Murder victim “a quiet girl” devoted to her children

Theresa Neville was above all else, a mother.

To those who knew her, she was one of the best.

"What I can tell you about Theresa is what I see through her kids," said a family friend. "Her kids are amazing. Beautiful girls."

The 27-year-old woman was killed in her own rented home at 397 Yates Road in Glenmore sometime over night of June 18 and 19 and no one knows how or why. A 911 call was made from her home late that night for paramedics, possibly from her own children. Paramedics called police.

Kelowna RCMP are appealing to the public for help in identifying a man seen in the area.

Friends are in a tough spot as the Nevilles deal with their grief in private. They aren't ready to speak publicly but tips come with publicity and RCMP have said very little.

"Everything is speculation," the friend said. "We don't want to go there."

Neville and her older sister grew up in the Okanagan, most of it in West Kelowna.

She went to school at Hudson Road elementary, moving to Kelowna roughly 10 years ago when her first child was born.

"Everything she did, she did for her kids. Her children say it all, that's where she put all her time and effort," one friend says. "She wasn't into drugs, I don't think she ever drank booze. She had her hardships, but we all do."

She home-schooled her girls until just this year when she went to work with her sister.

That's what makes it so hard for anyone to figure out what happened.

"She was very private. I can't see Theresa putting her kids at risk in any way," she says. 

CHBC News reported Monday that police may have removed a rear window and suggested a stranger entered the home. 

Police have not confirmed that, nor much of anything else.

Today, Neville's parents Carol and Leonard were at Theresa's home, clearing it out. A funeral is scheduled for Friday.

To contact the reporter for this story, email Marshall Jones at mjones@infotelnews.ca, call (250)718-2724 or tweet @marshalljones23