Mother appeals to exhume daughter

"Where she’s buried and how she’s buried and who she’s buried with, just gives me a great deal of stress."

Those were the words of Rebecca Saunders as she spoke about exhuming her daughter’s body and bringing it home to the US.

In the summer of 2004, she arrived in West Cork for an eight-week study abroad programme. She was 16 at the time when she met local farmer Martin McCarthy, 42 at the time. By the time she returned home to the US, they were engaged. Rebecca returned to West Cork to marry Martin, and a few years later had a baby called Clarissa. The marriage fell apart and after some years, Rebecca wanted a divorce. On the day she sought legal advice about that, she arrived back at the farm to find Martin and Clarissa missing. A search began but Martin had drowned their daughter Clarissa and then himself at Audley Cove on 5 March 2013. Martin had left a note which included the line: “If you can take Clarissa to America I can take Clarissa to heaven.”

Rebecca this week spoke to 'The Claire Byrne Show' on RTÉ 1 of her intention to have her daughter's body exhumed so she can bring her home to the US where Rebecca now lives with her husband and two daughters.

She told Claire: “Ever since Clarissa’s casket was closed and she was lowered down into that grave, I just felt like I had made a very grievous mistake. And while I understand the reasons why I decided what I had decided eight years ago, certain circumstances were brought to light that made me realise just how involved Martin’s plan was and I feel like, I feel like burying them together was a huge mistake.

“I feel like I essentially abandoned her because I am not there anymore and the grave and where she’s buried and how she’s buried and who she’s buried with, just gives me a great deal of stress that I would just, I would sleep better, I would be able to function better if I was able to take her home with me.

“I know that exhuming her is not going to bring her back to me, but it will be some small amount of closure. And I hate to use that word but that is what it will be when I can exhume Clarissa, when I can take her home with me. There will be some small amount of closure that I no longer have to think that she’s in the arms of that monster.”

Rebecca has set up a GoFundMe page called Clarissa’s Cause to help to bring Clarissa home to the US.