Two sisters whose lives were torn apart after their father murdered their mother with a hammer have been reunited more than 50 years later - after tracking each other down on Facebook.

Theresa Fazzani, 59, and her 57-year-old sister Janet were just children when their mother Helen Barnes was brutally killed in December 1973 at the family home in Newport, Wales. 

The sisters say the trauma of that day and the decades of forced separation that followed, shaped their entire lives.

Helen's husband Malcolm Barnes murdered her with a two-pound hammer before telling the children she was 'sleeping'. 

He then bundled the four girls - aged eight, five, three and two - into a car and drove them on a five-day journey to John O'Groats.

Five days later Barnes confessed to the killing. Although sentenced to life imprisonment, he served just nine years.

In the aftermath, the sisters' lives diverged dramatically. Theresa later discovered Barnes was not her biological father and was sent to live with her real father in London. Janet and the two younger girls stayed together and were adopted in Wales.

For more than five decades, Theresa and Janet had no contact at all.

Theresa Fazzani (R) and her sister Janet (L) as children. The sisters were separated after their mother was brutally murdered by their father over 50 years ago

Theresa, 59, and her sister Janet, 57, were just children when their mother Helen Barnes was brutally killed in December 1973 at the family home in Newport, Wales

Theresa Fazzani in her youth with her grandfather. Since reconnecting, the sisters have visited each other's homes and now speak almost daily

That changed in July 2025, when Theresa, now a mental health counsellor living on the Isle of Wight, decided to search for her lost sisters through a Facebook group that helps reunite families.

Within 48 hours, the group had traced Janet and the others.

Since reconnecting, the sisters have visited each other's homes and now speak almost daily.

Theresa, a mental health counsellor from the Isle of Wight said: 'I remember walking into the room and seeing my mum on the bed, and Malcolm said she was asleep and that we needed to get in the car.

'The next thing I knew, we were in Scotland. I was frightened and confused when I found out our mother was murdered, it was hard to understand when I was so young.

'I couldn't understand that Malcolm wasn't my father but was the father of my sisters.

'My real dad was horrible, and he wouldn't let me contact my sisters, or even talk about them at all, it was brutal.

'I thought about reaching out to my sisters so many times, but I was so anxious and scared of rejection.