Background: The double life of body in bag murderer Andrew Lindo

The 30-year-old was “very much in love” with Lindo when they got together at Huddersfield University - the “happiest she had ever been”, her friend Hollie Carter said.

Their daughter was born in October 2007 and they had a son in January 2010.

On Valentines Day last year, Miss Stewart and Lindo got engaged.

But while Miss Carter said they gave every appearance of a “perfect little family”, Lindo was already leading a double life.

He had affairs with at least three women while he was living with Miss Stewart - convincing each he was a struggling single father who had been deserted by the mother of his children.

At the same time, Miss Stewart’s life was getting harder. By September last year, she was looking after two small children and then started work as a support assistant at Holmfirth High School, in West Yorkshire, about three months before she died.

Her role involved the intense supervision of a pupil who had very challenging difficulties which included cerebral palsy, epilepsy and autism.

She worked with a colleague, Dawn Bowers, who said: “She was very conscientious about her job. She loved her job. She was very good at it.”

But Mrs Bowers said: “It was very demanding, both physically and mentally.”

She said Miss Stewart never shirked those demands, adding: “She was a very caring and conscientious - she would do anything for anybody.”

At that time Miss Stewart’s daughter was almost three and her son was eight months old.

Mrs Bowers said Miss Stewart was worried about her work-life balance and had talked about reducing her working hours.

“She felt she wasn’t able to spend enough quality time with her children,” she said.

Her sister, Katie Stewart, said that before her daughter had been born she never thought of her sister as maternal but she turned out to be a “fantastic” mum.

She confirmed her sister was under considerable strain when she returned to work. She said she was worried Marie may have some sort of depression. But Katie said her sister was still very excited about Christmas coming up, especially because her daughter was getting to an age when she would really enjoy it.

She recalled how her sister was “very much in love” with Lindo when they got together. She said the “impression was a very, very happy couple”.

Relatives said Lindo and Miss Stewart were excited when they started a family.

Amanda Utley, who was in a relationship with Miss Stewart’s father Robert, said: “The children were always at the forefront of her mind. They were her world. She was an absolutely wonderful mother, always doing things with the children, talking about them a lot, their progress.”

Lindo and Miss Stewart met at Huddersfield University, where she read health and community studies and he was studying music. She was already married to a man called Martin Waldron - a friend of Lindo’s - but fell in love with Lindo and gave up everything to be with him.

The move left friends and family shocked.

At the beginning of 2010 Lindo and Miss Stewart moved into 66 Perseverance Place - where Miss Stewart died almost a year later.

Their son was born soon after they moved in and Miss Stewart stopped working, until she started at Holmfirth High.

Her friends and family said she always wanted to work with young people. When she was a child, her mother was a Rainbow Guide leader and, as well as enjoying guiding herself, she would help with her mother’s Rainbows.

Her mother, Helen Stewart, also said her daughter was “very excited, very happy” when she met Lindo.

But she confirmed the strain Miss Stewart was under after her son was born.

Mrs Stewart said that by September 2010, her daughter “didn’t seem as bright and bubbly as she normally was ... something not quite right”.

Mrs Stewart said her daughter was “a very doting mother - loved them to bits. Equally”.

Louise Shackleton, who lived next door, described Lindo, Miss Stewart and the children as a “normal, everyday, happy family”.