'She needs a miracle' - Mother of missing Amy Fitzpatrick fights for her life
The Irish Mirror has learned that Audrey Mahon (57), whose teenage daughter Amy vanished in Spain in 2008, and whose son Dean was killed by her now husband, Dave Mahon, is in a critical condition in hospital with liver failure.
Audrey is unconscious in hospital, according to her husband, who exclusively told The Irish Mirror of his hopes that his 'fighter' wife will ultimately pull through.
'I don't want to be the one doing a story about my wife but look she is in the public eye. If she pulls through this it will be a miracle. I hope she does. Look she's after fighting for the last 17 years for Amy and now she's paying the ultimate ultimate price. She's given her life,' he said.
Dave, who has been by Audrey's hospital bedside, told us that toxins from her liver have gone into her brain - and doctors have told him that she may not ever wake up again.
'They said she could wake up in five minutes or in a week's time or that she may not wake up at all. If she wakes up then we have to assess to see if there's any brain damage, they said, and if she wakes up and there's no damage then we have to address the problem of liver failure,' Mahon said.
Audrey previously publicly battled liver disease and spoke about it back in 2013. Since then she has spoken about her ongoing health battles - as she continued to cope with her horrific life - with the unexplained disappearance of her daughter, the manslaughter of her son, the imprisonment of her husband and his cancer diagnosis.
Dave Mahon said that Audrey is a fighter, and he hopes she once again overcomes this latest challenge. Amy Fitzpatrick (left) and her mother, Audrey, pictured in Spain when Amy was 12 years-old and Audrey 35 years-old. Dean Fitzpatrick, Audrey Mahon and Amy Fitzpatrick
'It's liver failure and the toxins are after going into her brain. She's critical. Her eyes opened about two days ago for the first time and she spoke just a little bit and I was elated. Then the doctors pulled me into the family room and said she's critical. But she's the best fighter I know and I have hope she will pull through.
'I have fallen to my knees and I don't fall to my knees too easily. She's been through more than any man or woman I know in this world. She's not conscious now, she's asleep but she's breathing on her own,' he said.
'She's struggled more than anyone I know. With Amy more so but also with Dean and me with cancer in prison but Amy was the main. I could hear her howling at night. Nobody sees that. Pretty much every night she's howling,' he added. Mahon also spoke of Audrey's relentless hope for answers as to what happened to Amy - and how she continued to scour the internet every day.
'She hasn't stopped. She doesn't leave the house too much but she is always on the internet trying to help parents of other missing kids all over the world. She also has a contact in England and he shares videos of Amy that she watches. I can't watch them but she does. That's like going into the ring with Tyson every day. I can't do it but she does.'
Mahon also spoke of his anger over what he says has been a lack of any help from gardai or the government in helping to find Amy over the past 17 years. Audrey Mahon and then partner, now husband, Dave Mahon at Dublin Airport (Image: Arthur Carron/Collins) Amy Fitzpatrick (Image: Dublin Live)
'I'm annoyed that Audrey has been doing this for 17 years alone without any help from the government. They should hang their heads in shame. They've never once knocked on our door. She's paying with her life. It's disgusting. Hopefully she's not gone but she's after giving her life with no help,' he said.
Tragic Amy was just 15 years old when she vanished from the Mijas Costa area of Spain on New Years Day 2008. She was last seen walking from her friend Ashley Rose's house at around 10pm, walking in the direction of her home, where she lived with her mother Audrey and stepfather Dave Mahon.
Her mobile phone was subsequently discovered in her bedroom by her mother, who has repeatedly stated that she does not believe Amy went out with her phone before she vanished. Audrey also repeatedly told how Amy rang her on a landline on New Years Eve, to wish her a Happy New Year. This was to be their last conversation.
Audrey was to suffer further tragedy when on May 25, 2013, her son Dean Fitzpatrick, the brother of Amy, was stabbed to death by Mahon at his flat at Burnell Square in Malahide, north Dublin.
Mahon turned himself into gardai the following day and told of how he had taken a knife off of Dean during the course of an argument about a bike - and that his stepson then ran into him and was accidentally stabbed.
In May of 2015, while awaiting trial, Mahon married Audrey - who stood by him despite the tragic death of her son. In 2016 Mahon was handed down a seven year sentence for Dean's manslaughter - but he served five due to remission.
Audrey has spoken at length over the years to this paper about the incident, and said she missed Dean 'every day.' 'You learn to live with it I suppose more in the last ten years. But I don't think it will ever go away,' she told us in 2023. At the time she told us she believed had she been there in the Dublin apartment where Dean was stabbed that day, perhaps it wouldn't have occurred.
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'It's still crystal clear in my head. That night I was staying with my Dad because he had Alzheimer's and we used to do shifts with him. 'I couldn't leave my Dad until I got someone else to mind him. Of course it would just happen that one night that I wasn't in the apartment,' she said.
'Things could have been different. Things would have been different had I been there.'But I wasn't. It's all ifs and buts and maybes and you can't change the past you know,' she said.
Audrey has also done multiple interviews with this paper about Amy's disappearance - telling us she believes she likely isn't alive. 'She's not around. I know she's not in my gut,' she told us.
She also previously spoke about spending hundreds of thousands campaigning to find Amy over the years. 'You're talking 14 years of campaigning. Hundreds of thousands. Easily.
'It went on eating, running the car, getting flights, staying in the hotel, going from here to there, doing leaflets, badges, bus stops, banners. 'More than a hundred thousand I can tell you. If I had it today I'd spend it again on the same thing,' she told us.
'Every penny we had is gone. Every time we had any money we got the pennies together and I'd get a flight over, and go around putting posters up and going down to the police station. 'I even done it on my own when Davey was away,' she said.
Audrey and Dave turned to the underworld - including mobster Daniel Kinahan and veteran criminal Gerry 'The Monk' Hutch to try and find answers over what happened to Amy.
But every lead went dry - including suspicions around killer Eric 'Lucky' Wilson, who was believed to be in the area at the time. Audrey and Dave have also had to fend off claims over the years that they might have had something to do with Amy's disappearance.
'Dean was getting blamed. As her mother, the finger was pointed at me,' Audrey previously told us, while Dave added: 'It's easy to blame the father, the stepfather. It's easy. I could delve into your life and come up with some terrible stories about you. We have to take those blows unfortunately because that's the way society is wired. But I'm a realist and we're living this.'
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