“I will go to the gates of hell to meet you,” says father of Tallaght man believed murdered with girlfriend
The heartbroken father of a Tallaght man missing for a year and feared murdered – along with his pregnant girlfriend – issued a powerful video last night asking “God send me to hell to meet the people who murdered my son.”
Joe Maughan made the video filled with pain and anger on Facebook as the anniversary of his son’s disappearance approached today.
Willie Maughan and Anastasija (Ana) Varslavane disappeared on Thursday, April 14 last year from Gormanston, Co Meath.
The couple, who had been planning to move back to Tallaght in Dublin, where Willie grew up, are a matter of “extreme concern” for gardai, who are appealing for any information either openly or confidentially from the public.
In the video dad Joe says: “There’s people out there that knows more than me about my son’s disappearance. I am asking those people tonight to clear their conscience. I am pleading with you again, do the right thing, pick that phone up to clear you own conscience.”
But then in a devastating turn Joe’s voice turned to one of hatred, for those he believes killed his son and girlfriend, who was expecting their first child when she also vanished.
Now I want to make a comment that I personally mean. I want to ask God, I am asking you tonight, when my time is up to send me to hell, That’s one wish I want because I know the people that murdered my son are going to hell and I want to meet them. I am telling you on that day when they come to meet the devil I’d rather they meet me and I mean that from the bottom of my heart.
His voice visibly shaking, Joe added: “Look at the anger and grief going through me that a heap of wolves, cowards, murdered them in the prime of life. I can’t forget that wee lassie crying out for help on the phone. I will tear your hearts out when I meet you at the gate.”
On the day the pair vanished Ana, 21, rang her 34-year-old partner’s mother at 2.57pm.
One of Nell Maughan’s sons answered the phone and said he heard Ana crying “Help, help, help” and the sound of choking.
Willie’s dad Joe told the Irish Mirror last year: “My son knew something he should not have known and that is why they have been taken away.”
Joe said his son is “not a criminal”, but his disappearance may have been linked to knowing too much about a gangland murder.
“Willie was offered to do something. He has a conscience.
“They were asking him to kill somebody. They thought he was a junkie or heroin addict, that he would jump on the money,” he told the newspaper.
Joe and Nell Maughan posted on Facebook: Everyone it’s 12 months this Thursday William and Ana are gone. There will be a special intentions mass held for the first anniversary in the Sacred Heart Church, Killinarden, Tallaght…for the return of my son and Ana’s body.
It seems clear the family believe the couple, whose bank cards have not been used since they vanished, are dead.
Willie is 5′ 8”, of athletic build, with shaved head and green eyes. Anna is 5’6” in height, of slim build, with long dark hair.