TWENTY-five years after the Valentine"s Day murder of little Tracey Waters her devastated family is still looking for answers.

The happy, care-free 11-year-old had just finished writing a Valentine"s card for a local boy but never got to post it.

In a crime that shocked the community, tragic Tracey was strangled as she came back from a gymnastics class and no one has ever been convicted of the crime.

Grieving Johnstone mum Margaret McDermott, 53, lives just a few hundred meters away from the back garden where her daughter"s half-clothed body was discovered in 1983 - and exactly 25 year"s ago tomorrow.

She said: 'The pain never goes away.

'My lovely Tracey was a happy normal young girl without a care in the world before she was taken away from us.

'I think about her always and keep all her belongings in the attic.

'We will never get over what happened that day.' As Tracey"s bereaved family mark the 25th anniversary of her death, they have a never-ending feeling of despair and sadness - and feel a sense of urgency to find Tracey"s killer now more than ever.

Her brother Brian, who was only 10 when the former Cochrane Castle Primary School pupil died, is calling on police to step-up the long-running murder probe in the hope that new evidence may be found.

Margaret had been walking along Kilbarchan Road, in Johnstone, looking for her daughter as the horrific killing was being carried out in a back garden just off nearby Shanks Crescent: Margaret said: 'A police officer told me the next day when she was discovered that while I had been looking in one street, Tracey was probably being murdered in the next street.' Brian, who just visited Tracey"s gravestone at Abbey Cemetary, in Elderslie, to mark the anniversary of his sister"s death, added: 'I am much more affected by what happened now than at the time. I was too young to take it in and I remember coming back after the funeral, getting changed and going to play football.' Two years ago officers from the newly formed cold case review team took a fresh look at the quarter-century-old case hoping to find forensic evidence like DNA using tests unavailable in the 80s, but the Tracey"s family were to receive more bad news.

Brain, 35, also of Johnstone, said: 'I just want justice for Tracey and I want to know what the police are doing now to find my sister"s killer. The person who did this might still be walking about and a I will never rest until they are caught.' A Strathclyde Police spokesman said: 'This enquiry forms part of a number of unresolved cases which are under constant review by Strathclyde Police. Should any information come to light in relation to this murder then we will liaise with the family as appropriate.'