BBC racing commentator John Hunt has broken his silence nearly a year after his wife and daughters were brutally murdered in a calculated crossbow attack.
The horrific murders took place on July 9 last year at the family’s home in Bushey, Hertfordshire, when Hunt's late daughter Louise’s ex-boyfriend, 26-year-old Kyle Clifford, gained entry to the house.
He fatally stabbed Hunt's wife, Carol, then waited for Louise to return. Once inside, he restrained, raped, and killed her with a crossbow. When Hannah arrived home from work, he fatally shot her too.
According to The Independent, Louise had ended the relationship less than two weeks before the brutal murders. Prosecutors said Clifford became “enraged” and carefully planned the killings.
After fleeing the scene, he was later found in Lavender Hill Cemetery in Enfield, north London, having shot himself in the chest with a crossbow. The failed suicide attempt left him paralysed from the chest down.
Speaking publicly for the first time alongside his surviving daughter Amy, Hunt revealed the 14 heartbreaking words he still says out loud to his daughters every morning.
“From the moment I wake up, I say good morning to each of them,” Hunt said, as quoted by The Mirror. “Sometimes I say out loud to Hannah and Louise, ‘girls, sorry I can’t be with you, I’m with your mum at the moment’. As I close my eyes at night, I chat to them as well. They’re very close to me all the time.”
For the BBC star's family, the trauma didn’t end with the loss. Hunt and his daughter have criticised initial media coverage for compounding their grief, calling it inaccurate and insensitive.
“My mum, Hannah, and Louise became a statistic. They became victims of Kyle Clifford,” Amy said. “Did we have any indication that this man was capable of stabbing my mother, of tying Louise up, of raping Louise, of shooting Louise and shooting Hannah? Absolutely not.”
The family had long harbored doubts about the alleged killer. While they struggled to fully warm to him, describing him as immature and inconsiderate, there was no hint of the extreme violence to come.
Hunt said they had rejected media reports suggesting Louise was in an abusive relationship with him.
In their interview, the father and daughter voiced that their goal was not just to recount the horror, but to remind the world of who their loved ones truly were - vibrant, loving individuals defined not by their deaths, but by the lives they lived.
“I want to breathe life back into my mum, Hannah, and Louise as fully-rounded people,” Amy said.
Carol and John had built a tight-knit, loving household in Bushey. In the early years of their marriage, the late mom encouraged her husband, then a police officer, to pursue his dream of becoming a racing commentator. That same belief and support defined their family.
Louise, the youngest, ran a dog grooming business from a pod in the garden. Hannah worked in beauty and aesthetics. The three daughters, including eldest Amy, remained incredibly close and lived at home with their parents.
“Their life was one of complete happiness - awash with it, really,” Hunt recalled.
Two months before the attack, Amy reflected on a heartfelt moment she shared with her sisters during a sushi night out. “We were talking about how lucky we’d been as a family, to have had the parents we’ve had and the life we’ve had,” she recalled.
Later that evening, when Hannah returned home, Hunt remembered her bursting through the door, filled with emotion.
Turning to Carol, she said: “Do you know what, mum? We talked about how lucky we have been. We have been so lucky. We’ve not had a minute of concern or worry through the lives you’ve given us.”
“It’s a beautiful thing to recall,” he said. “It was a beautiful thing to hear at the same time.”
In a final act of courage, moments before she was killed, Hannah managed to send a text to her boyfriend identifying her killer. That single act led cops straight to Clifford and may have prevented further tragedy.
Hunt, who was in central London when the horrific attack took place, believes he too was a target.
“Police officers of 30 years’ experience had their breath taken away by how brave she was, how she was able to think so clearly in that moment, to know what she needed to do,” he said. “I said it in court, and I’ve said many, many times, her doing that has given me life.”
As the first anniversary of the tragedy approaches, the Hunt family wants the public to remember Carol, Hannah, and Louise not for how they died, but for the joy, love, and strength they shared in life.