Months before her daughter Kristen's body was found, Kathy Pearson knew she wouldn't be coming home.
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"I was in my room and I felt her there with me. She came to tell me 'I'm all right mum'. It happened three times," she said.
Ms Pearson said the encounters had helped her prepare for the news that skeletal remains found in dense bushland at Katoomba in March were those of her daughter.
"The night the police told me they had identified her remains I said to them 'I had a feeling she had gone'," she said.
The cause of Kristen Pearson's death has not been determined, however, police believe the 42-year-old, who changed her name to Cecilia Devine, was murdered.
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Strike Force Eking, comprising local police and homicide squad detectives has been launched to investigate her disappearance and murder.
Ms Peason said she had total confidence in the investigation team.
"I feel that are doing an absolutely brilliant job," she said.
"They are going to make sure justice is done. I have no doubt."
Ms Devine was diagnosed with bi-polar disorder after she experienced several psychotic episodes while living in New York in 2013.
It was an experience that she used as inspiration for her 2017 debut solo album, Liberty.
"I made a promise to myself to remember everything that happened to me. I would try to write an album that basically told my story, to give me permission to feel the feelings that I felt...," she said at the time.
Her mother does not believe her daughter's illness was a factor in her death.
"Don't think that bi-polar did this," she said.
"She would never have gone into that bush where they found her. Never.
"She had the gift of music and there was so much more that she was going to achieve but someone took that from her."
Ms Devine's life will be celebrated at Next Thursday morning at Lake Macquarie Memorial Park, Ryhope.
"There are going to be so many people there, they won't all fit in," Ms Peason said.
"There are bus loads coming from Sydney."
Police released a public appeal for help to locate Ms Devine on December 21 last year - the date of her 42 birthday.
There were reported sightings of her in the Hornsby and Blue Mountains areas shortly after she was last seen.
Detectives are presently piecing together Ms Devine's final movements.
One of the last known sightings shows her leaving a hotel in Katoomba and walking down the main street.
CCTV footage also captured her buying food, a scarf, a jumper and shoes.
Despite that, nothing was found with her body or the surrounding area.
"We believe there are people out there who spoke with Cecilia or saw her at the time and we urge them to come forward,"Detective Inspector Scott McAlpine said on Wednesday.
Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or https://nsw.crimestoppers.com.au.