Dorchester teenager and father reunited in death (From Thisisdorset)

Dorchester teenager and father reunited in death

10:00am Saturday 13th March 2010 in

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A Dorchester teenager killed in a motorcycle smash has been reunited with her father nearly 20 years after her death.

The body of Jenny Cunningham was exhumed from the Weymouth Avenue cemetery to fulfil her father Bob’s dying wish for them to buried together.

It was taken to Plymouth to be laid to rest with her father’s ashes following his cremation yesterday.

Jenny, 16, who lived in D’Urberville Close, Dorchester, died 19 years ago in January 1991 in a horror crash on the Ridgeway.

Former Wey Valley pupil Jenny was the pillion passenger on a motorcycle ridden by Keith Jones, 20, of Fieldbarn Drive, Weymouth.

Keith was killed in the smash and Jenny died six days later in Southampton General Hospital.

Undertakers from the Co-op funeral service in Plymouth and colleagues in Weymouth worked with Dorchester Town Council cemetery staff from 6am yesterday to remove her body.

Town council clerk Dennis Holmes said: “Jenny’s father’s dying wish was that his daughter’s remains be exhumed and buried with him.

“Cemetery staff dug down to coffin level. Co-Operative funeral service staff have been dealing with the father and dealt with the exhumation licence.

“Environmental health staff were on to make sure that there was no risk of infection and the police were present to make sure that people didn’t think that anybody was doing anything wrong.”

Mr Holmes added: “I haven’t seen these circumstances in our time in running the cemetery since 1994.”

A tent was placed around the grave while council and Co-Operative staff removed the coffin and remains.

Permission was gained from the Ministry of Justice for the body to be exhumed. Jenny’s family moved to Plymouth from their home in D’Urberville Close some years after her death.

Residents in the street remembered them as a pleasant and quiet family who kept themselves to themselves. The family were among the first to move into D’Urberville Close development after it was built off Herringston Road in 1988.

Jill and Arnold Storey, who live opposite the family’s former home in D’Urberville Close, said that the Cunninghams were a lovely family.

Mr Storey said: “She was a fantastic girl and very pretty.

“I think everybody felt it terribly at the time.

“A large procession of motorbikes followed her to the cemetery for the funeral.”

He added: “They were lovely people. It is wonderful that they took the initiative like this.”

Jenny and Keith died when their 650cc Honda was in collision with a Renault 5 on the Ridgeway on January 4 in 1991.

She died from her injuries overnight on January 9-10.

Jenny went to Wey Valley School but lived in Dorchester.

Teacher Andy Dukes, who is now at Budmouth Technology College, said: “I remember Jenny. “She was a fantastic and very energetic girl.”

Mr Dukes added: “It is nice that she is together with her father.

“I think that is an appropriate and lovely thing to do.”