But tragically for Julie, Michael John Faulkner – who in May this year pleaded guilty to her murder – was only charged with the 2005 killing of Jacob Van Megan four months after Julie was dead.

Julie’s sister, Kay Mizzi, told the Western Advocate it was heartbreaking for the family to know that if Faulkner had admitted to the manslaughter back in 2005 or had been brought to justice more quickly Julie could still be alive.

“He killed a man in 2005. The coronial inquiry into the death was in October 2007. He could have been charged then,” Kay said.

“If he was charged then, he could have been behind bars.

“She could still be alive today.”

That was a sentiment not lost on Justice Howie when he handed down Faulkner’s sentence in the NSW Supreme Court last month.

In his remarks, Justice Howie noted Kay’s frustration and said that Julie may still be alive “had the coronial inquiry not taken so long to provide the evidence upon which the offender could have been charged for that death”.

Just as frustrating for Julie’s family, though, was Faulkner’s sentence – 19 years non parole for both the manslaughter of Van Megan and the murder of Julie Dawson.

“We would have been happy if he could have spent the rest of his life in jail but it can never change what he has done to two families,” Kay said.

“He got a 15 per cent discount for pleading guilty to manslaughter and 25 per cent discount for pleading guilty to murder, but he’d already lied about what happened back in 2005. If he’d told the truth my sister would probably be alive.

“It makes me so angry; it’s tormenting. “If the system had moved more swiftly ... things may have been different.

“[Julie] was the mother of three kids, who for the rest of their lives do not have a mother.”

Kay said Julie’s murder was a life sentence for her family.

“We had no choice with our sentence and no possibility of arguing for lenience or consideration,” she said.

“There will never be a door that will unlock and release the pain we have been given.

“There will be no one stamping our papers and telling us we are rehabilitated and free.”

Kay described her sister Julie as a very trusting person who took people at face value.

She believes Faulkner only told Julie what “he felt she needed to know” about his past which included a stint in jail, the direct result of another violent attack against a woman.

“For the seven short months that she knew him Julie trusted him, and he betrayed her trust in the worst way,” Kay said.

“Julie was someone who was very anti-drugs and always made that very clear to people she knew and instilled it into her children.

“That is why she was asking Faulkner to leave. Drugs were found and I know Julie would not have wanted drugs around her children.”

In the hours leading up to Julie’s murder she packed Faulkner’s bags, put his things on the front step and told him to go. Her stand ultimately cost her life.

“She wanted him out of the house. She didn’t want him anywhere near her children,” Kay said.

After being kicked out, Faulkner broke into Julie’s house, smashing a window to get inside. Julie dialled Triple-0 at 8.14pm, telling the operator someone was breaking into her house.

Three minutes later she was dead, stabbed 16 times by Faulkner.

Kay said from that moment, everyone’s life changed.

“People always say it’s the first Christmas that’s the hardest but for me, it will be this year,” she said.

“The past 18 months I have been running on auto pilot.

“With the court case over I feel as If I have woken from a coma and everything that I did not want to believe is so very real – that my little sister has been murdered and knowing that no one will ever hear her voice, hear her laugh, see her smile again.

“Sometimes I wish we had a death penalty but even if we did, it’s not going to change what he did.

“When I hear on the news that someone has been murdered it brings the nightmare back as fresh and raw as if it had just happened.

“To know that there is another family going through this agony of losing someone to murder, it is a pain that is so hard for others to understand unless they themselves have been through it.

“I just wish he [Faulkner] was charged earlier. No one knows for sure but if he was, chances are she would still be alive.”