The heartbreaking story of Buncrana woman Danielle McLaughlin and her family’s search for justice will be told on RTE’s Primetime programme this evening.
It has ben seven years since the Donegal woman was brutally murdered in early 2017 in India.
Her body was found in a remote field in Canacona, a part of Goa popular with tourists.
She was 28 year old and a 24-year old suspect – a local man who Danielle knew – was arrested within hours of her body being discovered.
However, the pain and slow speed of justice have weighed heavily on her family.
“It’s just so draining that we just want it over and done with,” Joleen, Danielle’s younger sister, told Prime Time, in her home in Donegal.
“We don’t really know what’s going to happen,” she added.
It is moving quicker recently than in the past: a higher court in India directed in 2023 that the trial should be concluded in 2024.
“They say it should end this year, but we don’t really know, and we don’t want to have that hope that it will end because we have been let down so many times in the past,” Joleen said.
The only way the McLaughlin family have been able to keep track of a legal process which will soon enter its eighth year is to pay a lawyer in India themselves.
“The trial used to be on twice a month. It is now on sometimes eight times a month,” said Andrea, Danielle’s mother.
“So, it is on more frequently compared to before. That is why I am hopeful that it could be ending this year.”
Joleen and Andrea said they hope to travel to India if the trial looks like it is nearing a conclusion.
Watch the full programme, the story of Danielle McLaughlin which features on tonight’s edition of Prime Time, broadcast at 9.35pm on RTÉ One television.
