Johnny Connelly's twin sister on heart-breaking search for answers two years after death

So much so, that when Johnny - who had learning difficulties - was held behind a year in nursery school, Norah Anne chose to stay back with him.

“That was a year of just skiving and messing about,” she laughed.

READ MORE: Family of tragic Milton man Johnny Connelly create memorial bench in his honour

Now, 30-year-old, Norah Anne, of Milton, looks back at their happy childhood years with a touch of sadness after Johnny’s tragic and as yet, unexplained death two years ago this month.

READ MORE: Sisters of Milton man Johnny Connelly pay tribute one year on

His family are still looking for answers and believe he may have been murdered. If this is the case, they fear his killer or killers may never be brought to justice.

Norah Anne remembers clearly how she felt when she first learned her brother had gone missing.

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“My mum phoned me at around 6pm on Tuesday, after he had went missing on Monday.

“She said his food was still in the microwave, she used to put his dinner in the microwave for him to heat up when he got in.

“I was trying to reassure her, saying, he’s a young guy, he’s single, he’s probably just crashed at one of his pal’s houses, he’ll be alright.

“But she sounded really concerned. The next morning, I called again and people were phoning her saying they had sightings of him.

“It wasn’t until a week later that my mum told me the police had found a body at Speirs Wharf.”

The place he was found still haunts Norah Anne.

She said: “I just kept repeating the name, I didn’t know where it was.

“I don’t feel like there has been enough focus on it, the place he was found was all fenced off and there was evidence he had been attacked.

“If he had been fleeing from someone, this fence was above his centre of gravity so I can’t imagine how he would jump or fall over. The only way in was a small gap at the bottom.”

She was seven months pregnant with her daughter Jessica at the time of Johnny’s death.

“I didn’t want anything to happen to the wean. If I was upset and crying or couldn’t breathe, I didn’t want it to hurt her.”

She feels satisfied that the police have been giving their investigation into Johnny’s death their all but still worries she may never know what really happened to her brother.

“I’m trying to stay positive,” she said.

“I just didn’t imagine we would be two years on and still no closer.

“When you see it on the telly, you just assume whoever is responsible will get caught, but it doesn’t really work like that in real life.”

Norah Anne moved to Helensburgh around 10 years ago, where she now lives with her partner Martin, to escape the city for a quieter life.

“Johnny was born six minutes before me, so my mum got a tea break,” she said, looking back on her childhood.

“We were close, even with me moving away, we would message each other all the time and whenever I had time off work, I’d go to my mum’s house and see him as well.

“Even if I didn’t phone him, we’d still message and have a blether, have a moan, talk about what we were watching on Netflix.”

When it became time for the twins to go to primary school, they had to be split up, with Norah Anne going to mainstream school and Johnny going to St Kevin’s Primary, an additional support needs school.

“I was dead disappointed,” she said.

“It was kind of rubbish that way but we were always in the house together after school anyway so we could always catch up.

“We used to love cartoons, Nintendo and Final Fantasy on the Playstation.”

As the two grew older, they remained close and people who knew the siblings would ask after Johnny if they met Norah Anne out and about.

Johnny went to college on leaving school and took up a job as a kitchen porter in a city centre kitchen, where he was hoping to become a chef.

“He never used the fact he had special needs as an excuse,” said Norah Anne.

“He always had such a positive attitude.”

A committed worker, Johnny would sometimes take as many as three buses to get to wherever he was working.

“That showed me how much determination he had.”

She has commemorated her brother with a tattoo which incorporates a swirling design that Johnny also had done.

Included in the tattoo is the symbol for twins, a dream catcher and a butterfly to symbolise the loss of a loved one.

In the months after Johnny’s untimely death at the age of 28, police developed a theory he had been attacked at the motorway underpass at Cowcaddens on Monday, July 15, 2019, the day he went missing.

His body was pulled from the canal at nearby Speirs Wharf on July 22. Police have made several appeals over the unexplained death but appear to be no further forward in finding out what happened to Johnny.

Detective Chief Inspector John Morrison said: “This is still a live investigation and officers continue to work on the inquiry.

“We remain in contact with his family, who are kept up to date with any relevant developments.”