Losing mum 'feels like pressing pause on my life'

The family of a woman who was found dead at a house in Cornwall last month have said they lost the "perfect" mum and grandmother, describing her as "beautiful inside and out".

Maleta Rosevear, 60, died at her home in Illogan on 10 January because of a blunt force head injury, according to the coroner.

Mrs Rosevear, who was known as Milly, was a mother of four, grandmother of nine and had become a foster carer in recent years.

Her son, Jamie Rosevear, 21, said: "It feels like someone's pressed pause on my life and I don't know how to press play again."

He lived with his mother but had been staying with his partner the night before her death.

He said: "We'd get a message off mum every morning saying 'Good morning my babies', but that morning our dad rung us saying 'Come to mum's house'.

"I've lost my mum, my home – everything. It's just all gone."

He described his mother as "the most beautiful person to ever walk this earth, she'd help anybody".

"We couldn't have had a better mum than her. She was literally the best you could have asked for."

One of Mrs Rosevear's identical twin daughters, Kayleigh Rosevear, 32, said the news of her mother's death was a "massive shock" for the family.

Her mum had recently started a relationship with Adrian Lawrence, 59, who died later the same day after falling from a bridge near Redruth, Devon and Cornwall Police said.

Kayleigh Rosevear said she and her siblings knew their mother had started seeing someone but "didn't really know" Mr Lawrence, and everything appeared normal a few days before her death.

Her brother Jamie had been "dancing around the kitchen with [Mum], in the front room taking down Christmas decorations – just like any normal day", she said.

Kayleigh said the family preferred to focus on "who our mum was and the legacy she left behind in her children and her grandchildren" rather than "what happened to her".

The family has started a crowdfunding campaign to raise money for children in care who have lost a parent, as Mrs Rosevear had discussed the idea "if anything happened to her".

Kayleigh said: "There was no one quite like my mum - all of us have a piece of her in us.

"She loved music, she loved to dance – amazing cook, she made the best pasties, and the best lasagne."

She said her mum was not "a person you could forget, she was just one of those people you can't help but love".

Kayleigh's twin sister Nadine said her mother was "very bubbly" and "loved rock and roll music, especially Shakin' Stevens".

"Even if we didn't want to dance with her, we got made to dance with her", she said.

"She had nine grandchildren and she was the best nan to the grandchildren - her grandchildren were her life."

She said her mum was "very much a Cornish maid, as she would say".

Her mother was also an identical twin and was a "Redruth girl, born and bred – and that's where she's being laid to rest", she added.

The senior coroner for Cornwall has opened and adjourned inquests into both deaths, to allow for further police inquiries.

The police had previously confirmed the pair were known to each other and said inquiries were ongoing, and their "thoughts remain with Milly's family and friends".

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