THE suspect in the abduction and murder of 24-year-old student Jastine Valdez reportedly left a note directing gardai to where he had dumped her body.
Mark Hennessy, the married father of two from Bray, Co. Wicklow who was shot dead by officers on Sunday night, is believed to have strangled her to death within 45 minutes of the abduction.
The body of the young woman was discovered yesterday afternoon at a disused golf course in Rathmichael, south Dublin.
Gardai are awaiting the results of the post-mortem examination, which is being conducted today.
Officers are also probing whether the suspected killer went to a local pub in Ballybrack, Co Dublin after committing the murder.
He is reported to have called his wife shortly before being cornered and killed by gardai on Sunday evening in a car park in Cherrywood, Co. Wicklow.
Gardaí have not yet established a connection between Hennessy and Ms Valdez and investigators at this stage believe the abduction was a random attack.
Jastine Valdez had ambitions to become an accountant, having joined her parents in Ireland three years ago after completing a degree in accountancy in her native city of Aritao in the Philippines.
Her father Danillo and her mother Teresita moved here from the province of Nueva Vizcaya.
Danillo worked for many years as a gardener while his wife worked as a housekeeper before they moved to Enniskerry, where he took a job as a maintenance man at the nearby Powerscourt Estate. Teresita manages a house connected with the estate.
According to a family friend, she moved here reluctantly but embraced life once she arrived.
Around 200 people attended a candlelight vigil in the town of Bray last night and offered prayers to her family.
Prayer services have taken place around the country following the disappearance of Jastine Valdez. In Bray, around 200 people attended a candlelight vigil and offered prayers to her family pic.twitter.com/LEdQK5J7kb
— RTÉ News (@rtenews) May 21, 2018
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