THE family of Jade Sheppard, 20, have said she was the brightest star in the sky as they try to come to terms with her death.

The popular former Kingsdown School student, of The Heathlands, Warminster, was found dead three days after she went missing.

She was last seen alive around 7pm on Monday, September 28, near Manor Gardens in the town. Friends had tried to ring her later that evening but found her phone had been switched off.

She didn’t turn up for her job as a cleaner work the next morning and her family reported her missing to police that evening.

But her body was found among trees to the side of the footpath at Dorothy Walk at 1pm on Thursday – just a five minute walk from where she was last seen.

Miss Sheppard had posted lyrics from a 2Pac song just 24 hours before she went missing, which read: “Why am I fighting to live, if I’m just living to fight. Why am I trying see, when there ain’t nothing in sight. Why am I trying to give, when no one gives me a try. Why am I dying to live, if I’m just living to die?”

Police have said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death. An inquest has been opened and adjourned.

Floral tributes with messages of love from friends have been left on a bench near the spot where she died.

Step-mum Joanne Smith said: “I’ve known Jade since she was two and I treated her as one of my own kids.

“When we used to go into town when she was younger she never used to leave my side and everybody loved her.

“She was bubbly and helped me with my children, making cookies and fairy cakes for her little sisters and she used to take them swimming.

“She didn’t walk, she used to bounce and if you were feeling down she would make you feel better."

Miss Smith, 34, who has been with Miss Sheppard's dad Andrew Sheppard, 55, a lorry driver, for 18 years, said: “Wednesday was my birthday but it was not a happy day and I can’t celebrate because she’s not here.

“She was just so beautiful and had her whole life ahead of her, we loved her very much and the children looked up to her.

“I’ve told one of my daughters that when you see the brightest star in the sky at night, that’s Jade watching you.

“They are just finding it so difficult and wondering why Jade isn’t here.

“She’d been trying to save up money for a deposit on a flat, so she had plans for the future and she was happy when she left the house on the day she went missing.”

Miss Sheppard had an older sister and two brothers, as well as Miss Smith and Mr Sheppard's five children, three girls and two boys. She lived with her dad and step-mum in and her family were among the people who searched Warminster for her after she went missing.

Her mum Stella Clifford now lives in Portsmouth. She was one of many people who took to Facebook after Miss Sheppard went missing, appealing for people to help find her.

Miss Sheppard and her family moved to Warminster in 2006 from the Forest Estate in Melksham.

A tribute from Kingdown teaching assistant Emma Taylor, who worked with Miss Shappard, read: “Jade, you left without a goodbye but you will always be remembered. This is my goodbye to you. God bless. Mrs T xx.”

After leaving school she had started working as a cleaner. Among dozens of cards her family have been receiving this week was one from her employer Michelle.

“I got to spend a lot of time with her in the last few months,” it read.

“She was polite, courteous, hard-working and in the short time she worked with me, my customers took an instant liking to Jade – who wouldn’t?”

The family are still finalising details for Jade's funeral.