The diary of a mum murdered on a Greek island 14 years ago has led her family to believe the man she met hours before her death was someone she knew.
Jean Hanlon was found dead at Heraklion harbour in Crete in March 2009 but a long-running case has failed to find how she came to harm. It comes after officials investigating her case for the third time confirmed the 53-year-old’s death was murder but have said there’s not enough evidence to prosecute.
Friends confirmed Jean met a man the night she died – but he has never been tracked down and remains the main suspect in her murder. The lack of information in Jean’s detailed diary about who she met is what has led her family to believe the man was someone she knew.
In her diary, which was discovered by her sons after her death, Jean recorded her plans to visit her friend Pat’s house to care for her disabled daughter – but, the night before, she was murdered.
Michael Porter, Jean’s youngest son, said: “Mum died on the evening of March 9, 2009, and her last entry was on the morning of the day she died. Me and David found mum’s diary in her apartment, along with years of others. It was an emotional find as it was giving us an insight into our mum’s life.
“It felt wrong as it was her private space, so it felt like we were intruding or breaching her privacy, but it was all for the right reasons. Mum was very reliable. She knew she was due at Pat’s house the next day as she had agreed to look after her daughter and had been preparing for days to get organised for it.
“So the fact she knew she had this very important commitment makes me feel that the night she went out was a last-minute spur-of-the-moment thing. According to her diary, it wasn’t a prearranged meeting. Mum wrote everything in her diary. She talks about changing the bed, going to the shops, calling her mum, chatting to friends and talks about making soup but she doesn’t refer to having met anyone online.
“Her last entry was very simple, just about her normal everyday life. But no mention of internet dating, having met someone or planning to meet someone. So that fact makes me think her going out that evening was a spur-of-the-moment decision or that she had bumped into someone she knew.”
Michael said the distance Jean travelled is a further indictor that the man she met was not a stranger.
He added: “Mum travelled to Heraklion, which is a 23-minute journey in a taxi or a car and Mum didn’t drive and it was winter so the buses were not frequent.”
The mum-of-three had moved from Dumfries to start a new life in 2005. Police initially dismissed her death as an accidental drowning. It was only after pressure from her family that a second post-mortem revealed she had suffered a broken neck, shattered ribs, a punctured lung and facial injuries.
Solicitor Apostolos Xiritakis, based in Crete, said: “Despite the fact Jean Hanlon kept a very detailed diary, it doesn’t give us any information about her last day and the person she was to meet. So this is something that makes us believe that last meeting with the man she had was not planned but rather a quick decision.”
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