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THE PARENTS OF murdered Jastine Valdez have described their daughter as a “fun-loving and wonderful” person as they thanked gardaí for finding her.

The body of the 24-year-old student was discovered just off the Puck’s Castle Lane area of Rathmichael in south Dublin on Monday afternoon. A letter from her suspected killer Mark Hennessy led gardaí to the site.

Today, her parents Teresita and Danilo paid tribute to their daughter and thanked the Irish public for their compassion in the face of Jastine’s death.

A statement released via the Irish Consulate of the Philippines read:

We would like to thank all the Irish people and the Philippine community living in Ireland for all their support, compassion, and sympathy during this tragic time for us.It has been of some comfort knowing how deeply our beautiful daughter Jastine has affected the people of Ireland.Our daughter’s plans were to settle in Ireland, buy a house here and make a new life. She is a fun-loving, wonderful, caring daughter and friend.She is always in our hearts and in the hearts of the people of Ireland.

We would like to thank emergency services, the Gardai, Chief Superintendent John Quirke, Superintendent Ward, and especially our Liaison officer Garda Pat Mackey.

They have acted with the utmost professionalism and speed to return our beautiful daughter Jastine to us.

We also wish to acknowledge the support and sympathy of our family, friends, and the people of the Philippines, Outreach Ireland, and both the Philippine and Irish Dept of Foreign Affairs for their help and support.

Finally, we wish to thank the wonderful help and support given by Mark Congdon, Consul of the Philippines for all he has done to support us during this traumatic time.

Jastine’s body will repose in a Bray funeral home today and Saturday from 2pm to 6pm.

Gardaí continue to investigate the death of Jastine. The focus of the investigation is now into the whereabouts of her blue handbag, and her Apple Mini iPad.

Gardaí say that suspect Mark Hennessy may have visited several locations across south Dublin over the weekend and appealed to members of the public who may have seen him to pass on that information.