FRIENDS and family of murdered pensioner Joan Albert gathered today to said a final farewell to the elegant lady they adored.Residents of Capel St Mary, where the 79-year-old lived quietly with her beloved dog Rusty, turned out in a show of support for Mrs Albert's grieving family as they bid goodbye to the woman who was so brutally taken from the midst.

By Tina Heath

FRIENDS and family of murdered pensioner Joan Albert gathered today to said a final farewell to the elegant lady they adored.

Residents of Capel St Mary, where the 79-year-old lived quietly with her beloved dog Rusty, turned out in a show of support for Mrs Albert's grieving family as they bid goodbye to the woman who was so brutally taken from the midst..

Leading the service at the West Chapel of Ipswich Crematorium The Reverend Russell Harrison, began with The Lord is My Shepherd, a hymn the pensioner requested before her death.

Mr Harrison, who also conducted the service for Mrs Albert's husband Cyril when he died in 1993, spoke of her as a "smart and elegant" woman who enjoyed an active social life.

He reminded mourners of the strength that can draw from the hope of meeting loved-ones again in the afterlife.

"It is inevitable that we should feel a deep sense of sadness and loss when someone close to us dies, but we are all frail creatures of God's providence and we know that we shall see and know one another again when the time comes for us to go home."

Mr Harrison told how he had kept close contact with Mrs Albert, who lived just a few miles from him, following the death of her husband.

Nearly 40 members of Mrs Albert's family from East Bergholt to Debenham and Bedingfield to Grundisburgh will attend her funeral.

Mrs Albert's nephew, Trevor Cousins said he was very grateful for the support shown to his family since his aunt's murder and that so many would be joined mourning today.

"I think it's the shock," he said. "People want to demonstrate that."

Born in Raydon, near Hadleigh, Mrs Albert was the second oldest of seven children to Elias and Agnes Tuckwell - with her family becoming well known in Suffolk when her father began farming at Pettaugh, near Ipswich.

She trained as a hairdresser with her two sisters Madge and Kathleen and later worked with them in a shop in Debenham.

She met her husband on a cruise in the Caribbean and after they wed lived in Kent town before deciding to move to Capel.

Her body was found, peppered with stab wounds, in the hallway of her home in Boydlands, Capel on December 16.

Anyone with information about Mrs Albert's murder should telephone Suffolk Police on 01473 613777 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.

N The business community in Capel St Mary and The Evening Star are offering a £5,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for murdering the frail pensioner.