The Express — Greek authorities have launched a new investigation into the unsolved, suspicious death of an expat Scotswoman on the island of Crete.The body of Jean Hanlon, a 53-year-old former hospital secretary from Dumfries, was found in the sea off the island’s capital Heraklion in March 2009..Greek officials initially viewed the death as an accident after the local coroner declared she had died from drowning after a fall.
But her family rejected that explanation and put pressure on the police to conduct a full investigation.
After receiving information from the police, the coroner issued a new report in December 2009 which stated his opinion that Ms Hanlon had died of a neck injury before her body reached the sea.
Ms’s Hanlon’s sons persuaded Greek detectives to re-investigate the case after giving them their mother’s diary. The journal revealed her concerns over a relationship with a Greek man and that she had told a friend she was being followed by a man in a car on the day she died.It later emerged one of Ms Hanlon’s friends had allegedly received a text message on the night of her death with the word ?help?.
Ms Hanlon was declared by a coroner to have died by drowning after a fall
The new investigation has been carried out without any publicity to avoid alerting potential suspects and a new report has been sent to a prosecutor in Heraklion.
Ms Hanlon’s youngest son, Michael Porter, 31, fears the case could be shelved again after discussing the details with a Greek criminal law expert.He said: “I don’t think they’ve ever done a really deep, detailed investigation. We’ve got to find things that encourage them to keep investigating.”Mr Porter said the family are concerned that the police have not used evidence from Ms Hanlon’s diary or followed up on all potential leads.
At a meeting in London last week, the Foreign Office and Commonwealth Office(FCO) agreed to help Ms Hanlon’s family arrange to meet the prosecutor handling the case.Dumfries and Galloway MP Richard Arkless, who has written to Prime Minister Theresa May asking her to support the family’s campaign.,helped set up the FCO meeting.He said: “The most important thing is for this case to be investigated as thoroughly as possible. That is everyone’s priority.”
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