St Paul's Cathedral death: Student who fell 100ft pictured as family say she found 'world a bad place to live'

A biomedical student who fell to her death in St Paul's Cathedral had two suicide notes in her hand with one apologising to churchgoers who watched her fall from her "favourite place", her mother has said. 

Devoted Christian Lidia Dragescu, 23, died after falling 100 feet from the Whispering Gallery, which she would visit almost every week, whilst holding two letters in her native Romanian which her mother was later given by police. 

The talented figure skater and straight A pupil, who wanted to be a brain surgeon, had just started a biomedical degree but the university stress had taken its toll and for her the "world has been a bad place to live in", her family said.

The note to her mother apologised for upsetting her but said that she is now "in a better place". 

It continued: "I am doing this for me, to escape.  All of the past and the present it makes my head heavy."

In a note to those who saw her fall Lidia wrote: "To all who saw me like this I am sorry, people should not come to see a dead body when coming here. 

"I am sorry for showing you this ugly sight, please go and be happy about your lives." 

Ms Dragescu, 44, said: "She went to St. Paul's at least once a week, we would go together every Sunday. 

"When she was alone she would go there by herself when she wasn't happy, it was her favourite place in the city, she loved it there and we often climbed those stairs up to the Whispering Gallery. 

Describing her daughter as the "definition of good" she added: "She loved God, when she came into a room all eyes were on her, but she did not have any friends."

Lidia took a bus from her home in Romford, east London to the cathedral on Wednesday morning after saying goodbye to her family, and less than two hours later she was dead.  

She had already achieved a 2:1 business degree at the London campus of Ulster University and had begun to take over the family recruitment company with her mum as well as the second degree. 

Lidia also ran a website "Knowledge is Our Duty" crammed with quotes from Einstein and TS Eliot and poems she had written.  

Ms Dragescu revealed Lidia had also been researching the San Francisco killer, the Zodiac Killer and had been reading a lot of Dan Brown because she was "fascinated by criminal minds". 

Despite her academic success the medical student had struggled to make friends, find love and be happy, her mother said. 

She said that Lidia had told her about "her sadness and sorrows about not fitting into this world". 

Ms Dragescu, who moved her family to the UK from Romania five years ago, said:  "She loved us very much, she didn't seem unhappy about anything in particular, she was normal and she was very happy and excited to start her career as a doctor. 

"After one year at University of East London she was going to move to King's College, they had said she must do at least one year of biology and chemistry. 

"She was an ten-out-of-ten A grade student, she desperately wanted to be a brain surgeon and was mesmerised by the brain. 

"We are all so upset and her twin brother has told me he will never celebrate his birthday again. 

"I have lost my best friend, I don't have any tears left.  She was not happy in this world. 

City of London Police are not treating the death as suspicious. 

In a statement the family said: "“Her love for us was beyond measure, she was selfless and kind. Everything that she had she shared with us, always putting us first. We love her and will always love her.

“For Lidia, the world has been a bad place to live in."