We're reunited...

Sisters separated after dad killed their mum find each other on Facebook after 50 years

- BY PHIL CARDY

Sisters separated after their dad brutally murdered their mum were reunited 50 years later after tracking each other down on Facebook.

Theresa Fazzani, 59, and sibling Janet Brocklehurst, 57, had their lives changed forever in December 1973, when they found mum Helen Barnes lying dead on her bed.

Their father, Malcolm, told the girls then aged eight and five and their two other sisters, aged two and three, she was sleeping and drove them from their home in Newport, South Wales, to John O'Groats, Scotland, over five days.

Barnes confessed to murdering Helen with a 2lb hammer five days later and was handed a life sentence, serving nine years.

Theresa and Janet were separated when Theresa discovered Barnes was actually her stepdad and grew up with her biological father. Janet and the other children stayed together and were adopted.

The sisters had no contact until July last year, when Theresa decided to look for them through a Facebook group that helps people find lost family members. It took just 48 hours for researchers to locate them and set up a meeting.

They have since visited each other's homes and chat regularly on the phone.

Theresa, a mental health counsellor from the Isle of Wight, says: "I was frightened and confused when I found out our mother was murdered. It was hard to understand when I was so young.

I couldn't understand that Malcolm wasn't my father but was the father of my sisters."