THE mother of a woman who was brutally murdered 12 years ago today has made a poignant plea for information.

Sarah Melia left behind two children when she was found with six deadly stab wounds in her back at her home in Horwich on January 14, 2008. She was just 34 years old.

Her body was discovered at the bottom of the stairs in her home in Catherine Street West by her teenager daughter Meghan.

Despite the high profile nature of the case, and repeated calls for help from the public, police have never been able to put the killer behind bars.

More than a decade after the loss of Sarah, her mother, Marion Kitchen, has spoken out about living with the grief and has called on anyone who may be able to shed light on the events of that day to come forward.

“All of her family are getting on with our lives, but the pain is always still there,” she said.

“We miss her, all of us for our reasons, and from the first year to the 12th the pain hasn’t changed or gone away.

“It’s like it happened yesterday.

READ MORE: Sarah Melia: The 12-year-old story of a horrific and unsolved Bolton murder

“Normally on January 14 we get together as a family and talk about Sarah. We don’t need her anniversary to do that because we talk about her every day but we normally group together so we can just be with her.”

Now aged 26, Sarah’s daughter Meghan still lives in Horwich and her son Ethan, aged 22, lives in Rochdale.

“All of us are still doing what we were doing before this happened to Sarah but it had such a massive impact,” Mrs Kitchen, 66, said.

“She was part of our lives and she should be here, she should be with her children.”

The murder attracted national media attention and was featured on BBC show Crimewatch, including a reenactment of the grisly incident.

A post-mortem found that Sarah had suffered four superficial stab wounds in her chest and damage to her ribs as well as the six fatal puncture wounds in her back.

Detectives discovered the murder weapon on the roof of an extension close to the home.

Further investigations led to the arrest of Sarah’s brother Mark Kitchen - who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia.

He was charged with the murder but following two collapsed trials, he was found not guilty by a jury in 2009.

Mr Kitchen is now estranged from the family and has no contact with them.

His mother says she still remembers all the details of the day she found out about her daughter’s death.

She said: “If I had to talk about it now I could remember all of it. Every single stage of that day.

“I could recite it off the top of my head. You don’t forgot any detail, it’s just so raw in my memory, everything’s so raw.”

Despite the lack of an outcome in the case, Mrs Kitchen still holds out hope that her daughter’s killer can be found.

“At the end of the day somebody knows what happened,” she said.

“Probably a number of people have seen something or heard the shouting. In a way this is like a jigsaw and there’s only one piece missing. We will never get Sarah back but we want some closure.

“Maybe we won’t ever be able to move on ever if we get closure but it will help.

“I want to say that this isn’t over. Somebody knows something.”

All we can do is keep our fingers crossed and hope that this is the year that Sarah gets justice. She deserves justice, she’s only an innocent victim in all of this.”

Martin Bottomley, of GMP’s Cold Case Review Unit, confirmed that the case is still open.

He said: “As a force, we are constantly reviewing unsolved murders and will always act on new information that is passed to us. It has sadly been 12 years since Sarah was brutally murdered at her home in Bolton on 14 January, 2008. While we have not found the answers yet, this case will remain open until Sarah’s killer is found and brought to justice.

“We understand it has been twelve years however if you have any information about the person responsible, please contact us either via our dedicated Cold Case line on 0161 856 5978 or you can report things anonymously, through the independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”