Karen Buckley, a beautiful aspiring young lady and qualified nurse, had moved from Cork, Ireland to Scotland to study occupational therapy at Glasgow Caledonian University. Buckley while alive was an easy going and was also a popular student among friends.
In April, Buckley in the company of some friends had visited Sanctuary nightclub, while at the club, she told friends she was going to the toilet, but that was the end of it all, as she was not found, and the only thing she left behind was her jacket.
Karen Buckley
A CCTV footage showed Buckley leaves the club at around 1am on Sunday,12th of April, and the pair were walking down Dumbarton Road.In the footage, Buckley can be seen talking to the man. That was the last time they all saw her.
The friends reported the case to the police and a search for Karen Buckley started. The parents were alerted of their missing daughter, and they flew in from Ireland to join the search team. Karen friends also help raise £50,000 from the GoFundMe website to help the family.
Miss Buckley at the bar, she later followed Pateau home
Unfortunately, after several days of searching, Miss Buckley was found dead. Police later identified the man she went out with to be one Alexander Pacteau, 21-Year-Old. Police had arrested the man and he is being charged for the murder of Buckley.
According to the statement from Pacteau ; he said he and Buckley had consensual sex in his apartment after he had given her a lift home. He also pleaded guilty that he had repeatedly hit her on the head with a spanner and also strangles her in the car.
Buckley had tried to fight back when she was been strangled as High Court in Glasgow was told that Pacteau hands were covered with scratches.
Pacteau said after he'd killed Buckley, he then took her body to his room, and used his phone to find the properties of the chemical sodium hydroxide. He locked the dead body and went out to buy 6 litres of the chemical at a local B & Q store, then later bought more at a Poundstretcher store.
When Pacteau got back home, he poured the chemical over her dead body, and moved the body back to his room. According to reports, when his flatmates got home, they found him cleaning the stairwell and hallway. He later burnt the mattress that had her blood on it with white spirit and a lighter he had bought that day.
He moved her body again in a barrel and moved it to the local farm and hid it in a storage unit he had rented.
The parents of Buckley described her a lady who is an outgoing girl and travelled the world ; she “thoroughly enjoyed her life.”.
Hundred of people were also present at the vigil inn the city’s George Square and Garnethill area, where she lived.
After a trip to the court yesterday, Buckley father, John said :
There are no words to describe what we went through.All Karen was doing was making her way home when she was randomly targeted and murdered by a cowardly vicious criminal.
We will never see Karen again in this life. Never see her smiling face, hear her laugh and hear her voice. There are no words to describe our loss. We know even though she is gone from this life, she is still very close to us.
It’s too late now for Karen but in the future we hope Glasgow will be a safer place for women to walk in, which is their right, and to not have this evil murderer to fear.
About Alexander Pacteau
When he was 17, he was charged for raping a female in Baliol Lane in Glasgow's Woodlands on November 27 201; a short distance from where he killed Ms Buckley. He faced the charge at the high court, but was later not found guilty in 2013.
Alexander Pacteau
The Scottish Courts and Tribunal Service spokesperson said;
I can confirm that Alexander Pacteau was charged with sections 1 and 3 of the sexual offences (Scotland) Act 2009 on 27 November 2011 in Baliol Lane, Glasgow and that he was found not guilty at the High Court in Paisley in February, 2013
Aside from being charged with rape and murder. He was also a convicted forger.