Our Amanda's killer took the coward's way out

MURDERER Ian Cortis chose the coward's way out when he took his own life, believes his victim's mother.

His suicide means there will always be unanswered questions for the parents of 21-year-old Amanda Edwards.

They may have been spared the public agony of a trial but the answers have died with him.

"I don't feel that we have had justice. It was the easy way out, the coward's way out," said her mother Beverley, speaking for the first time since her death.

Her father Lee sees it from a slightly different perspective.

"It was the right thing," he said. "I wanted to get my hands on him."

It was a natural reaction for any father who had been robbed of a daughter.

Five months on, the family is still struggling to adapt to life without her.

The prospect of the inquest into her death hangs over them and until it is over they hardly dare to look to the future. Coping with each day as it comes is enough of a challenge.

Even now Beverley still wakes up in the night and believes for a moment that everything is a mistake and that she will see her younger daughter walk in the front door once more.

She remembers the afternoon she first felt something was wrong. "Amanda always texted or phoned me during the day. She hadn't texted me by lunchtime and I thought she was busy," she said.

That evening Amanda was due to go out and as time wore on Beverley began to call round friends and family to try and track her down. She also contacted the police with her fears.

When Amanda didn't turn up for her evening appointment she knew something was seriously wrong.

"Even if she was really, really down or we had had an argument, she would still contact me," she said.

Calling one friend she discovered Amanda's green Metro had been seen parked at Asda in West Swindon.

"Nothing was adding up," she said. She was mentally running through every conceivable reason for her daughter not to make contact. One was the possibility she had collapsed after taking her thyroid medication.

She and her husband went over to Asda to see if they could catch a glimpse of her and discovered the detachable front of her car radio was still on. Both Amanda and her older sister, Anek, would always take the covers off if they left their cars for any time.

Lee went straight to Wootton Bassett police station to report what they had found and the police search was officially launched.

In the meantime her fianc David Board had been trying to get through to Amanda all day after being dropped off by her that morning. Eventually he rang her parents to ask where she was.

I dont feel that we have had justice . . . Amanda Edwards mother Beverley (centre), sister Anek (right) and father LeeThe next seven days are something of a blur for the Edwards. Their small terraced house in Purton was swamped by police officers wanting to know the tiniest details of Amanda's life anything that might help in finding her.

Relatives and friends in the village offered whatever support they could. Police family liaison officers arrived and prayers and messages of hope began to come in.

Wracked by feelings of utter helplessness they went out searching. Driven by an urge she couldn't explain Beverley went out to look for her at the rear of the DeVere Hotel. Lee did the same.

"That was the hardest part for me. There was nothing I could do. I walked and looked and went to old boyfriends' places," he said.

Referring to Cortis he said: "But it never occurred to go to his place."

In an attempt to jog memories they copied pictures of Amanda and went to West Swindon to canvass shoppers.

"Some people just walked on by. I'll always remember the face of one man who did it. But for every one of them there were about 10 people who stopped," he said.

Time passed and there was still no sign of Amanda, hope began to fade.

"The more the days went on, then I realised that Amanda was not in control of whatever had happened, but deep down, we were still hoping that she was going to be found."

Tina Clarke