The family of a Drogheda woman who died in suspicious circumstances in Majorca is to request the Spanish authorities to reopen a police investigation into her death, following an inquest at Dublin County Coroner's Court.
Jean Reilly (33), The Dale, Drogheda, Co Louth and with a Spanish address at Calle Astor, San Ferer, died of drowning in Majorca on August 29th, 2006, an inquest into her death heard yesterday.
The Spanish authorities have recorded Ms Reilly's death as suicide, but the State Pathologist, Prof Marie Cassidy, who carried out a second postmortem examination of the body of Ms Reilly, told the court yesterday she had sustained injuries, including bruising along her jaw line and scalp, as well as deep bruising to her arms which could not be explained by drowning. She could not rule out the involvement of a third party.
Prof Cassidy said there was insufficient evidence to state with any certainty that Ms Reilly took her own life.
Ms Reilly's body was discovered in the sea on San Antonio beach on August 29th.
The court heard Ms Reilly, who had been living in Majorca for two and a half years with her partner, Kevin, had returned to the Spanish island just days before her death following a week's holiday in Drogheda.
Her sister, Shirley Reilly, told the court Jean was not getting on well with her partner whom the family did not like.
Two days after her return to Majorca on August 24th Ms Reilly, who worked as a cleaner in Panama Jacks in Magaluf, rang her sister Shirley in a panicked state and told her, "they're after me. They're following me." She did not explain who she was referring to.
Ms Reilly said her sister sounded extremely agitated. She called her again on the evening of August 27th and "said she would look after herself. Then the phone went dead . . . I was very worried about her."
Ms Reilly said that was the last time she spoke to her sister.
She spoke to her partner Kevin the following day. He told Shirley the couple had had a blazing row the previous night in the BMC nightclub.
He subsequently left a voicemail on Shirley Reilly's phone on the morning of Wednesday, August 30th, saying that Jean was fine.
On the same day Sgt Ciarán Reidy of Drogheda Garda station informed the Reilly family that Jean's body had been discovered on San Antonio beach.
A subsequent investigation by the Spanish authorities found Ms Reilly had committed suicide by drowning.
The jury at Dublin County Coroner's Court yesterday returned an open verdict.
Prof Cassidy told the court she had been unable to establish why Ms Reilly entered the sea because "the information I received from the Spanish authorities was very sketchy and that was all that was available to me".
She said the standards for postmortems in Spain were not as high as those in this country and while a full external postmortem had been carried out on Ms Reilly's body, there had only been a partial internal postmortem.
Outside the court, Ms Reilly's cousin, Noel Kavanagh, said the family was extremely unhappy with the investigation by the Spanish authorities and wanted to see the case reopened.