The family of a 17-year-old girl who was murdered 34 years ago has said their "pain will never go away" and that their loss "still breaks our hearts". Christina Bunning, known by her family as Tina, was aged just 17 when she was murdered in a house fire in Forest Fields on May 27, 1988.
Mark Stoner-Seed, now known as Mark Repin, was convicted of her murder, as well as causing grievous bodily harm with intent and arson with intent in connection with the incident and given a life sentence in 1989. Christina was killed and another woman was severely burned at the time.
The convicted murderer recently checked into a Premier Inn in Nottingham after going missing for eight-and-a-half hours while out on day licence. Tina's sister Mary said he should be left to 'rot in jail'.
Decades on from the tragedy, Mary said the pain hasn't gone away as she paid tribute. Mary said: "Not a day goes by when I don't see her right in front of me. It still breaks our hearts, that pain will never go away.
"It's horrible, I sit here every day thinking about what she could have done, what she would have looked like, she just never had the chance. My mum and dad lost her prematurely through this, and it's because of him (Tina's murderer) that I'm alone in this world.
"She's certainly alive inside me and all my kids. Tina died in May 1988, and I found out I was pregnant with my first son a month or so later - Tina knew I wouldn't have coped, he is a gift from her, she knew I wanted kids.
"She is dearly missed, so much by all of us. My granddaughter has just turned seven years old, and I've told her about Tina, not what happened, but about her. But I gave the granddaughter a gold bangle of Tina's, and she just beamed - that was quite a moment."
Mary says she takes it upon herself to keep Tina alive by making sure she is talked about. She also keeps in touch with Tina's closest friends. Mary said: "Tina had three best mates who will never forget her - I still keep in touch with them, we used to have some great laughs. All of them miss her.
"I visited Tina's grave on Sunday (May 22), and I just laid there with her and didn't want to get up. I still visit her every few weeks or whenever I'm in Nottingham. It's really hard at this time of year. I want to say thank you to the neighbours, police and everyone involved in investigating the incident at the time it happened."
Mary's daughters, Kyle, Ashley and Sophie, all shared a message too which said: "We once had a wonderful aunt, who never grew old. Her smile was made of sunshine and her heart was made of gold."
Mary, now 53 and living in Ealing, London, has had to endure a 13-year delay to get a gravestone for her mother and father next to her two sisters. Mary's other sister, Amanda, was aged three-and-a-half when she was run over and killed in The Meadows in 1971.
Mother Christina Moyes died on March 19, 2009, due to heart problems, having had a heart bypass five years previously, and father Peter died a few years before that due to cancer.
