THE father of murdered North-East student Sara Cameron has spoken of his anguish on the eve of the Sydney Olympics.

And he repeated a plea for help in catching his daughter's killer, four months on from her death.

Finnish-born Sara was murdered just days before she was due to fly out to Australia to take up a job at the games, which begin next month.

Her body was found in a field near her home in Earsdon, North Tyneside, in April.

The 23-year-old was killed as she returned home from a party with friends to celebrate her trip to Sydney.

Yesterday, a picture was released by Sara's parents showing her with British track stars Colin Jackson and Tony Jarrett at the 1994 European Games in Helsinki.

Sara was a volunteer at the games and, two years later, raised her own sponsorship to work at the Atlanta Olympics, in the US.

She had been offered employment at the Sydney games as part of her sports science course at the University of Northumbria, in Newcastle.

Her father, Roy, said: "Sara completely embraced the Olympic ideal totally and was overjoyed to have been given the chance to work as part of the organisation.

"The Olympic Games are meant to be a celebration of all that is good in sport. But, for myself and Sara's mother, the Sydney Olympics will offer no cause for celebration, but rather be a constant reminder of what we have lost.

"The person who did this to Sara is amongst us. Someone, somewhere knows who he is. I would appeal to them once again to come forward and help the police."

As part of the investigation, police are collecting DNA samples from men in the Earsdon area.

To date, 900 samples have been taken and results have enabled police to eliminate more than 400 people from the inquiry.

Detective Superintendent Steve Bolam, leading the hunt for Sara's killer, said: "We remain as determined as ever to catch this man.