'She was a miracle baby': Elianne had dreams of law career, aunt tells BBC

Elianne Andam's aunt is so overcome with grief she says she still can't bring herself to walk past a mural of the murdered teenager, which is painted on a wall in south London.

"The pain hasn't gone away," Marian Addow tells the BBC. "There's no happiness in me knowing that we lost our beautiful daughter."

Her eyes glaze over as she recalls the horrifying details of the 15-year-old's death.

It's her first broadcast interview since her niece was murdered. She says Elianne's mother is too heartbroken to speak about what happened.

Hassan Sentamu, 18, has now been found guilty of her murder. He stabbed Elianne to death with a kitchen knife outside a shopping centre in Croydon, in September 2023.

Sentamu had refused to hand back items belonging to Elianne's friend, who he had split up with 10 days earlier.

When Elianne grabbed a bag of his clothes in solidarity with her friend, he chased after her, pulled out the knife and repeatedly stabbed her, the jury in his murder trial at London's Old Bailey heard.

Elianne begged her killer to stop as he stabbed her in the neck, jurors were told.

Elianne loved to smile and brought joy to her family, says her aunt Marian

Marian remembers her disbelief when she heard something had happened to Elianne.

"I stopped everything that I was doing and I went on the internet because that's the only thing I can do." She found a report saying a girl had been stabbed in Croydon.

"I don't even remember how I got to Croydon. I saw my sister with the police and I knew that the worst has happened to our family," she says.

"I have not slept a full night for the past year, every night is the hardest bit."

Elianne was a "miracle" baby, her aunt says.

Her birth, on June 28, 2008, was one of pure joy for her parents who had been trying to conceive for years.

Growing up in Croydon, with a younger brother, she also spent a lot of time with her older female cousins.

"They would do girls' nights together and have sleepovers, because I've got three girls," says Marian, who fondly saw her as a fourth daughter.

Elianne's mobile phone was never too far away and she enjoyed posting videos of perfected dance moves on social media.

"She was a normal teenager who loved everything. She loved TikTok. She loved to smile and would always come to you for advice."

'Justice was important for her'

Marian remembers how Elianne loved doing things for her family - whether it was cooking macaroni cheese or doing hair for her cousins and friends. "Pom poms was her favourite, you'd think they had gone to a salon."

The 15-year-old was an ambitious student who loved learning, she says.

Elianne attended the Old Palace of John Whitgift School, an independent girls school, which described her as a "much loved and valued friend and pupil".

"She wanted to do something big," says Marian. "She was always reading and very academic. She wanted to become a human rights lawyer… justice was very important for her.

"The family was very happy to see a young girl growing with a lot of aspirations, to become somebody in the future."

Marian who attended the unveiling of a mural of Elianne with other family members says she has found it to hard to revisit the site

The schoolgirl's murder hit the Croydon community hard.

In the following weeks, hundreds of people, including the rapper Stormzy, came together for a vigil and the funeral.

"Getting that call was one of the most harrowing calls I've ever received," says Anthony King, a youth mentor and anti-knife crime campaigner who was one of the first eye-witnesses on the scene.

"I still have flashbacks. A beautiful young girl from an amazing family going to school and her life is ruthlessly taken.

"When you pick up a knife and you go to stab a young person, not only are you messing up their life, you're messing up your life."

A mural of Elianne was unveiled outside the shopping centre, a year after her death. Her beaming smile stops many people in their tracks.

"I haven't gone back because it's hard for me knowing that we will never see her again," says Marian. "When people see her face they should remember that a very beautiful girl has been lost."