Murderer Mark Hennessey who kidnapped and strangled to death student Jastine Valdez may be serial killer behind Ireland’s ‘Vanishing Triangle’
Mark Hennessy was shot dead by cops after he strangled Jastine Valdez, 24, and dumped her body for officers to find in Dublin
COPS are probing whether a dad shot dead after murdering a student was a serial killer behind a string of mysterious disappearances in the 1990s.
Mark Hennessy was killed by officers hunting for Jastine Valdez, 24, after she vanished near Dublin on Saturday.
The 40-year-old appears to have kidnapped the student at random, strangled her then dumped her body for police to find on Monday.
He then phoned his wife as chillingly told her: "I've done something awful" as police closed in on him.
Cops now fear Hennessy could be behind a string of disappearances, with his DNA being checked to see if he's a serial killer.
Officers will re-examine the Vanishing Triangle cases of the 1990s when a group of young women vanished without a trace from the Leinster area.
Among the victims are Fiona Pender, Deirdre Jacob, Annie McCarrick and Jo Jo Dullard.
Speaking on Morning Ireland on RTE Radio 1 this morning, crime correspondent Paul Reynolds said: "They have to look at where he was and what he was doing around the time when some of those women disappeared.
"He would have been very young for some of the cases, for example the case of Annie McCarrick who disappeared in 1993, he would have been only 15 years of age.
"But Deirdre Jacob disappeared in 1998 when Mark Hennessy was 20 years of age so they definitely will look at him.
"But they'll also look at him for more recent attacks on women. They'll check his DNA and they will have to consider him even if only to rule him out as a suspect in these cases."
A major search operation was launched by Gardai after Jastine disappeared on Saturday.
Dad-of-two Hennessy was tracked down to an industrial estate in Dublin, where he was shot dead by an investigator after he threatened officers with a knife on Sunday evening.
A was found in the car indicating to gardai where Jastine's body was and she was discovered the next day.
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Gardai are awaiting Jastine's postmortem results to determine how she was killed although it is believed that .
Officers have been so far unable to find between Hennessy and his victim.
It has been revealed Hennessy went out the young student.