Stabbed 25 Times: naked, Dying And Shown no Mercy
Three sisters who couldn’t be closer Cancer death sentence, then a brutal murder Justice for Louisa and remembering them both
The day my big sister moved in was like having a celebrity come to stay. My mum Bernie, now 56, was rushing around making sure her bed was ready and laying treats on the table.
Louisa, 14, wasn’t a sister by blood – she was my stepdad Dave’s daughter.
She’d often come round, but now she was moving in with us for good.
I was 7 and chuffed to have a big sis full time.
That first night, we giggled till late.
‘We’re gonna have so much fun,’ Louisa told me.
There was another big change about to happen, too.
Mum was expecting – and, months later, gave birth to our little sister Kayleigh.
Suddenly, we were a big, happy family.
I doted on Kayleigh and looked up to Louisa. Growing up, she was the one who showed me how to apply make-up and do my hair.
She was outgoing, the life and soul.
Age 20, she fell pregnant with her daughter Ebony, now 21, and got her own place.
Years passed and all too soon I was following in Louisa’s footsteps.
Age 19, I had my son Kenny and left home.
And five years on, my Shannon came along.
Busy lives
Louisa moved back up to Yorkshire, where her mum was.
She didn’t have an easy time of it.
Louisa trusted too easily, seemed to attract the wrong sort of people.
But whatever was going on in our lives, we three sisters stayed close.
Kayleigh had blossomed into a beautiful young woman.
Just as Louisa had taught me, I showed her the tricks of the trade with makeup and hair.
She even ended up working at a beautician’s.
Then, in September 2009, she called me, worried.
‘I was waxing a client’s leg when my arm went numb,’ she said.
Next, she started getting the most terrible headaches.
We were worried, so
I went with her when she was referred to St George’s Hospital in London.
As we sat in the waiting room, Kayleigh had a massive fit.
‘Help her!’ I cried as medics swarmed around.
Terrifying.
Kayleigh was rushed for an emergency MRI scan.
And when the results came in, things got scarier still.
‘I’m sorry, you have a brain
I doted on Kayleigh and looked up to Louisa
tumour,’ the doctor told her. She was only 20.
We were stunned, numb. I stuttered the news to Louisa over the phone, hardly believing what I was saying.
Soon after, Kayleigh was taken for brain surgery, where surgeons removed a tumour the size of an orange.
‘We’ve managed to get 80 per cent of it,’ the surgeon said afterwards.
But we were told she had a glioblastoma grade-4 brain tumour, a fastgrowing cancer.
It was rare to survive more than five years. Kayleigh was remarkable. She stayed positive, even as she was blasted with chemo and radiotherapy.
But when I next spoke to Louisa, I broke down.
‘We don’t know how long Kayleigh has,’ I said, and we sobbed together. Meanwhile, Kayleigh set to work writing her bucket list – Disney On Ice at Wembley Arena, a family trip in a hot-air balloon... But her biggest wish was to marry her boyfriend Danny.
Happy tears
As a family, we fundraised almost £20,000 to pay for her dream wedding and honeymoon to somewhere exotic. Louisa also made an announcement. ‘I’m moving back to London. I want to be with Kayleigh.’ Despite the sad reason, it was lovely to have her home.
In February 2011, we all gathered in a local church, tears in our eyes as Kayleigh and Danny exchanged their vows.
‘I’m so proud of her,’ Louisa told me.
The whole family were together. Mum, Dave, us three girls and our kids.
For one happy day, it was like things used to be.
Kayleigh and Danny went on honeymoon.
Soon afterwards, I met up with Louisa in a pub, bringing Kenny, then 10, and Shannon, 3, along.
My big sis was her usual bubbly self, playing snooker with the kids and larking about.
When it was time to go home, we all hugged and kissed goodbye.
But as I was driving out of the car park, I noticed Louisa waving Shannon’s hat in the air. We must’ve dropped it. As I leapt out of the car to grab the hat, I gave my big sis another tight squeeze.
I drove off thinking how lovely it was to have her home.
Despite the sadness with Kayleigh, I felt stronger with Louisa to help me through.
Then, a few days later, I’d just picked up Kenny and Shannon from school when the phone rang. It was Dave.
‘You need to get over here as soon as possible, love,’ he said.
I could hear Mum sobbing in the background.
Kayleigh.
By now she was back from her honeymoon.
Dropping my phone and jumping in the car, I worried she’d taken a turn for the worse.
But when I got to Mum and Dave’s, he looked ashen.
‘It’s Louisa,’ he told me. ‘She’s been murdered.’ My heart dropped. No! I was losing Kayleigh. Now Louisa was dead too?
The family all gathered, and the police told us that Louisa had been beaten and stabbed to death.
After a five-day manhunt, a man called Reece Ludlow was arrested.
None of us had ever heard of him.
But he’d ended our sister’s life in a brutal way.
The police told us that she’d been beaten and stabbed