The family of a teenage girl found dead in the bush a year ago have expressed their grief and sorrow after she was taken from them.
Emily Thompson was allegedly stabbed to death and her body dumped by her ex-boyfriend on October 22, 2022.
Ms Thompson had turned 18 two weeks earlier and was about to graduate from Pine Rivers State High School in Strathpine, Queensland, 21km north of Brisbane.
She was allegedly killed by Aaron Mitchelson Huckel, then 19, hours after police said they met in a parking lot. He was charged with her murder.
Her family said Ms Thompson’s death was “horrific”. “The reality of waking up every day knowing she was no longer with us was and continues to be completely numbing,” they told the Sunday mail.
Emily Thompson (pictured) was allegedly stabbed to death and her body dumped by her ex-boyfriend on October 22, 2022.
Ms Thompson had turned 18 two weeks earlier and was about to graduate from Pine Rivers State High School in Strathpine, Queensland, 21km north of Brisbane.
Following a phone call from Ms Thompson’s distressed parents, police tracked Mitchelson Huckel to a service station 80km from Nambour on the Sunshine Coast before finding her body in nearby bushland the next day.
At the time of her death, the family said: “It’s not ‘an 18-year-old woman’, it’s Emily. A beloved daughter, sister, granddaughter, cousin, niece and friend. Emily was taken from the family in the worst circumstances.
“Emily was a schoolgirl about to finish her Year 12 exams and had her whole life ahead of her. She had purchased a beautiful dress ready to attend her prom in a vintage car driven by her beloved father. His group of friends were preparing to celebrate the end of school and the start of their adult lives.
“Emily was an intelligent, generous and loving girl. It was never about Emily, but always about her family and friends. Her family is devastated and in shock, trying to figure out what their lives will be like without their Emily.
A year later, the family said: “As time passes, the numbness wears off and you are left with the raw pain of knowing you will never be able to hold your daughter again, hear her laugh or make him experience new things.
“There is a terrible sense of loss for all the ‘things’ she was, but also for all the ‘things’ she could have been and could have done.”
The grieving family said their home now seemed “emptier than ever before”, they were surrounded by supportive friends and family, but these people had to get on with their lives.
Like many people who experience terrible and violent loss, they said, “it seems incomprehensible that in the outside world nothing has really changed.”
Ms Thompson’s mother Melissa said she was excited to finish high school and start a new chapter in her life and had already booked and paid for her school trip after the exams.
Aaron Mitchelson Huckel (pictured) was charged with the murder of Emily Thompson
She had six grandparents who were all closely involved in her life, including she took his clothes shopping on his birthday, taught him to drive and took him and his brother to theme parks on the Gold Coast during school holidays.
The family said they would like people to “think of Emily often.”
“Smile at his memory. We do. Crying for his loss. We do. Share stories with each other. We do. But above all, say his name. #hernameisEmily.’
Mitchelson Huckel, who is on remand, will appear in Pine Rivers Magistrate’s Court on November 20.
