'I FOUND MY SECRET FAMILY AT MY FATHER'S GRAVE'

After searching online, Ashleigh uncovered a tragedy and then made a happy discovery

Ashleigh was just seven years old when she was told her father had been murdered.

She knew his name, what had happened and where he was buried, and was given just one photo of him from a newspaper

It’s a picture she’d keep for two decades while she searched for answers, ultimately leading her into the arms of a loving long-lost family.

David Michael Grant, known as Michael, was killed by his housemate Neville Lees over a rental dispute in 1996.

What his family didn’t know was that Michael, who was 30 at the time, had fathered a child named Ashleigh three years prior to his death, largely staying away from his daughter and her mother Suzanne after the couple had separated.

SEARCH FOR ANSWERS

In 2018, after discovering that Michael had been buried at Sydney’s Macquarie Park Cemetery, Ashleigh visited his grave for the first time in 2018, but she was left with even more questions.

“There was a blank spot – no plaque with his name on – and it broke me, so I vowed to save up some money to get him one,” Ashleigh, 29, tells Woman’s Day.