I stared down cowardly Xmas killer who stabbed my mum in the head 29 times before hiding in tent during 18-day manhunt
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SHANNON Brown shudders at the memory of happily queuing up with her one-year-old daughter to meet Santa at a Christmas grotto. For just hours later, the 30-year-old’s life was turned upside down after being told the devastating news that her mother, Michelle Hanson, had been viciously murdered.
![[Shannon Brown, 30, with her late mum Michelle Hanson, 47, who was brutally stabbed to death]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/f98ba2f7-d360-494a-982d-149ad7e8a33d.jpg?strip=all&w=918)
The loving grandma, 47, was stabbed in the head 29 times by a mature University of Sunderland student she had kindly let into her home, in Sunderland. A nationwide manhunt followed, as police desperately tried to track down Alexander Carr, 34, who was on the run for 18 days.
![['Urban survivalist' Alexander Carr stabbed the grandma 29 times in the head]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/heartbroken-mum-revealed-faced-unimaginable-956857858.jpg?strip=all&w=578)
The ‘urban survivalist’ was found living in a tent in North London and has since been imprisoned for 19 years. Speaking to The Sun, Shannon says she relives the unimaginable horror of that heartbreaking day every Christmas and remains traumatised thinking about her mum’s terror-filled final moments.
![[He was found sleeping in a tent in London 18 days after fleeing the crime scene in Sunderland]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/120-dpi-heartbroken-mum-revealed-956865802-1.png?strip=all&w=960)
“During the most special time of the year, my beloved mum was killed for nothing,” she tells us. “She saw the good in Alexander that day, but he took advantage of her kindness, attacking her in her own home before leaving her to die alone. “He stole a beautiful, kind, fun-loving mum. And my daughter will grow up never knowing the wonderful woman her nan was.”.
![[Michelle was obsessed with her granddaughter Lexi, now three]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/heartbroken-mum-revealed-faced-unimaginable-956865276.png?strip=all&w=692)
Michelle had been recovering from “a tough few years” when she made the fatal decision to trust Alexander - the man who would take her life in a most violent and cruel way on December 1, 2022. The gran and mum-of-four had struggled financially due to unemployment, and “lost herself completely” after multiple abusive relationships, which regularly left her “covered in bruises”.
![[Shannon is devastated Lexi and her unborn child won't grow up with their grandmother]](https://www.thesun.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/heartbroken-mum-revealed-faced-unimaginable-956857865.jpg?strip=all&w=959)
