Life was just starting to turn around for Rebecca Apps.Just a few short months ago, the 28-year-old Warrawong woman had reached out to her parents and two young sons, eager to reclaim a sense of belonging and purpose.The journey was far from over, but Ms Apps' friends could see she had finally turned a corner and a better life awaited.Tragically, Rebecca Apps died on Thursday morning, ending those hopes for happier times.A friend, who asked not to be identified, said Ms Apps had lived a tough life, falling in with the wrong crowd and turning to drugs and prostitution.She said her friend, originally from the South Coast, had only been working the streets of Port Kembla for a year and used drugs as a way to get through the day."She was a good kid with a few bad influences around her, she had a few bad problems, as we all do."But life could have been so very different for her.Well educated and musically talented, Ms Apps had a promising future, until a few steps in the wrong direction led her astray."She was very smart but she didn't show that side of herself," her friend said."Becky came from a very good upbringing, she was a beautiful singer and had a trained voice, she was very artistic."She could have been anyone if she put her mind to it."Although she had been out of touch with her family for several years, Ms Apps had recently reconnected with her parents, who care for her young children.And she was eager to again see the boys she adored."She was right back in contact with them, she was getting her act together," the friend said."The last few times I saw her she couldn't stop talking about her boys." Koonawarra man David John Dunn has been charged with Rebecca Apps' murder. He appeared in Wollongong Local Court yesterday, just 24 hours after her body was discovered in an Oak Flats bush reserve.Dunn looked tired and dishevelled as he was escorted into the dock in the morning, shoeless and dressed in prison greens.He sat motionless as legal aid solicitor Nerissa Keay told the court there would be no application for bail.The 26-year-old has been charged with murdering Ms Apps at a Barrack Heights address some time between 5am and 8.20am on Thursday, according to the police charge sheet.Magistrate Doug Dick ordered that a brief of evidence be served on the Director of Public Prosecutions by October 27.Dunn is due back in court via audio-visual link on November 3.