The heartbroken family of murdered Becky Godden-Edwards have publicly spoken about her troubled life.

Her mum Karen Edwards, step-dad Charlie and her aunt Tracey Mullane faced a media conference at Gablecross Police Station this morning.

Fighting back her tears, Karen told of how Becky's life changed dramatically as a teenager.

She said: "My daughter has been murdered and to be given the news on what would have been her 29th birthday, we can't believe it.

"After everything she has been through in her troubled life.

"Life was hard before when she was living the life of an addict but we really did think she was alive and that one day she would come back home.

"Becky has now been found and the news of her horrific death has devastated all her family."

Mrs Edwards described how her daughter had fallen in with the wrong crowd when she was a teenager and had started taking drugs.

"Becky was a very beautiful, intelligent girl. She was my daughter," Mrs Edwards said.

"She was loved by all her family and we all loved her with our hearts and our loss is so unbearable.

"Becky gave me so much love and joy as a child.

"However, as a teenager she got involved with people who introduced her to drugs.

"She left school and her life spiralled - spiralled into some very dark places to feed her addiction.

"She became a very, very different person."

Mrs Edwards, who remarried when Becky was 15, said: "During her teenage years we did everything we could to help her overcome her drug addiction.

"We sought help from drug charities, doctors, we also asked for help from MP Julia Drown.

"We then put her into a private rehabilitation centre.

"We tried everything to stop her leaving home but on every occasion the pull of her habit was much stronger and she would do whatever she needed to do to get her next fix.

"It was not unusual behaviour for Becky to disappear for weeks and months on end.

"When she was in serious trouble she always phoned her mum, and usually my husband, my sister or her brother or me would go and get her.

"We would bring her home only for her to disappear again.

"Life was very tough for us all and we witnessed many, many awful things that we would not wish on any parent."

Mrs Edwards said that after Becky's conviction for theft she left the family home in Swindon.

"Following a conviction for theft in 2001 that everyone has read about in the papers, Becky made a choice to leave home rather than stay where we could care for her once again and try to rehabilitate her," she said.

"She told me once that she loved me so much, she couldn't keep putting me through this hell and she was leaving and she would not come back to me until she was clean.

"I never saw her again but I thought she was living in Bristol, she'd lived there before.

"Over the years I have tried to find her through the police, the hospital and other organisations that trace missing persons but to no avail.

"I was told by sources close to the family, time and time again, that they had seen Becky during the missing years, so I had a strong belief and really did believe that one day she would come back home.

"I continued to buy her birthday cards, Christmas presents and cards, so that when she did come back home she knew I had been thinking of her every year since she left, hoping for one day that I would be able to give them to her."

Police only discovered Becky's remains in a field at Baxter's Farm in Eastleach, Gloucestershire following the arrest of minicab driver Christopher Halliwell, 47.

He had been arrested by police investigating the disappearance of Sian 'Callaghan from outside a nightclub in Swindon on March 19.

On April 4 - on what would have been Becky's birthday - detectives had to break the news to Mrs Edwards that the remains were of her daughter, who she had not seen for over eight years.

"And now this. My daughter has been murdered and to be given that news on what would have been her 29th birthday, we can't believe it," Mrs Edwards said.

"After everything she has been through in her troubled life. She didn't deserve that.

"Life was hard before when she was living the life of an addict but we really did think she was alive and that one day she would come back home.

"Becky has now been found and the news of her horrific death has devastated all her family.

"If anyone has any information, anything at all - no matter how small - that may help the police to establish when Becky was murdered or to fill in those missing years, we plead with you to come forward.

"I would like to take this opportunity to thank Det Supt Steve Fulcher and his team and all the well-wishers for all their help and support they have given to us through this terrible time.

"And I'd also like to send our sincere condolences to the family of Sian.

"We know what they are going through. Thank you."

The full interview will be in tomorrow's Adver.