A TEENAGER who was seven when her mother was murdered in a busy park has spoken for the first time about the attack.
Candice Stevens, who has lived with her grandmother in Skye since the murder 11 years ago, will feature this week on Scottish Television's Unsolved programme in an emotional appeal for help in finding her mother's killer.
The television series revisits Scotland's most notorious unsolved crimes, including the infamous Bible John murders of 1968.
Shona Stevens, 31, was killed in her home town of Irvine, Ayrshire, as she walked along a route known as the Black Path in Middleton Park as she returned from shops in November 1994.
She was left with severe head injuries in an attack described by police as a "vile, vile act". Although she was airlifted from the scene she died three days later in hospital.
Candice, 18, said: "It was like life threw a brick at my face, a 10-tonne brick. I've had 11 years of just going over the situation over and over again. I've had no peace whatsoever and am reminded constantly.
"Even if the person is caught it won't change anything, it won't bring her back, it won't bring back the life that I crave so much. But at least it will give me some peace. At least the person who did this will be caught and justice will be done."
After her mother's death, Ms Stevens became the focus of a custody battle between her grandmother and her estranged father Mark Stevens, who lives in South Africa.
However, the dispute was settled out of court and she continued to live with Mrs Smith rather than going back to South Africa where she was born.
Mrs Smith, 71, said: "I just can't understand why someone would do that to Shona. Those days seemed like an unreality.
"I knew it had happened but your mind is thinking it hasn't happened. It was just horrendous and I just felt numb with it all. After Shona's death I could not let Candice see the pain I really felt. Having her has helped me get on with my life actually."
Detective Chief Superintendent Bob Lauder, who is leading the investigation, said that despite extensive inquiries over 10 years no motive had been found for the murder.
"It is still unknown whether it was 'Shona Stevens' who was attacked, or a young single woman who was attacked, or if it was an attack based on something spontaneous that happened between two people."
Unsolved will be shown on STV and Grampian on Thursday at 7.30pm.
Last month, The Herald revealed that 40 unsolved crimes were being reinvestigated by Strathclyde Police's new cold case squad.
The specialist team of detectives is to look at cases which date back to 1968 with the infamous Bible John killings.
The squad is also re-examining some of the highest profile cases of recent years, among them the "ice-cream war" murders. Joe Steele and Thomas "TC" Campbell served 18 years before their convictions for the Doyle family killings in Glasgow were ruled unsafe.
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