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'I just miss her every day': Mother of Reeva Steenkamp speaks of heartbreak three years on

June Steenkamp described her daughter as a “perfect child”.

JUNE STEENKAMP HAS spoken of her heartbreak three years after the murder of her daughter Reeva by Oscar Pistorius.

In an interview on the Ray D’arcy Show just after the third anniversary of the young woman’s murder, her devastated mother described her as “a perfect child”.

She was the most bubbly, wonderful person. She was a devoted child, she loved her father and myself. She was a late baby so we doted on her. She was a gift from God. She was just everything to us.

Steenkamp said she had never met Pistorius during the three months her daughter was dating him. She spoke to him once on the phone, when Reeva called her in a panic, asking her to convince Pistorius to slow down while they were driving in the car.

In court, during his trial, she said she often found herself drawn to looking at him.

“It wasn’t with any sort of good feeling. It was to look at the person who could take my perfect child and murder them”.

She said she was happy with the verdict now that his earlier conviction of culpable homicide had been overturned and upgraded to murder. Pistorius has applied to South Africa’s Constitutional Court in a last-ditch attempt to overturn the murder conviction.

“I’m really not worried at this stage, he’s got a murder charge over his head and that’s what he must stay with,” Steenkamp said in the interview last night.

South Africa Funeral Steenkamp A woman holds a photo of Reeva Steenkamp, as she leaves her funeral. Associated Press Associated Press

Her family, she said, is still desperately struggling to come to terms with the loss of Reeva.

“I feel heartbroken I mean everybody here who has children that you love and adore, you can’t believe that anybody would come and shoot them and murder them,” she siad.

When asked if she felt angry now, she replied:

Not anymore. No. I just miss her every day. Every day comes, sad moments in the course of each and every day. If I wake up in the night and I can’t sleep, that’s the first thing, Reeva’s the first thing that comes into my mind and I have to learn just to live without her, that’s very difficult. And my husband too. It’s actually heartbreaking.

You can watch the full interview on the RTÉ Player.

Read: Oscar Pistorius is not giving up on avoiding jail for murder>

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35 Comments
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    Mute Jimmy Burn
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    Feb 21st 2016, 1:55 PM

    Throw away the key this time

    162
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    Mute Josephine Sweeney
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    Feb 21st 2016, 5:29 PM

    I know a bit about firearms and Black Talon bullets should be illegal

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    Mute Mark Jones
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    Feb 21st 2016, 2:55 PM

    What lunatic fires four shots into a locked en-suite and claims he thought it was a burglar. South Africans must be very gullible to believe in that bull.

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    Mute Oran Joyce
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    Feb 21st 2016, 3:51 PM

    I shared an apartment with a South African a few years back. He showed me photographs of his home replete with Magnum gun.
    South Africa is one of the most dangerous societies in the world. Huge number of murders, rapes, assaults, muggings, burglaries etc.
    Most people have a gun in the house with the intention of using it against any intruder.
    The strong likelihood is that if you don’t you will end up in the morgue yourself.

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    Mute Suzie Sunshine
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    Feb 21st 2016, 4:00 PM

    But Oran if you are living with someone so you not think you’d check to see where that person is first ? It’s not different to a child going into the bathroom during the night and he shooting through the door before checking .

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    Mute Oran Joyce
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    Feb 21st 2016, 4:33 PM

    I see only conjecture as to what happened that night Suzie.
    The prosecution did not convince the jury of his guilt.

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    Mute Suzie Sunshine
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    Feb 21st 2016, 4:40 PM

    I agree the prosecution didn’t convince the jury of it do you believe that he killed her by accident though ?

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    Mute Oran Joyce
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    Feb 21st 2016, 5:17 PM

    I believe he thought there was an intruder.
    But I can’t ‘prove that’.
    It’s merely conjecture on my part. But the burden of proof lies with the prosecution and that failed to prove beyond reasonable doubt that a murder occurred that night.

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    Mute Suzie Sunshine
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    Feb 21st 2016, 6:41 PM

    That’s fair enough , Oran .

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    Mute Susannah O'Brien
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    Feb 21st 2016, 2:06 PM

    Even if it was an accident, which i don’t think it was, he was a trigger happy moron who couldn’t put his gun away. He deserves to serve a proper jail sentence. A family have been absolutely devastated by his actions, he needs to be made an example of.

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    Mute Suzie Sunshine
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    Feb 21st 2016, 2:53 PM

    I have a lot of sympathy for this lady , but I have to say I dislike her . I cannot understand why any woman would take money off him while the trial was going on . that doesn’t sit right with me at all .

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    Mute Joan Featherstone
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 6:03 AM

    Yes Suzie, very strange, she was taking money from Oscar P all through the trial and could still be for all we know…if I thought that my daughters boyfriend murdered her, the last thing I’d be doing is taking money from him??

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    Mute Meehawwl O'Buachailla
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    Feb 21st 2016, 3:16 PM

    As if all the hurt and pain that woman has gone through already wasn’t bad enough, someone then suggested she sits for an interview with Ray D’Arsey.

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    Mute Red Petal
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    Feb 21st 2016, 2:10 PM

    Oran is obviously a troll because I doubt he could be that stupid

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    Mute JJ O Riordan
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    Feb 21st 2016, 2:23 PM

    You’d be surprised how stupid people can be. Ever been to the USA?

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    Mute Meehawwl O'Buachailla
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    Feb 21st 2016, 3:14 PM

    It would be nce to think that alright, but nope, I can tell you pops up regularly with ridiculous contrarian points of view. The sad thing I think he believes his own bullshit.

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    Mute Oran Joyce
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    Feb 21st 2016, 1:22 PM

    Reeva Steenkamp’s death is tragic.
    Very sad.
    But sending an innocent man to jail won’t bring her back.
    There is only one person who knows what happened that night. The man who loved her.
    Oscar Pistorius.
    And he says it was a tragic accident.
    Unfortunately he has suffered through trial by media in collusion with certain groups determined to make him pay for a crime he did not commit.
    This is wrong.
    From the moment the South African judicial system caved in to media pressure and opened the doors of the court to this invasive intrusion Oscar Pistorius became a victim himself.
    A victim with no chance of redemption.
    Disgraceful.

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    Mute David Kelleher
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    Feb 21st 2016, 1:26 PM

    You are absolutely deluded. Get a grip.

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    Mute Jonny Irish
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    Feb 21st 2016, 1:52 PM

    Shut up Oran. Just go for a walk or something.

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    Mute Michael Coyle
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    Feb 21st 2016, 1:54 PM

    Oran, he picked up a loaded gun, cocked it, went into the bathroom and fired into the toilet cubicle. His actions were NOT done on the spur of the moment. He has had anger issues for most of his adult life. Innocent my backside!

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    Mute Dave Hammond
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    Feb 21st 2016, 1:57 PM

    Ah your a bit deluded there matey , listen if according to his version he thought there was an intruder in the bathroom and he loved her that much he absolutely would have known she wasn’t in her bad , human nature if it was dark as he says is to check if your lover is ok before going to grab a gun and shoot 4 times into a bathroom , at the very least the first instinct if you hear something is to see if it’s your partner …….his story stretched credulity , he was found guilty it was a matter of did he mean to kill her or was it manslaughter , the media had nothing to do with his guilt ….. Justice for her family is the least they deserve after losing their daughter ,

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    Mute Al Ca
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    Feb 21st 2016, 2:01 PM

    Spot on, Dave.

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    Mute Rory Byrne
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    Feb 21st 2016, 2:27 PM

    You are the commenting equivalent of navel lint, Joyce. Deluded beyond words that can possibly describe you.

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    Mute Rusty Nuts
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    Feb 21st 2016, 2:45 PM

    Hope he rots in hell, hasn’t got a leg to stand on

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    Mute Christina Conroy
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    Feb 21st 2016, 2:55 PM

    Well said dave

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    Mute Oran Joyce
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    Feb 21st 2016, 3:54 PM

    I followed the trial.
    There was nothing conclusive about the ‘evidence’.
    Conjecture, speculation, hypothesis.
    So I guess you guys want a man imprisoned for life on that flimsiest of proof.

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    Mute Oran Joyce
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    Feb 21st 2016, 3:54 PM

    The Guildford 4 would be equally as guilty in your eyes.

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    Mute Suzie Sunshine
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    Feb 21st 2016, 4:05 PM

    Ah Oran how can you compare this to what happened to the Guildford 4 ?

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    Mute Tara Ní Sheighin
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    Feb 21st 2016, 4:20 PM

    Don’t feed the trolls David!

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    Mute James Darby
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    Feb 21st 2016, 8:08 PM

    So Oran why do you think she had the door locked

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    Mute Oran Joyce
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    Feb 21st 2016, 8:15 PM

    Everyone automatically locks the door in the bathroom.

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    Mute James Darby
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    Feb 21st 2016, 10:16 PM

    Maybe your partner does Oran, mine never did.

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    Mute ✨Michelle Courtney✨
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    Feb 22nd 2016, 12:15 PM

    In a public bathroom yes. But in the middle of the night in your own home?? I don’t.

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    Mute AS15169
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    Feb 21st 2016, 3:19 PM

    Had I made such an error, and accidentally, I had shot myself in the head, right there and then. How can he possibly go on especially if he was innocent as he claims? Not one second can one believe this coward. Ah, it’s so awful.

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    Mute Tom McDonnell
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    Feb 21st 2016, 3:48 PM

    Poor lil tink tink.!

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