Family seeks to reopen case of Tenerife death

THE FAMILY of a Dublin woman who died in suspicious circumstances in an apartment in Tenerife has called on the Spanish authorities to reopen the investigation into her death.

Lisa McConway (28) was found unconscious on the floor of her grandfather’s apartment in Playa de Las Americas on Christmas Eve last year. She died a short time afterwards in hospital.

The first anniversary of her death will be marked this morning by a Mass at the Church of the Guardian Angels near her home in Newtownpark, Blackrock.

An initial investigation by the Spanish authorities concluded that she was probably murdered, but a later autopsy report found her extensive injuries were the result of repeated falls on broken glass. It noted she had been drinking on the day of her death.

The decision infuriated Ms McConway’s family who have always maintained the extent of the injuries on her body and the pools of blood in her apartment could not have come from a fall.

Their view was strengthened by the fact that the Spanish Special Public Prosecutor’s Report for 2008, published earlier this year, recorded it as a violent death.

Ms McConway, who had a three-year-old son, Shea, went to Mount Anville School in south Dublin, but later dropped out of Durham University and moved to Tenerife. She held various jobs there, working as a chef, in marketing and in selling apartments.

An autopsy in November by State Pathologist Prof Marie Cassidy detailed approximately 50 different injuries on Ms McConway’s body. Dr Cassidy concluded that she died of severe blunt force trauma “such as could occur in a violent assault”, mostly likely by repeated kicking and punching.

Lisa’s father Jim McConway met the Spanish ambassador Mercedes Rico Carabias and deputy head of mission Ildefonso Castro last month. The meeting was in response to a strongly-worded letter he sent to the embassy in which he said that he and his daughter Claire were treated with “callous indifference” when they initially went to Tenerife after Lisa’s death and the local media knew more about the circumstances of her death than they did.

He said the conduct of the investigation had brought “public disgrace” on the Spanish criminal justice system.

Mr McConway said the ambassador promised to raise the case with the Special Public Prosecutor for Violence against Women in Madrid for review.

Mr McConway said he felt his views were being taken seriously by the Spanish embassy, though it would not be possible for them to secure an independent review of the case, which is what the family wanted. “I got the right noises, but it does not mean that they [the Spanish authorities] will do anything . . . They made representations to me that dealing with violence against women was extremely important from the Spanish cultural perspective.”

He said he had heard “absolutely nothing” back from the Spanish authorities and would pursue the case in the new year with the embassy and the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Mr Castro said he did not want to comment on the facts of the case, but that the “fight against violence against women is a top priority for the Spanish government”.