MURDER victim Valerie Tallett should have been back at her family's Basingstoke home the day she died. Her heartbroken parents have told how she planned to spend last weekend with them.

But hours before Ron and Sylvia Tallett were due to see their daughter, she telephoned to say she was staying in Winchester where she has been living in a hostel.

In that same call, the 38-year-old revealed she wanted to move away and make a fresh start.

Tragically, hours after making the call, Valerie was found dead at the hostel in Sussex Street.

Mr Tallett, from Morley Road, Cranbourne, told The Gazette that he and his wife have been left devastated.

Mr Tallett, a retired train driver, said: "I can't explain how it feels to have someone tell you that your daughter has been murdered."

Police officers were called to the hostel just before midnight on Saturday following reports of a disturbance.

Valerie died at the scene from a single stab wound to the top of her leg, which punctured a main artery.

Her mother said: "I don't understand why anyone would want to do this to her. She was lovely, full of fun and never saw bad in anybody.

"She had plenty of friends, she was very popular and people were always asking about her."

Valerie, who worked at ITT Cannon after leaving school, moved to Spain when she was 20 to work as an au-pair.

A year later she married and set up home with Spaniard Antonio Ver'a but the marriage broke up after three years and she returned to Basingstoke. The couple never divorced but lost contact eight years ago.

In 1990, Valerie moved to Italy, where she was a nanny for seven years, before again coming home. During her time in Basingstoke she worked at Martines nightclub, Next and Monsoon.

Mrs Tallett said: "She used to love working and always had a job. She was never a sponger but people would take from her and she would give her last penny to others.

She was too good-hearted for her own good."

Two-and-a-half years ago Valerie moved to Winchester with her boyfriend and began working in care homes for the elderly.

She lived in a rented bedsit in Romsey Road but later separated from her boyfriend and was evicted from her home.

Valerie, who would go home to stay with her parents every fortnight, moved to the 26-bed hostel in December last year.

Her mother said: "We told her she could come home to live but she was too proud and too independent.

"She was due to come home for a few days on Saturday but she phoned and asked us to come and get her on Monday instead.

"If we'd picked her up as planned, she would still be alive today."

In their last conversation, Valerie told her parents that she was fed-up living in Winchester, she hated the hostel and was thinking of moving to Bournemouth or going back to Italy.

Her father said: "I'm just so angry. I want whoever did this to suffer like we are suffering, and feel the pain that we are feeling now.

"They say time is a good healer but I can't see it right now. I don't think we'll ever get over it."

A married couple, who also live at the Winchester hostel, have been charged with Valerie's murder.