Nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy was abducted while cycling from her home in Ballinderry, Co Antrim in August 1981.
Her disappearance prompted a large-scale search involving police, the Army, and local volunteers, after her red bicycle was discovered abandoned near her home.
Six days after she was reported missing her body was found by two duck hunters in McKee’s Dam near Hillsborough.
Her father, Andrew Cardy, died on Wednesday at his home in the Crumlin Road area. Jennifer’s mother Patricia, died in 2022 following a long illness.
A post on social media described him as the “dearly loved and devoted husband of the late Patricia (Pat). Much loved and loving dad of Mark, Phillip, Victoria and the late Jennifer. Father-in-law to Karen, Susan and Andy.”
“Cherished grandfather and great-grandfather. Loving brother to Elizabeth and the late Tom.”
It said he died “peacefully at his home”.
Andrew and Patricia Cardy
The case of Jennifer Cardy’s death remained unsolved for nearly three decades until 2011, when serial child killer Robert Black was convicted of her abduction and murder.
Black, a delivery driver originally from Scotland, had a history of sexually abusing and murdering young girls across the UK and evidence presented at his trial placed him in the area at the time of Jennifer’s disappearance, leading to his conviction and a life sentence.
He was previously convicted in the early 1990s of the murder of three young girls, Susan Maxwell, Caroline Hogg and Sarah Harper.
Black died of a heart attack at HMP Maghaberry aged 68 in 2016.
“Robert Black stole the life of our daughter, Jennifer, but Robert Black didn’t steal the lives of me and my family—we’ve lived a happy, prosperous life, but we miss Jennifer each and every day,” Mr Cardy said following the trial.
Jennifer Cardy was abducted and killed by serial killer Robert Black in 1981
“We had a faith, and particularly throughout the trial we had a promise from God that he would never forsake us. He has given us a peace that surpasses all understanding.”
In 2016, Jennifer’s brother Philip Cardy told the Belfast Telegraph that his sister’s death was a “life sentence” for their family, describing the emotional toll of imagining her final moments.
He said: “There is no peace when you think about how she died.”
He recalled that as a child, while others were told the bogeyman wasn’t real, he “knew there was a bogeyman” because of what happened to Jennifer.
Robert Black, the making of a child serial killer
“Grief is something that stays with you for years and continually pops up. When I started to think about what it might have been like for Jennifer, it really was hard to deal with. What was she thinking? Did she call out? Did she call: ‘Daddy, daddy?’ I can’t even imagine what that must have been like,” he added.
Mr Cardy’s funeral will take place in Hillsborough Elim Church (Hope Church) on the Moira Road, Hillsborough on Tuesday 27th May with a burial afterwards to Portmore Cemetery, Dornan’s Road, Lower Ballinderry.
Andrew Cardy and (inset) daughter Jennifer
News Catch Up – Thursday 22 May
A funeral notice added: “Andy will be lovingly remembered and sadly missed by his sons, daughter and family circle.
“Absent from the body, present with the Lord.”