Trial watchers could be forgiven for concluding that Carol Park was, as the tabloids would have it, a bit of a goer'.

The court heard about a wife-swapping incident and affairs as the prosecution sought to establish that Gordon Park's sexual jealously led him to dispatch his unfaithful wife.

But those close to the case are keen to point out that there was much more to Carol Park than an unhappy marriage.

"It's sometimes portrayed in the media that she was some kind of philanderer," complains Detective Sergeant Doug Marshall, who has been investigating her death since 1997. "When you get down to it, it wasn't like that. There were rumours of other relationships but no hard evidence."

Police know of two affairs, one with Colin Foster in 1974 when Carol believed her husband was involved in his own extral-marital dalliance. The other was with ex-policeman David Brearly, the man she went to live with in 1974 and hoped to marry, until she lost a custody battle for her children and went back to Gordon Park.

DS Geoff Huddlestone, who carried out numerous interviews to build up a picture of the victim, described her as a "caring person, vivacious, attractive", devoted to her children and devoted to the school children she taught at Askam Primary School. The trial heard from head teachers who described her as a very good teacher.

DS Marshall also talks of an "emotional side" to Carol that struggled to cope with a tragic past and frustrated ambition.

Born on December 18, 1945, in the Bristol area, she was swiftly adopted by Barrovians Stanley and Winifred Price. She never knew her real parents and did not discover she was adopted until she was 16.

As a child she was happy and outgoing, according to the Prices' older son Ivor. He described Carol as an "excellent student" and talented musician. But she never got to fulfil her university ambition after Stanley Price died suddenly at 46 of a brain tumour. Her mother suffered a nervous breakdown and Carol dropped out of the Barrow Boys and Girls Grammar School before taking her A-levels to work at Barrow Town Hall to help support the family.

Aged 17 she met Gordon Park at the town hall. The teenage romance blossomed and even when she finally went away to do teacher training at Matlock College, in Derbyshire, the couple stuck together. On August 28, 1967, they married at St Michael's Church, at Rampside. Those early years seem to have been happy enough - "love's young dream" as Gordon Park described it to the court.

Then in April 1969, Carol's 17-year-old sister Christine was murdered by John Rapson, her boyfriend and the father of her baby Vanessa. While Winifred Price was in the house, Rapson tied Christine to a chair, bit her breast and strangled her with string before turning on Mrs Price.

Carol and Gordon decided to give Vanessa a home but the adoption application was lodged without agreement from Mrs Price. The Prices and Parks did not heal the ensuing rift for another five years.

The arrival of Vanessa prompted Carol and Gordon to bring forward their own family plans. Jeremy was born March 13, 1970, and Rachel soon followed on May 17, 1971. Events then seemed to conspire to make life for the young family difficult. In 1971 Gordon quit the family DIY firm because of increasing disharmony as his parents got divorced. Gordon went to fulfil his own teaching ambitions and trained at Ambleside's Charlotte Mason College. The move seems to have been a cause of resentment. Gordon maintained his "genourous" student grant of £1,000 was enough to support the family.

But in notes presented to the trial, Carol tearfully explained to a psychiatrist that she had to go back to work to make ends meet and complained that her husband did not help around the house.

"She had lost a lot of the sparkle you have heard so much about, the joie de vivre," Gordon Park said in evidence, adding that was probably to be expected since his wife was a busy working mum.

Matrimonial disharmony ensued and the affairs began. Carol left home twice between 1974/5 but by 1976 she was back at Bluestones (the couple's bungalow) with Gordon Park for the sake of the children. Then, around July 17, 1976, her life was brutally cut short.

Nobody will ever know exactly what happened but the police are confident that every line of inquiry has been followed to deliver justice for Carol Park.