Clarissa: A life stolen
In 2013, Rebecca Saunders husband Martin drowned their 3 year old little girl and then himself. In a haze of grief, she allowed Clarissa to be buried in Martin’s arms in a lonely West Cork graveyard. Eight years after her daughter’s tragic death, Rebecca tells their story.
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The following content is sensitive in nature and some readers may find it distressing.
Little ceramic angels peer down on a weathered wooden plaque in a west Cork graveyard, a small physical reminder of a harrowing killing that rocked and still divides a community.
Clarissa McCarthy was just three-years-old when her father Martin, 50, drowned the friendly, playful little girl on March 5, 2013, before taking his own life at Audley Cove near their home outside Ballydehob.