Family speak of devastation at death of their ‘fun-loving’ sister

THE DEVASTATED family of Dundee woman Jenny Findlay last night paid tribute to their “fun-loving” little sister.

Jenny died after falling from a fifth-floor flat in Elders Court, in the Lochee area of the city, on Thursday night.

Nicholas Conning has appeared at the city’s sheriff court on a petition alleging murder.

Jenny’s family were last night struggling to come to terms with their grief.

Brother Alfred said: “She was our little sister. The whole family’s really devastated.” At 46, Jenny was the baby of the family. Parents Margaret and Thomas have passed away and Alfred and his two remaining sisters, Margaret Rose (53) and Elaine, who is only a year older than Jenny, are rallying round Jenny’s daughter Hannah.

“Hannah’s bearing up,” Margaret Rose said.

“We are not too well but we all stick together. We will pull through, we always do.

Born and brought up in Charleston, Jenny attended St Clement’s Primary and then Lawside Academy.

After school she left the city and moved down to London for a few years.

She moved back up to Dundee with Hannah (18) about 15 years ago and settled in Menzieshill before moving to Lochee.

A full-time mum, Margaret said Jenny got on with everybody.

“She was just really fun-loving, really bubbly,” she said. She liked to party. She was just a brilliant lassie.

“Everybody loved her. She would have given you her last.”

Thursday night’s devastating news came as the family were already mourning the loss of Margaret Rose’s husband, Stephen Petrie, who was buried on Monday.

“The whole family’s devastated,” she said. “We are in bits.

“We all loved Jenny so much. We can’t believe it. She loved her life.”

Police and paramedics were called to Elders Court on Thursday night, following reports that a woman had fallen.

Dundee man Nicholas Conning was remanded in custody on Monday after appearing in private on a petition alleging Jenny’s murder.

The 44 year-old, of Lochee Road, appeared before Sheriff Tom Hughes on the petition alleging two charges, one of assaulting Jenny to her injury on July 1 at the multi-storey block.

He is also accused of, on July 12 at a flat in Elders Court, seizing hold of her, locking the front door of the flat, preventing her escape and placing her in a state of fear and alarm, causing her to fall from a window of the flat whereby she was so severely injured that she died, and he murdered her.

Conning made no plea or declaration and no motion was made for bail.

The case was continued for further examination and Conning is expected to appear in court again next week.