The girlfriend of a sky-diver who plunged to his death after his parachute was sabotaged has told how his death had left "a huge gap" in the lives of the people that knew him.

Ruth Woodhouse, aged 24, from Ingestre, near Stafford, Staffordshire, met Stephen Hilder in January 2003 and started a relationship with him a month later.

She said of him: "The guy was my boy, my friend and I'll miss him."

Mr Hilder, aged 20, died after plunging 13,000ft at Hibaldstow Airfield, North Lincolnshire, on Friday, July 4.

Detectives revealed that the cord on his main parachute had been deliberately severed, as well as the strapping on his reserve chute, and have launched a murder inquiry.

Detectives had taken detailed statements from fellow skydivers, friends of Mr Hilder and people who use the area surrounding the airfield.

Officers have also taken more than 100 calls at the incident room at Scunthorpe Police Station.

Ms Woodhouse, a student at the Defence Academy in Shrivenham, near Swindon, Wiltshire, added: "Steve was a bright, lively, funny guy, always willing to make a fool of himself. He was just a typical man who drank beer, broke wind in bed and refused to eat lettuce.

"He was so passionate about his skydiving he would get withdrawal symptoms if he hadn't jumped for a few days."

She was not present in Hibaldstow at the time of the incident and is not a skydiver herself, although she had made a parachute jump for charity.

Last Friday, Mr Hilder's parents said they were "living through every parent's worst nightmare" as they made a fresh appeal for help to catch his killer.

Mrs Hilder, aged 51, who works at a local college, said: "We are only here today in the hope that somebody can help police to progress things to a point where we can bring Steve home and grieve for him in private."

teve lit up our lives with this enthusiasm, energy, humour and physical presence.

"He was an ordinary, infuriating lad, and an extraordinary son. He loved people, but was a very private person.

"He loved life and lived it to the full, but on his terms. Above all else he loved skydiving.

"In the last few years we've had to let him go and trust that he wouldn't come to any harm. There will be things about his recent life which we don't know but whatever they are we can't begin to image why anyone would want to do this to him."

Officers are talking to people who knew Stephen from university and within skydiving as well as studying video footage and interviewing revellers who attended a party with Stephen the night before his death.

Det Supt Colin Andrews of Humberside Police, who is leading the murder inquiry, said: "In my experience murderers often tell a third person. It is a very difficult secret to keep to yourself.

"In the past we know that murderers have told people and often murderers are detected by that person coming forward."