A Dubbo mother has told of her disbelief at learning of her daughter’s death on Facebook more than eight months after she was buried, and of having to search a cemetery for her daughter’s tombstone.

Kristie Alma-Lee Hicks died tragically in her Jean Street apartment in Tamworth on December 5 2007.

Kristie’s mother, Amanda - who lives and works in Dubbo - was notified of Kristie’s death by another daughter Belinda, Kristie’s half sister who lives in Queensland, two weeks ago.

The women have requested their surnames be withheld.

Kristie attended school in Trangie and lived in Dubbo for a short time.

Belinda was checking Kristie’s profile on the social networking site Facebook when she discovered ‘rest In peace’ messages posted by Kristie’s friends.

“I went onto her profile because I hadn’t heard from her for a while and it said ‘rest In peace’ and ‘I miss you’ so I asked one of her friends and he told me what happened, I thought I have to tell my mum straight away,” Belinda said.

“I still can’t believe it.”

Upset and bewildered Belinda made a phone call to her “dumbfounded” mother to break the news.

Amanda called Tamworth police and spoke to a detective.

“(They were) very compassionate and told me the details of her death,” she said. “I asked why they didn’t notify me and he said that her father would have.”

Kristie, 21, lived with her father David and a family friend James in the apartment in Tamworth.

She last saw her mother Amanda in the September/October School holidays 2007, three months before she died.

An autopsy on Kristie’s body revealed she had choked on her own vomit and a report was prepared for the coroner.

Belinda said police told her the post-mortem examination of Kristie’s body revealed a cocktail of 10 different drugs in Kristie’s system.

“She was a complicated child, and there is a long story between me and her father,” Amanda said.

“Kristie has four other sisters and I had to tell them all,” she said.

Tamworth Police contacted Kristies’ next of kin, her father, at the time of her death and followed all appropriate procedures.