COLD CASE: Anne-Maree Kropp and Christopher Nancarrow were brutally murdered on the Gold Coast in 1999

HEARTBROKEN Shirley Kropp has given up hope of getting justice for her daughter who was brutally murdered alongside her boyfriend on the Gold Coast 17 years ago.

Murder victims Christopher Nancarrow 27 and Anne-Maree Kropp 24. The case remains unsolved.

HEARTBROKEN Shirley Kropp has all but given up hope of getting justice for her daughter who was brutally murdered alongside her boyfriend in the Gold Coast Hinterland 17 years ago.

Anne-Maree Kropp, 24, and Christopher Nancarrow, 27, were killed in a frenzied stabbing attack at their Springbrook Rd home in 1999.

Friends found their naked and bloodied bodies on the evening of February 1 and alerted authorities.

What led to their deaths is still unclear, but police at the time said the couple put up a fierce fight for their lives.

Miss Kropp’s naked body was found lying in the hallway of the timber cottage and the body of Nancarrow, also naked, was in a secluded garden, hidden by a hedge.

In 2011 Allan Richard Carnell, 46, and Andrew William O’Grady, 44, faced court over the murders.

The trial lasted a month and it took the jury just over an hour to acquit both men.

Since that fateful day in September 2011 the case has remained open, but inactive.

Mrs Kropp said she fought the decision, even insisting on an inquiry into the handling of the case, but got no where.

“I wrote to the Attorney-General, twice, but nothing ever came of it,” she said.

“We had to make the difficult decision to move on with our lives. It was something that had taken over them for 14 years and we spent a month in Brisbane for the trial.”

Speaking from the family home in Bungwahl, NSW, Mrs Kropp said there might never be justice.

“The case remains open, but no one is working it,” she said.

“The only way it will be solved is if someone comes through with fresh information, but after all these years, it’s hard to think anyone would.”

Mrs Kropp said her daughter’s ashes were scattered in the backyard, in a special garden made just for her.

“We have her here at home with us, where she belongs,” she said.

During two separate police investigations the reputation of Miss Kropp and Mr Nancarrow was called into question.

It was reported Miss Kropp was a sex worker, that the two were involved in drugs, and that the murder may have been connected to bikies.

Mrs Kropp told media at the time she had no idea.

“She just told us she worked at Jupiters casino. It was a shock to hear these reports,” she said.

The unemployed couple moved to the Gold Coast from Maitland in 1998, for a “fresh start”.

They lived in a Reedy Creek unit for six months before finding their mountain retreat in the Hinterland.

Detectives at the time had toyed with a theory that the killers may have followed them from NSW, but the leads ran dry.

Police said at the time that both used cannabis and sold it to a small group of friends, but did not run a large scale distribution network.

On their last day alive the couple went to Pacific Fair, met a friend at Mudgeeraba and visited friends in Oxenford, before driving home to their violent end.

A $250,000 reward is still available for information that leads to the apprehension and conviction of those responsible.

In Queensland a person can only face trial twice for the same, or similar offence, if they were convicted after 2007.