Mum wants 3-year-old daughter exhumed after she was buried with dad who murdered her

Rebecca Saunders said she feels like she had "abandoned her little girl" in Ireland. Photo / Clarissa's Cause

A mum is desperately attempting to get her daughter's body exhumed after she was buried with her father who killed her in a chilling murder-suicide.

Rebecca Saunders, now 34, told her husband in 2013 she was leaving him and heading back to the US from their home in Ireland.

She had planned to take their 3-year-old daughter Claire with her.

But her husband Martin McCarthy then sought revenge in West Cork by murdering the 3-year-old and taking his own life in a disturbing act.

McCarthy and Clarissa were buried together days after the murder-suicide but Saunders has attempted to correct the "mistake" which has left her distraught.

"I really can't say that I feel I will ever be able to forgive him," she told Cork's 96FM at the time.

"I feel like he used his daughter as a sword to stab me in the heart with. And I think that is very, very wrong."

Martin McCarthy took revenge on his wife by killing their daughter Clarissa in a tragic murder-suicide. Photo / Clarissa's Cause

Saunders said at the time she agreed for both bodies to be buried together because she was in "a fog of grief and shock" and didn't want Clarissa to be alone.

"I think that the expectation that I had that I bury Clarissa so quickly was … it just wasn't fair. Clarissa and her father died on a Tuesday and they were buried on a Friday.

"In that small space of time I had to decide what happened to this little girl who was my world.

"The first thought that struck me in the shock that I was in was that I didn't want her to be alone."

But now she's desperate for her daughter's body to be exhumed and brought back to the US eight years on.

Saunders said bringing her daughter home would help free "some of the excruciating burden of feeling as though she abandoned her little girl", she said.

Rebecca Saunders said she feels like she had "abandoned her little girl" in Ireland. Photo / Clarissa's Cause

In a ray of hope, Saunders was told by a funeral director it is possible to separate Clarissa and McCarthy's body despite eight years passing.

She received his death certificate which she needs in order to exhume the coffin they are buried in.

"I spoke to a funeral director who assured me that, once the exhumation is carried out they could indeed separate.

"I feel so relieved at this news since that was the biggest question in my mind as we go forward in applying to exhume Clarissa."

A GoFundMe has been started to help Saunders cover the legal and application costs.

So far more than US$55,000 has been raised.

Any leftover money will be donated to Edel House, a charity that supports domestic violence victims and Cork University Maternity Hospital Neonatal Unit.