Amy Bromoroff's holiday season has been a painful one. Just two months ago her fiancé Adam Kargus was killed at the Elgin Middlesex Detention Centre - and the pain is still raw.

Kargus was serving a sentence for fraud and would have been released earlier this month - but instead he was bludgeoned to death in his cell on October 31.

Speaking exclusively with CTV News, Bromoroff paints a picture of a man who struggled with addiction, who stumbled and fell, but was on his way back up when his life was cut short.

"Even though I may be far away and unable to constantly tell you how much you mean to me, I do, in fact want to express my obsessive love for you. - Adam."

Those are the words in a note Bromoroff received just days before learning Kargus had been killed, and she says "I am so thankful for those letters, because it helps."

It is something that helps her to deal with the loss of her partner of nearly eight years - a man she says has been misjudged because of his recent crimes - and who was on the path to recovery.

"The person that was killed, unfortunately, it was even more harsh because it was not the man who did things to land him in that jail. It was the guy who was caring for his family, writing me love letters, pampering me - he had become that guy again."

Bromoroff says Kargus struggled with addiction and his crimes were often related to the need to feed it, but still "He was my best friend, and he was my soul mate, my everything."

On the night of his death, EMDC was not staffed at recommended levels and Kargus had been housed with an inmate with a history of violence. His screams went unheard by staff and when his body was found he had been so badly beaten that he had to be identified by his tattoos.

Bromaroff meanwhile finds comfort in photos - an homage to the man she remembers - a doting uncle, loving fiancé and accomplished tattoo artist who has forever left his mark on her heart and now on her body.

"I thought it would be really neat to use his handwriting from a letter he wrote me from Elgin Middlesex and put it in the heart [tattoo]."

Three people have been charged in connection with Kargus' death, including his then-cellmate Anthony George who is facing a charge of second degree murder.

No date has been set for George's trial, but the Kargus family is planning to take legal action against the province in relation to the death.