The much-loved daughter who so desperately wanted to stand out in the crowd

TO her mum she was "Toad". The affectionate nickname, which Judy Jones coined to rhyme with "Jode", was a sign of the close bond between mother and daughter.

Hardworking and cheerful, Jodi Jones had to grow up fast in a family hit by tragedy.

Her father Jimmy took his own life six years ago after suffering a bout of depression, her brother Joseph suffered ill-health.

In many ways a normal teenager, she swapped clothes with her sister, listened to "grunge" music and dyed her hair. But part of the sensible, strong-minded teenager desperately wanted to be different.

Before she met her killer at the age of 14, she started dabbling in drugs, then began skipping school.

Like so many young, inexperienced girls, she fell for Luke. In Jodi’s case, it had disastrous consequences.

Then 14, Luke was a fellow pupil at St David’s RC High School in Dalkeith. He stood out from the crowd - a rebel and a loner who, despite having few close friends, appeared to have a cool charisma the opposite sex was attracted to. He smoked, had access to a ready supply of drugs and appeared to have no fear of authority.

Jodi smoked cannabis with Luke and friends during school lunchtimes, and they spent most of their time together. She confided in her older sister Janine, 19, that she had lost her virginity to Luke. In her diary she wrote: "I think I am actually in love with Luke, well nearly. God, I think I’d die if he finished with me. When I’m not with him I want to be.

"No matter what he says, I believe him and that is really dangerous. I’ll have to be careful - I’ve had my trust broken too many times."

But the diary also hints at a darker side to the friendly, cheerful girl described by family and friends.

One entry reads: "Take the knife. All your pain can be taken by one slit, slit to your wrists. Be free, be happy, just like me."

A popular but quiet girl, Jodi was seen as the mature one of the friends in her group, a youngster who other teenagers’ parents regarded as having an old head on her shoulders.

The third-year pupil was a bright girl, a grade-A student who worked hard and had been due to sit eight Standard Grades.

Friends say that before her death she had begun to experiment with clothes and started dyeing her hair different colours, like red and purple, as she developed an alternative style.

She favoured the "Goth" look popular with teenagers who like the music Jodi did - bands like Nirvana, Metallica, Korn and Queens of the Stone Age.

But despite her popular look, Jodi thought of everyone, including herself, as an individual and those closest to her say labelling her as a "grunger" was the last thing she would have wanted.

At her funeral, mourners were asked to plant sunflowers, Jodi’s favourite flower.

For many people the sunflower - which blooms only once before withering and dying - has come to symbolise how the teenager’s life was so cruelly cut short.

The words to the Nirvana song, which are engraved on Jodi’s headstone, seem to sum up her attitude to life: "Come as you are, come as you were, As I’d want you to be, As a friend, as a friend."