When asked to consider someone that we love dearly, most of us have a face that immediately comes to mind. No words could ever express how priceless that person is. They touch our heart and bring value to our life in ways only they can. We have fond memories of them that we will always treasure.
Imagine that person is suddenly gone.
Now consider how you might feel if your loved one was brutally murdered. Their death is on the front page of newspapers and people are watching it on the news as they eat their dinner, forming opinions and discussing the person you have lost and love so much.
Karen MacKenzie was a 31-year-old single mother to Danny, 16, Amara, seven, and Katrina, five.
On February 21, 1993, the family were brutally murdered by William (Bill) Mitchell in the rural town of Greenough, 400 kilometres north of Perth.
Mitchell had been abusing cannabis, alcohol and amphetamines throughout the day. Karen was at a friend's place and rejected his advances. He later drove her home and left, only to return at 3.30 in the morning.
Danny went out to investigate why the dog was barking and saw approaching headlights. He was confronted by Mitchell. Armed with an axe, Mitchell cleaved Danny's head, knocking him to the ground and continued to hack.
Leaving Danny to die, Mitchell continued to the house. Karen had fallen asleep watching TV on the floor in the lounge.
He raped and sodomised Karen before turning his attention to Amara and Katrina who were asleep in their bedrooms. A judge ordered the gruesome details of their deaths be kept from the public.
Evalyn Clow, Karen's sister, grappled with the horror that confronted WA Police that day, but cannot speak highly enough of what they did to solve the case.
"There is no doubt in my mind that the scene they came across disturbed them greatly. I have great respect for all involved," she said.
In a nearby river, divers recovered a blood-stained axe with hair still attached. Tyre tracks, shoe prints, pubic hair and fingerprints became crucial pieces of evidence.
Mitchell initially denied culpability. He acknowledged responsibility for the deaths after he attempted suicide and pleaded guilty to four counts of wilful murder and four counts of sexual assault.
He was sentenced to four consecutive terms of life imprisonment with a non-parole period of 20 years.
After being denied parole in 2013, he will be eligible for another review from Thursday.
Mitchell received this sentence due to considered mitigating factors; the influence of drugs and the remorse he showed in court, which was accepted as genuine by the judge.
But for Evalyn the sentence was far too light.
She was 27 when the murders occurred and recalls receiving a call from her younger brother saying that a woman and her three kids had been murdered in Greenough.
She tried calling Karen numerous times, only to receive the busy signal or have her calls ring out.
Worried, she rang the police, before her husband, Graeme, eventually was given the devastating news. Evalyn watched with dread as his eyes filled with tears.
"I just lost it! I kept saying no, no, no, it's not!"
She had sold some horses the very week before and was going to use the money to fund a family visit to see Karen and the kids.
"I feel I have let Karen down by not visiting her before she died and being there when she needed me most," Evalyn added.
A difficult childhood
Karen and Evalyn grew up in a family with two brothers and Evalyn said "It was just us girls against the world.
"We had an unstable upbringing. Mum was an alcoholic and Karen and I were sexually abused growing up."
Karen left home at the age of 14, pregnant with Danny, whom she raised for the first few years before leaving him in her mother's care and moving to WA.
Karen formed a relationship and had two girls, Amara and Katrina, settling in the rural town of Greenough, 400 km north of Perth.
"Mitchell destroyed the dignity of a single mum doing the best with what she had. My sister had very little confidence. She was not perfect but she adored her kids and was doing the best she could with what she had, trying to establish a good life for her family," Evalyn said.
"Danny was living in an unstable environment with my mother. He adored his sisters. He was working and used his savings to move to WA so he could be with Karen and the girls.
"He was a kind-hearted rat bag, but had gone back to school and was doing quite well. He was a bright kid."
She pauses, emotion cracking her voice, "but they only enjoyed one Christmas together as a family."
The aftermath of the murders
Evalyn, her husband Graeme, her mother and younger brother sorted through Karen's house.
"The girl's adoration for their Mum was evident in writings and pictures they had given her.
"As we were cleaning the house it was obvious what had occurred."
They found Karen's diaries and poetry, which gave insights into her depression and the repercussions of child sexual abuse in her adult years.
Evalyn's youngest daughter had a special connection to Karen and would often read the diaries.
She committed suicide four days before her 18th birthday, a week before the anniversary of the murders, and Evalyn had the diaries cremated with her.
"I doubt I would have survived my daughter's death if I hadn't already experienced grief."
Evalyn believes the word closure has been defined by those who live in ignorant bliss. Since the murders, it has been a continuous battle just to survive life. Evalyn has not slept properly since the event.
At the time of being interviewed she had been awake since 1.30am and had just returned home from work. She longs for a normality that most take for granted.
"We often ask ourselves when Mitchell's crimes will stop impacting our life. When will it end?"
Her family has been forced to endure pain beyond comprehension, left with a daily existence that entails emotional exhaustion, various moods, stresses, and a lingering possibility of Mitchell one day being granted parole.
She is unable to see or touch people she loves dearly, her kids have been deprived of growing up with their cousins, and she can only wonder what Karen's kids would have done with their lives.
"There are good days and bad days. Anniversaries and birthday's are especially hard. Katrina would be coming up to 29, on October 26."
She and Graeme have been through some very testing times that would have destroyed most marriages. A particularly testing time came in 2013 when Mitchell was first eligible for parole.
Evalyn was trying to keep Mitchell in jail, maintain family life and fulfil a high-pressured job.
"Graeme is my rock. I love him so much."
Meeting Mitchell in jail
Through victim-offender mediation, Evalyn requested a meeting with Mitchell.
In 2010 he agreed to a visit.
Asked what thoughts and feelings she had prior to meeting Mitchell she says, "There was a storm the night before. I stood on the beach with the wind in my face and asked Karen for the strength to say what I had to without showing weakness.
"His everyday appearance amazed me. You wouldn't imagine an average looking person to have done what he did.
"Mitchell was looking down and breathing nervously. He instantly looked up when I thanked him.
"I looked him in the eye and said I wasn't there to ask him why but to tell him who Karen was as we were growing up and how important she was to me."
Mitchell apologised and said that he was a changed person who had done everything right in prison.
Evalyn adds, "He has no reason not to appear as a changed person. People want to kill him for what he's done. He's protected. He has psychological assistance, food, clothing, and opportunities to be educated.
"My family and I are left with nothing. We struggle to make ends meet."
Evalyn believes she is a much stronger person as a result of Mitchell's crimes.
"I accepted mistreatment from people when I was a child," she said.
"I have recognised my own strength through what has happened. I love to encourage people and help them to be proactive and positive in situations that are beyond their control. The past is irrelevant when it comes to making something of our lives and ourselves."
Campaign to keep Mitchell behind bars
A turning point in Evalyn's life was in 1996 and she came to the realisation that Mitchell had not only destroyed Karen's life but was destroying her own. At this point she vowed to dedicate her life to preventing Mitchell from being granted parole.
He was rejected when he became eligible for parole in 2013 and is currently being reconsidered .
"He will be reconsidered every three years and can start applying up to a year before." He is detained in Bunbury Prison, a minimum security facility 180 km south of Perth.
Last month Evalyn wrote to the parole board, urging them not to let him out. - in her letter, published by The Sunday Times, she wrote:
"Every three years I have to go through this trauma to keep him in jail. My husband says that this is never going to end and it is true.
"It will only end when either Mitchell dies or I do, as I will not give up trying to keep him in jail. I don't care whether he has been rehabilitated or not. I have a life sentence, so he should have one too."
Speaking prior to her letter, Evalyn echoed what she was then to write to the parole board.
"Some people say 'he's done his time'. Mitchell is 44, young enough to start a relationship, father children and create a life for himself while my family has been stripped of one. Where is the justice for Karen and the kids?" She said.
"If he was of unsound mind at the time, how is it he could think to take an axe and dispose of it afterwards? How could he have made his way to Karen's isolated property? Would he have been able to testify in detail about what he did?"
Evalyn longs for one last chance to see Karen, Danny, Amara and Katrina and "just hug them, tell them how special they are to me and that I love them."
Instead she's left to wonder how some murderers can be sentenced for longer than 20 years when they have killed one person ... while Mitchell who killed four, including three kids was not.