Natasha McShane to act as bridesmaid for fellow survivor of Chicago attack

Natasha pictured last year

Silverbridge woman Natasha McShane is set to walk down the aisle – as a bridesmaid.

The UCD graduate was brutally attacked as she walked home from a night out in Chicago in April 2010. Now five years on, Stacy Jurich (27), who was with her that night has asked her to be the bridesmaid at her wedding.

Natasha’s mother Sheila is originally from Cox’s Demesne in Dundalk, while her grandparents Liam and Deirdre Stewart still live there. She also had many other friends and family in Dundalk.

Natasha McShane before the attack

29-year-old Natasha was on an education exchange programme at the University of Illinois at the time.

She was walking home with her friend Stacy when they were both attacked with a baseball bat by Heriberto Viramontes, with Natasha suffering a severe brain injury in the incident.

Viramontes has since been convicted of the attempted murder of Natasha and Stacy and must serve 85% of his 90-year sentence because of the particularly terrible nature of the crime.

Stacy, who now considers the McShane’s her extended family, got emotional as she revealed she has asked Natasha to be her maid of honour in her upcoming wedding.

Stacy will marry her long-term partner in Ireland this coming autumn.

“I chose Ireland because Natasha is there,” Stacy said in an interview with ABC News.

“The fact that she can stand up means the world to me, the fact that she can stand up next to me on my wedding day… I can’t put into words.

“I love her so much.”

Stacy, who received a courage award in Chicago on the five-year anniversary of the attack, said the night is something she is ‘trying to put in her past’.

“The attack is really been something I’ve tried to put in my past, we’ve gone through the trial, the sentencing and wanting to have a fresh life, a new life, but at the same time it’s always lingering there,” she said.

“It is something I hold near and dear in my heart, I know that sounds weird but it’s just because it’s the fact that it’s changed my life forever, it’s changed my family’s lives forever and the McShanes lives forever.

“Just speaking to the McShanes and seeing the progress we’ve made and seeing where we were in that ICU unit then versus where we are today is something to be proud of.”

Stacy now works as a client services associate for a major financial firm. She said it’s taken her a ‘long time to get to this point’. She said her relationship with her friend Natasha McShane is something she is certain ‘nobody could understand’.

“Natasha is making so much progress, the strides she’s been making are remarkable … where she was one year ago compared to yesterday.  I feel we’ve all been blessed because she is a fighter.”

Ahead of the sentencing in 2014, Natasha’s mother Sheila took the stand to deliver a victim impact statement, described the continuing pain, anguish and emotional turmoil the once highly gifted student and her family are going through.

All because of the “brutal display of humanity” that night in 2010 when a random act changed lives forever.

“If it was not (Natasha) then it would have been somebody else. That’s the sad part,” said Mrs McShane.

“We want justice whatever the outcome….Natasha will have a life sentence of her own to serve, a life sentence of pain and misery and unfulfilment.”

Natasha’s mother Sheila told the court she needed constant care, with a team of health workers helping the family.

Man sentenced to 90 years in prison for attack on Natasha McShane

Natasha McShane before the attack

A man has been sentenced to 90 years in prison for an attack on Silverbridge woman Natasha McShane and her friend Stacy Jurich in Chicago four years ago.

Heriberto Viramontes, convicted of the April 2010 attempted murder of Ms McShane and Ms Jurich, must serve 85% of the sentence because of the particularly terrible nature of the crime, Judge Jorge Alonso ruled.

It effectively means a life sentence for the 35-year-old Viramontes.

Natasha’s mother Sheila is originally from Cox’s Demesne in Dundalk, while her grandparents Liam and Deirdre Stewart still live there. She also had many other friends and family in Dundalk.

Judge Alonso said the sentence was based on the “brutality and cold-blooded heartlessness displayed on the night”.

Viramontes received consecutive sentences of 25 years for each of the attempted murders of Ms McShane and Ms Jurich and further 20-year sentences for aggravated armed robbery.

Ms McShane, who had been attending the University of Illinois at the time of the assault, suffered a severe brain injury.

Ahead of the sentencing, Ms McShane’s mother Sheila took the stand to deliver a victim impact statement. She described the continuing pain, anguish and emotional turmoil the once highly gifted student and her family were going through.

“If it was not [Natasha] then it would have been somebody else. That’s the sad part,” said Mrs McShane.

“We want justice, whatever the outcome… Natasha will have a life sentence of her own to serve, a life sentence of pain and misery and unfulfilment.”

The attack happened early in the morning of April 23, 2010, as Ms McShane and Ms Jurich returned home from a night out in the Bucktown neighbourhood on Chicago’s northside.

Ms McShane, then 23, a UCD graduate on an education exchange programme at the University of Illinois, was celebrating after securing an internship allowing her to remain in the city.

But as they walked to Ms Jurich’s apartment, passing beneath an underpass, Viramontes came from behind, striking each woman once across the back of the head, then stealing their purses.

Vilamotes’ driver, co-accused, and later key prosecution witness, Marcy Cruz, had pleaded guilty to two charges of attempted murder and received a 22-year sentence.

The trial last October heard Ms McShane was hit with such force she fell hard on the ground, unconscious.

Ms Jurich remained conscious as police and other emergency services arrived, then blacked out.

As the two women were rushed to hospital, Viramontes and Cruz tried to use Ms Jurich’s credit card at two filling stations. They were caught on camera.

A baseball bat was recovered from the back of the van Viramontes and Cruz were travelling in the night of the attack. Both were arrested a week after the attack.

Viramontes was found guilty last October on a series of charges, including two of attempted murder. He had faced a maximum of 120 years in jail.

Natasha pictured last year

Daly remanded in custody after appearing in court charged with Omagh bombing

Seamus Daly

A man who resides just outside Dundalk has been remanded in custody after appearing in Dungannon Magistrates’ Court charged with the murder of 29 people in the Omagh bombing in 1998.

Séamus Daly, 43, from Culloville in Co Monaghan, did not speak during the hearing.

A PSNI detective inspector said he could connect Mr Daly with the charges on the basis of witness and forensic evidence.

Mr Daly has been charged with 29 counts of murder, two charges linked to the explosion in Omagh and two other counts linked to an attempted explosion in Lisburn in April 1998.

A small number of relatives of the Omagh bombing victims sat in the public gallery for the short hearing.

The bombing by the Real IRA was the single biggest atrocity of the Troubles.

Mr Daly was one of four men found liable of the atrocity in a civil case in 2009 brought by the victims’ families.

Bail was refused for Mr Daly and he will appear in court again next month.