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The Long Walk Home: The Abduction of Jastine Valdez
In May 2018, a 24-year-old woman was making her way home from a bus stop in Enniskerry, Country Wicklow, when she was brazenly snatched from the street and bundled into a car. Authorities soon traced the vehicle to a 40-year-old man and initiated a manhunt to apprehend him. What followed was a tense stand-off with a desperate man, determined to hide his crime. This episode covers the case of Jastine Valdez.
Listen to the podcast episode on this case here:
The Bus Stop
Jastine Valdez ran through all of the things she had done that day, happy to have marked them off her list. She looked at her phone screen, and then out the window of the bus. She was approaching her stop in Enniskerry and stood up to ring the bell to indicate to the driver to stop. She thanked the driver, which is customary in Ireland, and disembarked the vehicle. Carrying her phone in one hand, and a plastic shopping bag in the other, she began walking home. It was a little after 6 pm. She didn’t notice the vehicle approach her from behind or stop. She couldn’t have…