'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, where he was buried and was given just one photo of him from a newspaper article.

It's a photo 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, or Michael as he was known, 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 - Ashleigh - three years prior to his death and had largely stayed away from his daughter and her mother Suzanne after the couple had separated.

SEARCH FOR ANSWERS 

After discovering when she was younger that Michael had been buried at Sydney's Macquarie Park Cemetery, Ashleigh visited his grave for the first time in 2018 but 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.