THE granddaughter of a woman who was brutally murdered more than 65 years ago is appealing to Tavistock residents for their help in locating her long-lost relatives.

Katy Tape had been helping her father John Tape trace his family history when just three weeks ago, she stumbled across an article originally published in the Tavistock Times in 2007, about a historic murder.

John had been put into a children’s home as a baby in 1948 and the only information about his past was his birth certificate with his mother’s name on it.

Katy discovered that John’s mum, Rosemary Rowe (nee Tape) had been born in Tavistock in 1931, where she grew up with her 10 siblings.

Aged 23, Rosemary was living in Exeter when she was stabbed to death by a patient who had escaped from Starcross Hospital.

Police in search of him traced him to a house where he had brutally stabbed Rosemary 23 times behind a bolted door. They also found — alive — Rosemary’s two youngest children, Kathleen, 17-months-old, and her brother, Martin, who was three.

The killer was convicted of murder at Exeter Assizes on June 6, 1954, and sentenced to death but was later reprieved and sentenced to life in prison.

It was only after a chance search online that Katy read the Times article, which revealed her grandmother Rosemary’s tragic death.

‘All I knew was that dad was an orphan and that when he was born Rosemary was 16-years-old,’ said Katy, from Lancashire.

‘What I saw was so surreal.’

Not only did the article highlight Rosemary’s brutal murder but also that John had siblings he’d been unaware of.

The article from the Times archive followed another of Rosemary’s descendents, granddaughter Victoria Richards, in her quest to find a photo of her grandmother.

Victoria’s mother, Kathleen Richardson, had been a baby when the murder took place and had never seen her own mother’s face.

Kathleen and Martin had been seperated and fostered after their mother’s death – but after years of searching, they found one another and began a quest for information on their mother.

‘It would be amazing if I could find them for my father John, Rosemary’s first born,’ said Katy.

Reflecting on her newly-discovered family history, she said: ‘This is a massive shock to my dad – he is 71 and has just realised he has a brother and sister and imagine how he must have felt reading that his mother was murdered.

‘Me and my sister are very overwhelmed and interested in finding my dad’s brother and sister — our aunty and uncle. We wonder how many other family members we have?’

• If you can help Katy in her quest to find her long-lost relatives, email Times reporter [email protected] and the information will be passed on.