Mum of murdered schoolgirl wants death penalty back

'For years I could not accept death penalty because of guilt that I would carry around. Could I have lived with that person's death on my soul?'

ANGRY: Treasa Steinhardt. Picture: Allan Reinikka ROK040319atreasa1

THE mother of murdered Rockhampton schoolgirl Keyra Steinhardt says she has changed her views about the death penalty and believes it should be reinstated.

Ms Steinhardt, who still lives in Rockhampton, said one of the most compelling reasons for her change of heart was the release of a man who served 15 years in prison after stabbing a Brisbane teenager 45 times in a premeditated attack.

Bojan Vulic was 24-year-old when he lured his 17-year-old ex-girlfriend Vlatka Mrmos into a car and murdered her in 2004.

In 2006 he was sentenced to "life", which at the time was a minimum 15-year prison term.

Queensland's minimum non-parole period for murder has since changed to 20 years, but not retrospectively.

Vulic was recently released and is now living in South-East Queensland.

Keyra was murdered by serial killer Leonard John Fraser in April 1999 as she walked home from school in North Rockhampton.

Fraser was later found to have murdered three other Central Queensland women.

He was jailed without the possibility of parole, but Ms Steinhardt said killers should also face the threat of the death penalty.

Ms Steinhardt said she was incredibly angry when Fraser died of a heart attack on New Year's Day 2007.

"His dying a natural death does not give me peace that he is gone and only did eight years in jail," she said.

"I wanted him to suffer like I am suffering. In life I have struggled with jobs and where my money is coming from but in prison they live better than us? I have had enough."

Read Ms Steinhardt's full letter below.

Enough is enough. We have giving criminals too much freedom to take human life so easy, it's our turn to hurt them back and scare them.

The death penalty should coming back.

You want to take someone's life for no reason then it's fair game that the law take your life.

Why should our tax pay for you low life scum to live in a cell and enjoy the rest of your life living or wait until you get let out and kill again?

For years I could not accept death penalty because of guilt that I would carry around. Could I have lived with that person's death on my soul?

I thought that going to jail would be a bad punishment for them, but seems it's not.

Seems to me that they think jail is a safe place.

They get to watch tv, read books and get three meals a day, and clean clothes, and work, and better schooling then our kids get.

They have no remorse, no feeling, do not care what they have done.

You forget that baddies love to lie, steal, and ruin human lives.

That is what they thrive on.

I think the law should be changed, since the law cannot keep them in jail after they're finished their sentence.

I had faith in the law and the government. But seems they have let the human race down.

The all mighty power the government is but yet all they can think about is who is sleeping with who or leaving the party because they could not handle the heat, or bitch about each other.

Our law has not changed for the better.

Originally published as Mum of murdered schoolgirl wants death penalty back