would discover.
Despite the fact that it was after 8 pm, the sky was still bright with daylight & police approached Mark Hennessey’s car & instructed him to exit though he refused. As armed officers approached the driver’s door, a gun was pointed in his direction. One witness, James Magee, said as he watched from a distance, he was able to see Mark take a 10cm utility knife out & in one single motion, he sliced his left wrist up to his elbow. Police attempted to shatter the car’s window by kicking it in order to gain access, but the window didn’t immediately shatter. As this was happening, Mark moved the blade of the knife to his neck.
Witness James Magee said that the look on Mark’s face was one that the man knew that everything was over for him. He placed his hands on the steering wheel & shrugged. Suddenly, there was a flash of white as an officer shot once into the vehicle, fatally wounding Mark Hennessey. Mark was removed from the car & his body was placed on the ground in order to search his car in hopes of finding Jastine alive inside. The time between the arrival of police at the scene & the gunshot was only four to five minutes.
The detective who shot Mark indicated that he believed that Jastine was in the car with him at the time & that Mark was about to slit her throat. This was based on a radio call that indicated a second occupant was in the car with Mark. The detective stopped directly in front of Mark’s car while another unmarked car blocked the rear & saw Mark in the driver’s seat, moving from side to side, looking agitated. He held a knife at the window & pointed at the detective. Mark was struggling with something in the front passenger stepwell area & the detective screamed for him to drop the knife. The pattern of Mark’s movements within the car were indicative that he was struggling with someone else inside & he had been non-compliant to all of their demands to that point. When the officer saw movement & struggle in that split second, he said he had no other option but to shoot, believing that Jastine was at imminent risk of death.The unnamed detective who had been in his position for 18 years, described Mark in that moment as a person possessed & indicates he will never forget the look in his eyes.
As paramedics worked on Mark, they begged him to tell them what he had done with Jastine as there was no sign of her inside the car. The only item found was a bottle of Jack Daniels on the passenger seat.
Mark’s family were alerted to the manhunt & joined searches of the local area in hopes of not only ensuring his safety, but also in hopes of Jastine’s safe return. They were searching on foot, in the area of Cherrywood Industrial Estate, when they heard the sound of raised voices & a gunshot. His family rushed to the area where police were gathered, but were held back though it was clear to the family that Mark was deceased. Mark Hennessey was pronounced dead at 8:38 pm & a pathologist later indicated that the cause of death was a gunshot wound to the shoulder & the bullet had entered his torso, causing fatal injuries. He also had an 8 inch self-inflicted wound to his left forearm that was a contributing factor. He was deemed mildly intoxicated at the time of his death with evidence of recent cocaine use.
As police continued to search Mark’s Nissan, they found a bloodstained piece of paper with handwriting on it. The paper was saturated in blood, making it very difficult to read though two phrases that were legible; ‘Sorry’ & ‘Puck’s Castle.’ Police were fearful that they would be unable to find Jastine now that the person who was responsible for her abduction was deceased. There was also the worry that they had been too late to save Jastine.
Based on the writing found in the car, police followed their lead & went to Puck’s Castle which is a 16th century castle ruin in Rathmichael, County Dublin. The area is surrounded by dense woodland which made the search very difficult. On Monday morning, two days after Jastine was abducted, investigators came across her handbag & at 3 pm, they tragically found Jastine’s body hidden amongst the thick brush. It was clear that she had been dead for several days & had likely been murdered within hours of her abduction.
Dr Linda Mulligan was the pathologist who conducted Jastine’s autopsy, determined that her cause of death was asphyxia caused by manual strangulation & confirmed that she had died sometime Saturday evening after she was abducted. Bruising & abrasions were found in the area of Jastine’s thighs & genitals though it could not be determined if she had been sexually assaulted.
Dr Mulligan did a toxicology screen that determined that Jastine had ingested cocaine in the hours before her murder. Police pieced together a timeline of what happened on the day of Jastine’s abduction & surmised that Mark had left his home & arrived at Ramblers Rest pub in Ballybrack. He entered the pub but did not buy a drink. Many of those at the pub were distracted by the fact that the FA Cup Final was on TV but did notice that Mark seemed restless & left after ten minutes after he announced that he was bored & left. Surveillance video showed him leaving the pub at 5:41 pm & walking to the parking lot where he had left his car. It appeared as if he was on the phone & he was seen leaving in his car two minutes later. Thirty minutes later, he was seen driving behind the bus that Jastine was on.
It was assumed that Mark had seen Jastine walking shortly after she left the gym in Cherrywood & followed her in his car & watched as she boarded the 185 bus. CCTV from the bus that Jastine rode confirmed that Mark’s Nissan followed the same route, driving closely behind until Jastine got off. The two had never crossed paths before & investigators believe that it was a crime of opportunity that was sexually motivated.
After he abducted Jastine, he likely drove to the grounds of Puck’s Castle. Another motorist saw a black Nissan Qashaqai driving erratically on Pucks Castle Lane at about 6:50 pm. There, he forced her to ingest cocaine, sexually assaulted & strangled her & then concealed Jastine’s body in the underbrush. He then began trying to score cocaine from one of his many dealers.
Mark was then seen entering the Ramblers Rest Pub for a second time that day at 11 pm; he appeared to loiter in the doorway, talking with other patrons but he didn’t order a drink. Witnesses described his demeanor as calm & collected & he didn’t appear to be distressed in any way. His whereabouts & actions from there are unknown until police tracked him down at the industrial park 36 hours later.
Jastine’s body was transferred back to her home country of the Philippines where she was then laid to rest.
Police officers were convinced that Mark Hennessey’s attack & murder against Jastine was not his first offense & had the characteristics of a serial sex offender. They ran his DNA through a genetic database to see if he could potentially be tied to other cases, but there were no matches.
In the early part of the investigation, detectives learned that a man matching Mark’s age & physical description had been harassing female passengers at train stations in South County Dublin over several years, including exposing himself to them. There is no definitive proof that Mark was this person, however.
No one could understand how a seemingly healthy, married, father of two had gone on to commit such a horrific, random abduction & murder. It appeared that Mark was hiding a very sinister side of himself & the fact that he was abusing cocaine, falling into debt & watching his life crumble, he made the unfathomable decision to take an innocent woman he had likely never met before as she innocently walked along the street in broad daylight. It was later discovered that he had joined dating apps & tried to pick up women in pubs, knowing that his marriage was ending.
Now retired detective superintendent Frank Keenaghan, who hunted down Mark, believes that Mark had likely seen Jastine at the bus stop before & was possibly infatuated with her based on the fact that he followed her bus for about seven to eight miles that day.
Amidst their grief, the Hennessey & Valdez families met & exchanged sympathies to one another after the Hennessey family held a private funeral for their son, Mark. The family reported feeling broken after the tragedy of what their son had been responsible for.
Jastine’s parents, Tess & Danny, spoke out about what happened to their beloved only child, “We miss her so much it is hard to bear. We will never know why this happened. We will never understand how such evil can exist in the world. Our grief will never pass, the loss of our beautiful Jastine will never fade, we will never have peace.” On the third anniversary of Jastine’s murder, Tess & Danny said that they continue to give her a plate of food at every meal & prop a pillow for her when they go to bed. Tess also said, “Rest in peace, my dear child. We will always be loving you, forever be missing you, & keeping you in our heart that is broken in pieces.”
References:
- Medium: The Long Walk Home: The abduction of Jastine Valdez
- Chilling Crimes: Jastine Valdez
- Dublin Live: Monster who snatched & murdered Jastine Valdez was infatuated with her, detectives believe
- Dublin Live: Jastine Valdez killer Mark Hennessey ‘looked like a man possessed’ in moments before he was fatally shot, inquest hears
- Dublin Live: Heartbroken parents of murdered Jastine Valdez still leave a plate of dinner out for her every day
- Irish Times: Man who killed Jastine Valdez shrugged before being shot by gardai, inquest told
- Irish Independent: ‘In the midst of our grief’ – Families of Jastine & her killer meet in exchange of sympathies
- Irish Examiner: Jastine Valdez inquest returns unlawful killing verdict
- DublinLive: Crazed killer Mark Hennessy had major debts in weeks before Jastine Valdez murder
