Mom of Girl, 7, Killed at Taylor Swift-Themed Event Says She Will ‘Never Feel True Happiness Again’

Mar. 15, 2025

Elsie Dot Stancombe.Photo:Courtesy of Merseyside Police

Courtesy of Merseyside Police

Theparents of a 7-year-old girlwho wasfatally stabbedat aTaylor Swift-themed yoga and dance class event are speaking out.

“I was so proud of her. The effort that she put in everything, the love that she gave, not just [to] us, her friends, her teachers … her nature was so pure,” she added in a clip sharedon X.

On Jan. 23,Axel Rudakubana, 18, wassentenced to life in prison, with Merseyside Police confirming he’d serve a minimum of 52 years for the murder of the three young girls, according to anews release. He was also charged with the attempted murder of eight other children and two adults.

In theGMBinterview, Elsie’s parents Jenni and David Stancombe called their daughter “fearless” and “brave” and said she was a “devoted Swiftie” who would watch Swift’s Eras Tour concert film “every night” before bed.

“If Elsie knew that Taylor knew her, it would be like all her dreams had come true,” Jenni added. Jenni and David said Swift, 35, invited them to her show at Wembley last year and the pop superstar wrote in one of Elsie’s books about her.

Jenni, who has set up the charityElsie’s Storywith David, insisted, “We feel like it’s our duty as her [mom] and dad to continue writing Elsie’s story for her.”

“So many times we’ve said: ‘We’ll never feel true happiness again, ever,’ " Jenni added.

“We might just feel a little bit of something when we make another child smile, for Elsie,” she continued. “We want to do her proud.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Jenni said of Elsie attending the Swift-themed event, “We just dropped her off to dance and make bracelets, that’s all we did … it was something nice for her to do for a couple of hours in the first week of the school holidays.”

“We should have never have sent her, but she wanted to go so much,” she added, insisting that if they had been there when the attack took place, Elsie wouldn’t have died. “I might not be here, but I would never have let that happen,” Jenni told presenter Susanna Reid as she broke down in tears.

“I’d swap with Elsie any day,” she added.

Elsie Dot Stancombe.Courtesy of Merseyside Police

Bebe and Elsie died in the attack, whileAlice later died from her injuriesin the hospital. The stabbings took place at The Hart Space community center in Southport. There will be a public inquiry into the murders, the U.K. government announced in a Feb. 5release.

“She’s with me in every way,” Bebe’s mom insisted in a clip sharedto X. “She was my mini-me.”

Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Sign up forPEOPLE’s free True Crime newsletterfor breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases.

Elsie Dot Stancombe, Bebe King and Alice da Silva Aguiar.Courtesy of Merseyside Police

As well as the murder and attempted murder charges, Rudakubana was also charged with “possession of a knife in a public place, production of a biological toxin namely ricin contrary to Section 1 of the Biological Weapons Act 1974 and possession of information, namely a PdF file entitled ‘Military Studies in the Jihad Against the Tyrants: The Al-Qaeda Training Manual, of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing, or preparing, an act of terrorism,” per the Jan. 23 police release.

The day after the stabbings, Swiftshared a message on her Instagram Stories.

The singer wrote in the July 30 post, “The horror of yesterday’s attack in Southport is washing over me continuously, and I’m just completely in shock… The loss of life and innocence, and the horrendous trauma inflicted on everyone who was there, the families and first responders.”

“These were just little kids at a dance class,” she added. “I am at a complete loss for how to ever convey my sympathies to these families.”

source: people.com