Hundreds pay tribute to Shandee

Shandee Blackburn's boyfriend Arron Macklin visits the site where his girlfriend died last week. PIC: Liam Kidston Source: The Courier-Mail

Boddington Street, Mackay, where Shandee was found. PIC: Liam Kidston Source: The Courier-Mail

HUNDREDS of people have braved the rain in Mackay tonight to pay tribute to Shandee Blackburn.

The Mackay 23-year-old was was murdered on her walk home from work last week.

Family and friends dressed in fluoro clothes and wore "Justice for Shandee" wristbands before leaving for the walk from Harrup Park Country Club.

Clasping hands and holding back tears, they walked along the same route the 23-year-old took after finishing work last Friday about midnight.

Her boyfriend of three months Arron Macklin visited the scene of her death this afternoon, wearing one of the wristbands.

"It's for awareness," he said.

Earlier, The Courier-Mail reported that Arron Macklin should have been with the girl of his dreams on Valentine's Day - giving her the photograph of the two of them he'd had framed.

But Shandee Blackburn is dead - stabbed to death in a vicious attack as she walked home from work.

Her distraught boyfriend visited the scene of her death yesterday to play their song and leave behind a present.

He wept as he leant against his car, clutching a Valentine's Day balloon and a single rose wrapped in their photograph.

"Tomorrow would have been three months that we were together," he said.

"She just had a beautiful smile, she had beautiful looks," he said.

"I just loved her cuddles. We'd only just started . . . everything was sky-rocketing. It was going so well."

Arron said he had told Shandee, 23, he had framed a photograph of the two of them which he planned to give her on Valentine's Day.

"It was funny, because she said 'I was going to do the same for you'," he said.

The couple met at work, but it wasn't until they were talking at a party that he confessed he liked her.

Arron said the first movie they went to see together was the final instalment in the Twilight series.

He said he remembered wanting to hold her hand for the first time during a scene where characters Edward and Bella hold hands.

Later, Shandee decided that the song playing during that scene, A Thousand Years by Christina Perri, would be "their song".

Yesterday, Arron played that song for the girl he lost as he left her Valentine's Day present behind.

"She was just a beautiful person," he said.

Police will tonight hold a re-enactment, retracing Shandee's path home seven days after she met her attacker outside a block of units in Boddington St.

Detective Acting Inspector Paul Elliot said the police re-enactment would begin at 11pm and run until 1am, based around what they knew of her movements.

Shandee left work at the Harrup Park Country Club around midnight Friday and walked along Juliet St before turning into Boddington St.

Police say she was alone when she was attacked, just moments after she turned into Boddington St. She was less than a block from home.

Shandee's family will also hold a walk in her memory at 7pm, leaving from Harrup Park and tracing her movements to Boddington St before returning to Harrup Park.

Shandee's sister Shannah said the support from the community had been overwhelming.

"Anyone that wants to come along and feels like they want to be a part of that for Shandee, she loved fluoro," she said.

"So if people want to wear anything fluoro, or bring some fluoro bands or anything like that, we'd really appreciate it.

"We've had some amazingly beautiful words said, not only about Shandee, but people showing their support.

"We have been getting hand written notes that people have been leaving for us and I'd just really like to say thank you.

"It does help and it touches us that so many people care and want to help."Crime Stoppers: 1800 333 000.

 additional reporting Thomas Chamberlin

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