Chynna Deese's mother appeals for information about murder of her daughter and Lucas Fowler
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Sheila said she first met Lucas over the phone.
Chynna was staying at a hostel in Croatia and mentioned she had met a few Australian men.
"She called me one day [and said] the Aussie boys want to hear you speak," Sheila recalled.
When she replied with a classic North Carolina "hey y'all," she could hear Lucas erupting with laughter in the background.
Chynna and Lucas's relationship developed, and Sheila finally met the young man in person over the Christmas holidays.
"He just fit right in. He did traditions with us. He cooked with us," she said.
"He helped me paint my entire house," British added.
"We felt like he was part of the family pretty early on. He had both grandparents' approvals if that tells you anything. He went to Christmas on both sides of the family, and everyone just loved him," he said.
Sheila knew he was a keeper when he sent her daughter a box of her favourite cheesecake cookies for Valentine's Day.
Secretly, she began fretting that the couple might decide to move to Australia together. It seemed too far and foreign for her to visit.
"I'm not an experienced traveller as they were," she said.
"But today I would love to have that option."
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Travel fuelled the couple's love
Travel was the couple's life passion, the lens through which they discovered themselves and their love for each other.
"If their life purpose was to travel the world, they were doing an amazing job by age 24," British said.
The two self-funded all their adventures, including 13 different countries for Chynna.
She studied abroad in Europe and worked her keep on a grape farm. Lucas served as a Canadian cattle hand just prior to his death.
Chynna was industrious and enthusiastic. Sheila was proud to recognise her daughter's signature spark in a CCTV video of the couple's last petrol stop.
In the video, Chynna got out of the van to clean the windows before falling into Lucas's arms in a moment of unmistakable joy.
"She's wiping the windows. That was my daughter. She doesn't just sit in the van, she's going to get out. She's not going to go in and get a soda or something. She's going to get out and clean the windows," Sheila said.