TWO years have passed since Trowbridge mother-of-two Lizzie Cooper was stabbed to death but her devoted family are still learning to cope with their unbearable grief.
Elder sister Teresa Cooper said the second anniversary of Lizzie's murder on Tuesday was as painful as ever.
Brothers Jason Lee and Timothy Seviour are serving life sentences for knifing Lizzie to death in a brutal and unprovoked attack.
Miss Cooper, 29, who lives in Woolpack Meadows, just yards from her sister's former house in Yarn Terrace, said her daily visits to Lizzie's grave in The Down Cemetery help her keep the memory of Lizzie alive.
She said: "There are some days I sit and cry there is no point in lying to yourself as you are bound to miss them.
"I always think of what she would be doing today if she were still here.
"If I am left at home on my own I will glance across at her picture and start thinking about all the things we used to do together. I can talk about Lizzie very openly now.
"I still go to the cemetery everyday. I feel like it is something I want to do. I saw Lizzie every day when she was alive and for me it's no different now."
It is exactly a year since brothers Lee and Seviour were handed life sentences for murdering the 23-year-old mother at the Longfield Road home of Kevin York.
It was Sunday May 6, 2001 a bank holiday weekend when brothers Lee and Seviour hatched and carried out a devastating revenge plot aimed at 36-year-old Kevin York.
York was the legal foster father and gay lover of Lee and the end of their often violent relationship had led to the brothers dreaming up a fateful murder plot. Lizzie was the innocent victim caught up in the resulting frenzy at York's Longfield Road home stabbed 26 times by the enraged brothers who failed in their bid to kill their intended target.
Miss Cooper said she can barely look at the Longfield Road house where her sister was murdered despite it being virtually opposite the home of her 60-year-old mother Pearl.
She said: "It still makes me feel sick looking at the house, knowing what happened in there. For me personally it has been a lot harder this year.
"I had to deal with everything in the aftermath of Lizzie's murder and it meant I had no chance to grieve properly.
"At last I am having time to come to terms with my grief. My two boys are finding it better to deal with. Karl doesn't like to go to the cemetery but Tristan is more than happy to go.
"We are getting to see Lizzie's two girls which gives us something to remember her by.
"When you see another murder I always take an interest and understand exactly what the family are going through. There are no groups in our local area to help people come to terms with the grief. There needs to be more support."
The family of Trowbridge father-of-four Paul Rodgers were this week coping with the first anniversary of his death and what would have been his 34th birthday.
Care worker Leigh Page was last week sentenced to four years in prison for unlawfully killing 32-year-old Mr Rodgers, who was stabbed to death in Broadcloth Lane in the early hours of May 5, 2002 a day before his 33rd birthday.
Page could be freed from jail in less than 20 months.
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