Tributes from grieving sister of woman who 'froze to death' after night out

 
Tributes: Jodie, right and Bernadette Lee
Rob Parsons22 January 2013

The sister of a young dental nurse thought to have frozen to death after a night out paid tribute today to “an amazing girl who had everything to live for”.

Bernadette Lee, 25, was discovered in the snow outside her sister’s house by a dog walker on Sunday, hours after being seen at a local nightclub. She was wearing only a dress, with no coat, and had taken off her shoes.

She is thought to have gone to sister Jodie’s house in Deal, Kent, after becoming separated from her earlier in the evening but discovered the house was empty and that she had no key to get in.

Bernadette is thought to have either slipped and banged her head, or fallen asleep and succumbed to the freezing temperatures, which dropped below minus 2C.

Jodie, 33, who had gone to a friend’s house after losing her keys, spoke today of her devastation at the death of her sister.

“She was an amazing girl, she was so pretty and had everything to live for.

“Bernie loved life, was an adventurous traveller and had just started her own business. We are devastated, and can’t comprehend this terrible, terrible tragedy.”

She said Bernadette, who had just launched her own teeth-whitening business, had travelled from her home in Canterbury to a friend’s flat where they had all got ready for a night out on Saturday.

After the sisters got separated, Jodie said her sister tried to call two friends in the early hours of the morning but one had her phone on silent and the other didn’t answer.

“I don’t understand why she didn’t ring me. If I hadn’t left her... but she is a free spirit, you don’t always end up going home with the same set of friends.

“She has obviously walked home from there and thought she would go to her sister’s. I would have been there if I hadn’t lost my key,” Jodie said.

Their father Roger, 63, said he was devastated at the death of his “beautiful little girl”. He said: “The police told me she was wearing just a dress, no coat, and didn’t have her shoes on.”

Thick snow blanketed Deal at the weekend, and temperatures in the early hours of Sunday plunged to minus 2.2C (28F).

A spokesman for Kent police said the death was not being treated as suspicious and that a post-mortem examination would be carried out later this week.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in