Hero PC Andrew Harper’s widow Lissie reveals she still sleeps with his ashes in her bedroom

PC Andrew Harper’s grieving widow Lissie Harper has revealed she still sleeps with his ashes in a wooden box in her bedroom and doesn’t know if she will ever be able to love anyone else again.    

Lissie, now 29, had been married to Andrew, 28, a Thames Valley police officer, for just four weeks when he was killed by a gang of three teenage thieves in August last year.  

One year on, she says that she has dreams where her husband is still alive and has written him ‘loads of letters’ which helps her deal with the grief. 

Teenage sweethearts, the couple had been together for twelve years when they married in Oxfordshire in the summer of 2019. 

Just four weeks later Lissie was woken up by a knock on her front door to the news that her husband was dead.

The brave police officer had been killed by a gang of three teenagers in a speeding getaway car, who dragged him for more than a mile on country roads.  

In an emotional interview with the Sunday Mirror, Lissie said the hardest moment was collecting Andrew’s ashes, which made her realise that her sweetheart was really dead. 

But even after a year she hasn’t yet been able to bring herself to scatter his ashes.  

‘I’ve kept his ashes and they’re in a wooden box in my bedroom where I can see them,’ she said.

The pain of her loss is still incredibly raw and Lissie said she still talks to Andrew and can hear him ‘reassuring’ her and telling her not to worry. 

‘I still have dreams where Andrew is there and I’ve written loads of letters to him, which is something quite healing for me,’ she said. 

‘On days like anniversaries, I still speak to him like I tell him things like ‘missing you’. 

‘I can hear him reassuring me and telling me not to worry, just like he always would.’ 

However, Lissie said she hasn’t been able to watch their wedding video back yet and said that ‘everything reminds me of him’. 

‘I don’t know if I’ll ever be able to love anyone else again,’ she said.  

‘It’s not something I can consider or think about because Andrew was one of a kind. He’s a huge part of me and always will be.’

She told The Daily Mail last month that the young couple had been planning to try for a baby after their honeymoon to the Maldives in September – which Lissie had to cancel after Andrew’s death.   

‘Andrew would have been a great dad and having a family with him is one of the many things his killers have taken from me,’ she said.  

‘I miss everything about him — the hugs, the kisses, him coming in and scooping me up, giving me love. It’s crippling.’

PC Harper’s killers Henry Long, 19, Jessie Cole and Albert Bowers, both 18, were jailed after being convicted of manslaughter at the Old Bailey. 

Long was jailed for 16 years for manslaughter, while Cole and Bowers, who were minors at the time, received 13 years for the same offence.  

The three killers, who showed no remorse after dragging PC Harper to his death, will be eligible for parole in a few years. 

Lissie Harper is challenging their sentences in a sentencing review hearing at the end of October as she wants to see the sentences increased.  

This week, Lissie met with Secretary of State Priti Patel on September 2 after launching her Harper’s Law campaign. 

The campaign would ensure a minimum life sentence for criminals convicted of killing an emergency services worker.