The police came... I knew by their faces he had killed her

to his employers’ daughter. But neither she, nor even Tracy herself, took them seriously. Adele remembers: “Mum just shrugged it off, blaming it on how drunk Nigel was.

“She said he had never hurt her in the past and wasn’t in the least bit worried that he would now.

Crumbling

“Besides which, he was due to leave that weekend and go back to Rotherham.

“So as me and the kids kissed and hugged Mum goodbye the following day, I wasn’t concerned.”

But when Adele spoke to her mum two nights later her mood had changed.

She says: “When I asked her if she was ok, she said no. I tried to ask her why, but she said she would call me the next day. I assumed it had somethingng to do with Nigel. I tried d to phone her the next morning but there was no answer.

“But t hat wasn’t unusual as her signall wasn’t very strong at the e farmhouse. So I wasn’tn’t overly worried.”

However the followingg afternoon two police officersrs arrived at Adele’s house and she will never forget the look on their faces.

She says: “I knew straight away. I just said, ‘He’s killed her, hasn’t he?’ They said ‘Yes’. And in that moment, I felt like my world was crumbling around me.

“All I could think about was Nigel’s threats a few days earlier. Guilt soared throughthr me. I should haveh stayed with Mum.M I shouldn’t have left her in the house with him.” The officers explainede the owner ofo the house had foundfo Tracy dead on a couch.co She had suffered a heavyhe blow to the face and either been suffocated or strangled. Police later found McGrath hanging in a barn on the estate. Adele recalls: “It just didn’t seem real. Only days earlier we had been playing with the kids on the beach and she was so happy. “Mum had always been my rock, there for me whenever I needed her. But