The brother of a 16-year-old girl murdered in Dunedin says his sister was thick-skinned but always kind-hearted.
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Jayden Rush told Stuff his sister Amber-Rose Rush had hopes of becoming a police officer.
"She wanted to enrol in police school as soon as it was possible for her to do so," he said.
She was also a passionate artist and drew her own tattoo.
"Amber loved to draw and was the most talented girl most people have ever seen. It had been that way for many years and it just amazed everyone."
Dunedin Police were called to a Clermiston Avenue address on Saturday morning and found her body at the property.
A 30-year-old man appeared in the Dunedin District Court on Monday afternoon charged with the her murder.
Police say she was known to him.
While she was "stubborn and thick-skinned", Jayden told Stuff "the softness of her heart always shined through."
On Facebook, Jayden wrote about the pain of Amber-Rose's death.
"I still don't think even I understand show much you have impacted my families lives yet," he said.
"You took away my entire families closest friend and most loved little girl. You really do have no idea what you've done."
Amber's mother, Lisa Ann, also wrote of her grief - saying the alleged murderer had "killed our entire life".
"I don't know how to be without you, I cannot see a way to live without you, you're everything to me, to all of us," she wrote.
"You may be the baby of the family, but you are and will forever be the heart and soul of our family, I promised you that you would never be alone, and you won't, not ever.
"I love you with every inch of my soul, forever baby girl, love mum xoxoxo."
On Monday, Amber-Rose's Facebook profile was inundated with messages from friends and family.
"No words can explain how I feel Amber, I miss you to the moon and back and I have no idea how I'm going to carry on without you here," a loved one wrote.
"I miss you so bloody much gorgeous. I still can't believe you're gone, rest easy baby girl," wrote another.
The teenager recently left Kaikorai Valley College to work as a supermarket checkout operator.
Last month she told Facebook friends 2018 was "gonna be [her] year".
Newshub.
