{"id":123186,"date":"2025-05-22T18:20:20","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T18:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/123186\/"},"modified":"2025-05-22T18:20:20","modified_gmt":"2025-05-22T18:20:20","slug":"andrew-cardy-father-of-murdered-co-antrim-school-girl-jennifer-cardy-dies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/123186\/","title":{"rendered":"Andrew Cardy: Father\u00a0of murdered Co Antrim school girl Jennifer Cardy dies"},"content":{"rendered":"

Nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy was abducted while cycling from her home in Ballinderry, Co Antrim in August 1981.<\/p>\n

Her disappearance prompted a large-scale search involving police, the Army, and local volunteers, after her red bicycle was discovered abandoned near her home. <\/p>\n

Six days after she was reported missing her body was found by two duck hunters in McKee’s Dam near Hillsborough.<\/p>\n

Her father, Andrew Cardy, died on Wednesday at his home in the Crumlin Road area. Jennifer\u2019s mother Patricia, died in 2022 following a long illness. <\/p>\n

A post on social media described him as the \u201cdearly 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCherished grandfather and great-grandfather. Loving brother to Elizabeth and the late Tom.\u201d <\/p>\n

It said he died \u201cpeacefully at his home\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

Andrew and Patricia Cardy<\/p>\n

The case of Jennifer Cardy\u2019s death remained unsolved for nearly three decades until 2011, when serial child killer Robert Black was convicted of her abduction and murder.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He was previously convicted in the early 1990s of the murder of three young girls, Susan Maxwell, Caroline Hogg and Sarah Harper.<\/p>\n

Black died of a heart attack at HMP Maghaberry aged 68 in 2016. <\/p>\n

\u201cRobert Black stole the life of our daughter, Jennifer, but Robert Black didn\u2019t steal the lives of me and my family\u2014we\u2019ve lived a happy, prosperous life, but we miss Jennifer each and every day,\u201d Mr Cardy said following the trial. <\/p>\n

\"Jennifer<\/p>\n

Jennifer Cardy was abducted and killed by serial killer Robert Black in 1981<\/p>\n

\u201cWe 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.\u201d <\/p>\n

In 2016, Jennifer\u2019s brother Philip Cardy told the Belfast Telegraph that his sister\u2019s death was a \u201clife sentence\u201d for their family, describing the emotional toll of imagining her final moments.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThere is no peace when you think about how she died.\u201d<\/p>\n

He recalled that as a child, while others were told the bogeyman wasn\u2019t real, he \u201cknew there was a bogeyman\u201d because of what happened to Jennifer. <\/p>\n

Robert Black, the making of a child serial killer <\/p>\n

\"Listen <\/a> \"Listen <\/a><\/p>\n

“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,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

Mr Cardy\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

\"Andrew<\/p>\n

Andrew Cardy and (inset) daughter Jennifer<\/p>\n

News Catch Up – Thursday 22 May <\/p>\n

A funeral notice added: \u201cAndy will be lovingly remembered and sadly missed by his sons, daughter and family circle.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbsent from the body, present with the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nine-year-old Jennifer Cardy was abducted while cycling from her home in Ballinderry, Co Antrim in August 1981. Her…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":123187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[1211,1144,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-123186","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-antrim-news","9":"tag-northern-ireland","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114552872944575420","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123186","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}