The mother of a three-year-old girl who was buried in a single coffin in West Cork with the father who drowned her before taking his own life has spoken of her relief at having the remains of her daughter exhumed.
The body of Clarissa McCarthy is being cremated so that her American-born mother, Rebecca Saunders, can bring her remains home to Houston in Texas. Ms Saunders started a campaign to exhume the body last year. Her efforts began eight years after the father of the child, Martin McCarthy, walked in to the sea at Audley Cove in West Cork carrying his daughter and drowning them both.
Clarissa died in a beach below the family farm outside Ballydehob on March 5th, 2013.
In an interview on the Claire Byrne Show, on RTÉ Radio 1, Ms Saunders said she instantly regretted burying Clarissa with her father. Clarissa was laid to rest three days after the murder suicide took place.
“I had less than 24 hours before I was asked how my daughter, who was alive what seemed to me like mere moments ago, how she would spend the rest of eternity.
"I wanted to exhume Clarissa from that moment when her coffin was laid in the ground and I turned to legal help and help from Irish public bodies and I felt it would be a fruitless endeavour.”
She said about 15 months ago, having received a positive reception to an interview she gave to the Irish Examiner, she restarted to consider her position. She decided to actively pursue putting in an application to Cork City Council to exhume the body of her daughter.
Now remarried and with two daughters in America, she set up a Go Fund me page to pay for the costs of the process – both legal and the physical transportation of the remains of her daughter.
Grateful
Rebecca spoke of being enormously grateful to the Irish public who contributed in droves to allow her to pursue her dream of bringing Clarissa physically closer to her.
“I wouldn’t have been able to do this without the help shown by people who didn’t even know me. People who have given their financial support and their prayers and their and their words of kindness. I just want to thank everybody because |I would not have been financially able to bring Clarissa home at this time.”
Ms Saunders admits she was unable to feel any sense of peace as long as Clarissa remained buried in West Cork.
I felt like I had made the worst decision I could in decisions I felt like I didn’t have the power to do myself.
Being able to not only remove her from the arms of her murderer but have her closer to me that has certainly given me a greater sense of comfort and peace. “
$10,000 in unused funds from the Go Fund Me appeal has been donated to Cork University Maternity Hospital and the Cork Edel House centre for women and children who are homeless. Ms Saunders plans to donate any remaining funds to the Inshore Rescue who work in the West Cork area.
