Heartbroken family of NY mom murdered in Ireland reveals how they heard devastating news: ‘A shock and a nightmare’

The grieving mother of Jamey Carney, the New York mom murdered in her new home in Ireland, was so distraught she could “barely get her words across” when she broke the “nightmare” news to the rest of their family, a close cousin revealed.

Carney’s “very upset” mom, Kathy, struggled to deliver the harrowing news, which was a “shock and a nightmare,” Carney’s cousin, Ryan Fox, told RTÉ on Thursday night.

“It’s something that nobody expected because, two days before, there was a picture posted, everybody’s smiling,” Fox said of his cousin’s final Instagram post celebrating July 4 with Ahmad Alsaqer, the 24-year-old boyfriend now being hunted as the suspect in her death.

Fox said he never felt a sense that his cousin — with whom he was raised “almost like siblings” — feared for her safety.

“I had never gotten any communication like that because if I had, then measures would have been taken,” he said, without elaborating on exactly what would have been done

Carney, a Westchester native, moved to the Emerald Isle in 2021 with her daughter, now 13, who found her battered body hidden under a duvet Tuesday morning in the town of Killarney. She had multiple severe head wounds, but an autopsy later revealed she died of suffocation, the Irish Times reported.

Alsaqer — who applied for asylum after arriving from the Middle East in 2024 — was identified as a “person of significant interest,” and is believed to have already fled the country, possibly to Turkey. The pair reportedly met at an anti-Israel protest a year and a half ago before becoming romantically involved.

Fox said the family is concerned that the suspect’s background will be twisted to create unwarranted hatred.

“Do not use this to become bigoted or racist or prejudiced in any way. Bad people are in every group, and it is not the people who look like them who deserve to be blamed,” he said.

Fox said his 43-year-old cousin would “take the shirt off her back” to help someone in need, describing her as “the sweetest, most caring, most humanitarian” person.

“My Jamey was proud to be Irish and proud to be American, and everybody that’s known her in America or in Ireland knows what a huge heart she has,” he told the outlet.

“Jamey loves Ireland so much. Her friends were like her second family out there. She could not love the land of Ireland more, and she was so happy to be there.”