When Mharie Kissell found out her partner had been killed just weeks after her sister was stabbed to death, she was told no-one had been in her situation in Scotland since about the 1960s.

It is an agony that is simply incomprehensible to most but, for Mharie, it was all too real.

She admits it was simply a case of trying her best to carry on as normal, insisting that, once you hit rock bottom, the only way is up.

Tragedy first visited Mharie on May 14, 2015, when her 33-year-old sister Grace was murdered.

Grace, who worked as a childminder, was stabbed 27 times by former soldier John Haugen, 41, at the flat he rented from her in Linwood.

Seven weeks after that savage attack, Mharie’s partner of seven years Darryl Fitch was brutally killed by William Cameron.

More than two years later, both murderers are now behind bars – unable to inflict suffering on others.

Haugen was jailed for 19 years for murdering Grace.

The High Court in Glasgow heard how Haugen snapped after fearing he was going to get kicked out of the Linwood property.

Haugen, who had served as a lance corporal with the Royal Regiment of Scotland, had recently left the armed forces following a hearing problem.

The former squaddie later claimed he was owed £2,000 by Grace.

On the day of her death, he sent her a text stating: “I can be nasty too Grace, don’t want to be, I just want what I’m owed and that’s it.”

The mum-of-one then went to the flat to meet Haugen but he viciously attacked her with a knife.

He admitted the murder and was sentenced in September 2015.

However, it would be another two years before Cameron faced justice for murdering Darryl.

Last week, he was found guilty after a trial at the High Court in Glasgow.

Judge Lord Mulholland ordered Cameron to serve 17 years behind bars before he can apply for parole.

Looking back on her ordeal, 36-year-old Mharie said even the police were in shock when they made the connection between the deaths of Grace and Darryl.

She added: “I have just had to get through it bit by bit.

“I have been making that effort to go and see my friends and keep going to work.

“There are some days when you are just so depressed and anxious. You just don’t want to leave the house but it does get better.

“It can only get better when you’ve hit rock bottom, that’s how I’ve looked at it.

“I mentally just felt almost drunk when they told me about Darryl after losing Grace just seven weeks before.

“I told the police my sister had been murdered weeks before and they were shocked because they never realised.

“They said that they don’t think that has happened to someone in Scotland since about the 1960s.”

Mharie, who works for retail giant Primark, admits that waiting to see Cameron put behind bars was difficult.

She said: “I have felt in limbo a bit.

“You can never put it properly behind you until that verdict because they have to talk about everything in court and it is quite graphic at times.

“I have been very lucky to have my family support me. Kate, my other sister, has been brilliant.”