THE boyfriend of shooting victim Tanya Turnbull has revealed that the day before her death he had chosen an engagement ring for her as he was planning to propose.

Tanya, 24, was shot dead by taxi driver Michael Atherton in the New Year’s Day shootings in Horden, near Peterlee, last year, along with her mother Alison, 44, and her auntie Susan McGoldrick, 47.

Atherton launched his killing spree after the family returned home from a night out. He shot dead the three women before turning the gun on himself.

In the months leading up to her killing Tanya had been planning to buy a house with her partner of two-and-half years Michael Kendrew but she didn’t know he was planning to propose.

“She always wanted a white gold ring and just a day before she died I found one on a website and I liked it,” said Michael.

“I was tempted to get it. She always used to say I would never ask her and I used to tell her I was just waiting for the right time.

“I wish I had asked her now because things could have been different.”

Michael last saw sales assistant Tanya on New Year’s Day morning. The pair had been out the previous night to welcome in the start of 2012 but Tanya had planned to go out in Horden with her family later that day.

Initially factory worker Michael thought that Tanya’s mother Alison and her partner David Rowe had been shot.

But it wasn’t until he visited a police station that he realised his girlfriend had also been fatally injured.

He said: “Bobby was banging on my door at about four in the morning shouting that his mum had been shot.

“He came in the house and he asked where Tanya was but I told him she had been out with her mum.

“I just went up to Tanya’s house and when I got there I thought she was in the house because all the lights were on. I thought she must have come back early.

“I searched around the house but there was nothing. I drove up to the rugby club but I couldn’t see any police or anything so I went to the police station.

“I was shaking but I told them my girlfriend’s mum and her boyfriend had been shot.

“I was taken into a room and they started asking what Tanya was wearing. I could tell by their reaction it was Tanya. I just broke down.

“I drove to her uncle’s house and they got a phone call which confirmed it. As soon as I heard Tanya’s name I walked out.”

The pair, who had been together for around two-and-a-half years, met in a local pub.

They planned to spend the rest of their lives together and had talked about going to see a mortgage adviser in the new year and about starting a family. We always joked about having a kid but we meant it,” said Michael. “We wanted to get a house before having children. We had our future in place – that’s the hardest thing about it.

“I would love to have a family but I can’t see that happening now. I’ll never meet anyone like her. No one could come close.”