DON’T LET IT BR MY SISTER
A savage act tore apart a very special bond...
Linda had her whole life ahead of her
Icaught my younger sister Linda about to dash out of the house. ‘Hey, that’s my top!’ I cried. It was brand new and I hadn’t even worn it yet.
‘I didn’t think you’d mind,’ she smiled, cheekily. Rolling my eyes, I sighed: ‘It looks better on you anyway.’ Linda flashed me a cheeky grin. Truthfully, I didn’t mind. We were more like best friends than sisters, just four years apart.
We’d moved to the UK from Latvia in 2008 with our mum, Ginta, 50, sister, Indra, 20, and halfbrother, Raivo, 30, after our parents got divorced.
Linda was just 10 at the time and couldn’t utter a word of English, but within a year, she was fluent.
Exceptionally bright, Linda passed her GCSES with flying colours and signed up for a business course at college. When I moved out to live with my boyfriend, Richard, it was a wrench to leave Linda, but she still popped over most days, especially after I had twins, David and belinda, now four.
My son, Jason, now three, soon followed, and Linda was always on hand to help and play silly games.
Linda used to be shy when she was younger, but she’d become a real social butterfly. She even got a job in an Indian takeaway to save up for driving lessons.‘ you’re 16 going on 30,’ I’d tease her. I was so proud of the confident young woman that she was blossoming into.
When she was 14, Linda had met a boy called Alvin Santos, who was originally from the Philippines, through mutual friends. He was eight years older than her.
He’d mumbled a quiet ‘alright’ to me once in town and I’d met him again at Linda’s 15th birthday party. Alvin was there, but we didn’t really talk to each other.
On Valentine’s Day, Alvin gave Linda a necklace costing £40.
‘I thought you were just friends?’ I asked her.
‘We are,’ she said. ‘I think he broke up with his girlfriend so he just gave it to me instead.’
We worried Alvin wanted more from Linda, but she insisted that he knew the score.
‘Alvin understands me. I can talk to him about anything,’ Linda told me, defending him.
One evening, in December 2013, the kids were in bed when Mum phoned at about 10pm looking for Linda who hadn’t come home.
I dialled her mobile but it went straight to answerphone.
Linda never missed her curfew, so I was so worried.
At midnight, Mum called back to say she’d called the police and they were at the house. An officer asked
when I’d last seen Linda.
It had been about a fortnight as we’d been so busy.
I could hear Mum crying in the background as the officer promised to stay in touch.
‘What’s happening?’ I thought, totally confused.
I was in such a state that Richard decided to drive to Mum’s house, while I stayed with the kids.
When he returned, he was pale and shaken.
‘Linda might be dead,’ he cried.
I shook my head violently. ‘No, no, no,’ I screamed.
On the way to Mum’s, he’d passed Horseshoe Common, a grassy park, and it was swarming with police.
At mum’s, an officer told him that they’d found a body dumped on the common.
‘They’re not 100% sure, but the body matches Linda’s description,’ he told me. We bundled the kids into the car and frantically drove to my mum’s house. ‘Don’t let it be Linda,’ I prayed, with every ounce of me. ‘Not my sister.’ I settled the kids upstairs and we all sat in the lounge, crying and praying together. At 7am, after a sleepless night, the officers confirmed that the body belonged to my beautiful sister and the case was now a murder investigation. Linda had been stabbed nine times in the chest - with two fatal wounds to her heart. Her partially naked body had been moved and was covered in leaves. ‘Who would do this to her?’ I cried. But the answer only brought more questions. Officers told us they’d arrested Alvin Santos on suspicion of murder. I was speechless. ‘That can’t be right,’ I gasped in disbelief. He was Linda’s friend. He cared about her. But it turned out he’d even confessed to his sister.
At Winchester Crown Court, in October 2014, Alvin Santos was found unanimously guilty of murder by the jury after less than four hours of deliberation.
In police interviews, Alvin said he had been chatting with Linda and had become angry when she told him that she was responsible for him being assaulted in 2010. But no one believed him. Alvin admitted stabbing Linda, but said that he’d blacked out during the attack. Blood tests showed he’d taken the illegal drug methylone at some point in the 24 hours before killing Linda. He’d also smoked cannabis.
After killing Linda, Alvin attempted to get rid of her bloodstained clothing.
He returned to his flat, where he told his sister he’d stabbed someone. When she saw blood on his hands, she called the police.
In November 2014, Alvin was jailed for life and told he’d serve a minimum of 20 years behind bars.
Speaking to Alvin, Judge Nigel Teare said: ‘Quite why you attacked her is not clear, you have said that she told you that she had set you up for the assault you suffered two years earlier.that seems most improbable.’ It still doesn’t feel real and every day, I wait for Linda to call or pop round for a chat. It’s unthinkable that she died at the hands of a friend.
We’ve lost a sister, daughter, auntie and best friend.
We visit her grave and put flowers down as often as we can and tell her that she’s always in our hearts. But our hearts will never truly be complete without her.