HEARTLESS thieves have stolen irreplaceable keepsakes from a woman whose husband and two young sons were killed in a Christmas car crash 20 years ago.

Ruth Beresford had met up with the American clergywoman who helped her through that tragedy for a mini-break in the Bradford district.

And on Wednesday morning, just 24 hours before Rev Kay Mutert was due to fly home to Tuscaloosa, Alabama, the friends went for a final walk at Haworth's Bronte Falls, leaving all their luggage, purses and belongings hidden in the boot of Mrs Beresford's silver Vauxhall Vectra.

But they returned just after 2pm to find thieves had smashed a rear passenger window and ransacked the boot, taking everything - including two precious letters, one from the family of a recipient of organs donated from her youngest son Andrew and the other a love letter from her dead husband.

"We came back to the car, which was on its own - opened the boot and it was empty, everything had gone," said home economics lecturer Mrs Beresford, from Derbyshire

"I was so very angry that someone could defile us in such a way.

"We have both lost everything and all we have is what we're standing up in," said Mrs Beresford, 60.

"My husband David was a Derbyshire Police inspector and was driving our sons Matthew, who was 12 and Andrew, 10, to the Manchester United shop at Old Trafford on December 22, 1995 to buy them Christmas presents when they were all killed in a crash with a lorry," she said.

"Andrew lived long enough for me to donate his organs, and I got a thank-you letter from the aunt of a young lad with cystic fibrosis who had received his lungs and been able to leave hospital.

"She said he wanted to be a footballer.

"The other letter was from my husband, telling me that he loved me and I have carried them both with me around the world since then, including working as a volunteer in Ghana for two years.

"And now they are gone," Mrs Beresford said.

Rev Mutert worked as Methodist minister in Derbyshire for three years, which was when she met Mrs Beresford and helped her through the tragedy. She had been on a religious trip to Scotland and came down to stay with her friend in Haworth on Sunday.

"We have been through a lot together and this is a deep sadness," Rev Mutert said

"It had been a wonderful few days in Haworth and everyone has been so lovely, especially at Westfield Lodge where we stayed.

"But now I have no passport, money, credit cards, laptop or anything and may have to go to the American Embassy in London for new papers.

"And it's just so awful for Ruth," she said.

The American Embassy was able to provide documents which enabled Rev Mutert to fly back to the USA from Manchester yesterday morning.

West Yorkshire Police have asked anyone with information on the theft or missing property to call 101.