News

Kevin Bell Trust helping bring home body of Derry nun killed in Ecuador

A repatriation trust is assisting with the return of the body of Sister Clare Theresa Crockett to Derry. Picture by Home of the Mother order/PA Wire
A repatriation trust is assisting with the return of the body of Sister Clare Theresa Crockett to Derry. Picture by Home of the Mother order/PA Wire A repatriation trust is assisting with the return of the body of Sister Clare Theresa Crockett to Derry. Picture by Home of the Mother order/PA Wire

A TRUST set up to help bring home the remains of Irish people who have died abroad is involved in the return of the body of a Derry nun killed in an earthquake in Ecuador.

Colin Bell, from the Kevin Bell Repatriation Trust, said he has had initial contact with authorities in the South American country about Sister Clare Theresa Crockett (33).

Sr Clare, from the Brandywell area of Derry city, died when a stairwell collapsed in the school where she worked in the aftermath of the powerful quake on Saturday, which has killed more than 400 people.

Colin Bell and his family set up the trust in memory of his 26-year-old son Kevin, who died in a suspected hit-and-run in New York in 2013.

He expressed hope that the Derry woman's body could be back in Ireland by the weekend.

"We are helping out. I have no experience of dealing with Ecuador but so far the process hasn't been difficult," he said.

One woman based in Ecuador, Victoria Luz González, paid an emotional tribute to Sr Clare in a Facebook post on Tuesday.

She wrote: "I knew Clare for more than 10 years. She was at my baptism, my first Holy Communion, at the wedding of my parents. I still can't take it all in.

"I cannot write without my eyes welling up with tears and my heart filling with sadness. She always knew how to get the best out of everyone with a big smile."

Her grieving family said they have lost a "daughter, sister and aunt" and described her as a "superstar".

Sr Clare was a member of the Home of the Mother order and had been teaching children in rural Playa Prieta, including how to play the guitar.

She died in the school along with five young women who were entering the religious order.