We Felt Safe When Sam's Killer Was in Jail but Once He's Free... ; Twenty Years Ago, Wendy Turner's Daughter Samantha Was Murdered On a School Trip to France. In an Exclusive Interview, She Tells Jo Wiltshire Why She's Horrified That the Killer Is Soon to Be Set Free

Summary

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In 1984 Wendy and John Turner were camping in a tiny two-person tent by the edge of a winding river in the French village of CornE, near Angers in the Loire Valley, some 180 miles southwest of Paris. But this was no idyllic holiday. Armed with an axe, a hammer and a knife, the terrified couple were camping on the spot where, on April 17 that year, their 17-year-old daughter, Samantha, had been viciously murdered while on a college exchange visit.

Taking it in turns to sleep, they waited for her killer to return. It was the only thing they could think of to do for Samantha, whose funeral had taken place just days before.

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We Felt Safe When Sam's Killer Was in Jail but Once He's Free... ; Twenty Years Ago, Wendy Turner's Daughter Samantha Was Murdered On a School Trip to France. In an Exclusive Interview, She Tells Jo Wiltshire Why She's Horrified That the Killer Is Soon to Be Set Free

Nobody knew who had attacked her.

Just one day before she had been due to return home from the visit, their bright, studious daughter had gone for a bike ride alone by the river and had sat down to do some homework. When she failed to return to the family she was staying with, they set out to look for her. Yards from their house they found her. Her throat had been cut three times, and she had been stabbed 20 times with a knife. Nearby, her bicycle, books and cardigan lay undisturbed on the riverbank.

'Everyone said that because I looked s...

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