TV star John Hunt has spoken publicly for the first time since his wife Carol and daughters Hannah and Louise were killed at their home in Bushey, Hertfordshire, in July last year
John Hunt has shared the 14 heartbreaking words he still says out loud to his murdered daughters nearly a year after they were murdered in a horror crossbow attack.
Every day the BBC racing commentator wakes up and says: “Girls, sorry I can’t be with you, I’m with your mum at the moment.”
The TV star has spoken publicly for the first time since his wife Carol, 61, and daughters Hannah, 28, and Louise, 25, were killed at their home in Bushey, Hertfordshire, in July last year. Louise’s ex-boyfriend Kyle Clifford fatally stabbed Carol, raped Louise, then used a crossbow to kill both sisters.
In an interview with the BBC – his first since the murders – Hunt and his surviving daughter Amy described the lasting impact of the killings, and criticised early media coverage of the incident, which they say was inaccurate and added to their pain.
“From the moment I wake up, I say good morning to each of them,” Hunt said. “Sometimes I say out loud to Hannah and Louise, ‘girls, sorry I can’t be with you, I’m with your mum at the moment’. As I close my eyes at night, I chat to them as well. They’re very close to me all the time.”
Amy added: “My mum, Hannah and Louise became a statistic. They became victims of Kyle Clifford.” She also strongly rejected reports suggesting there were warning signs before the attack. “Did we have any indication that this man was capable of stabbing my mother, of tying Louise up, of raping Louise, of shooting Louise and shooting Hannah? Absolutely not,” she said.
The Hunts said they wanted to speak publicly now to show who Carol, Hannah and Louise really were – not just the manner in which they died. “I want to breathe life back into my mum, Hannah and Louise as fully-rounded people,” Amy said.
The Hunt family have always been extremely close. In the first few years of their marriage, Carol encouraged John – who was working as a police officer at the time – to pursue his dream of becoming a racing commentator. That same belief and support ran through the family and was passed on to their three daughters – Amy, the eldest, their middle daughter Hannah, and Louise, “the baby”.
The tight-knit family shared everything with each other and lived together in their home in Bushey, Hertfordshire. Louise ran a dog-grooming business from a pod in the garden, while Hannah worked in aesthetics and beauty.
Their life, John says, was “one of complete happiness – awash with it, really”. They recall one Friday night last May, just two months before the murders, when the three sisters had gone out for sushi together. “We were talking about how lucky we’d been as a family, to have had the parents we’ve had and the life we’ve had,” Amy said. John added that when Hannah came home from the dinner, she was “typically effusive”.
“She came barnstorming through the door, and Carol said something like, ‘you had a lovely time?’ And she said, ‘do you know what, mum? We talked about how lucky we have been. We have been so lucky. We’ve not had a minute of concern or worry through the lives you’ve given us’,” he says.
“It’s a beautiful thing to recall. It was a beautiful thing to hear at the same time.”