My Julie always wore her cherished necklace. Someone must have taken it before she died
Aunt’s bid to find niece’s special chain and get case reopened
Tragic Julie Pearson was found dead in the Red Sea resort of Eilat almost two years ago.
Relatives, who believe Julie was murdered, are battling to have the case reopened after police ruled the death was not suspicious.
Her aunt Deborah said the family have managed to trace rings and other pieces she was wearing at the time of her death.
But she has claimed her niece’s favourite silver Star of David chain was missing from the belongings handed over by officials in Israel.
The jewellery was being held at Yoseftal Hospital, where Julie was treated.
Deborah, of Blackburn, West Lothian, said: “We finally have Julie’s items and these mean a lot to us.
“It’s taken 20 months to get them back but her most precious item is missing and we’re still trying to find out what’s happened to it.
“Julie got it from her dad more than 20 years ago. She’s wearing it in the last picture I took of her in Eilat the month before she died.
“Someone must have taken it before she went to hospital when she died. She wore it all the time.”
Tal Lezerovitz, the family’s solicitor in Eilat,, said: “They said the items had been in a safe and they hey have now supplied them to me in a sealed envelope.
“We have an appeal to the state attorney the decision by the e district attorney to close the case.
“It’s a complex appeal taking in a lot of evidence and documents. I filed this in February and we expect a decision in August. “We still have more things to do. We’re still trying to get more evidence regarding the autopsy. “This case is important to me. This happened in my city and I feel I haveh an obligation to try to help the family. Julie, originally from Kinross, collapsed and died after visit ing the Dolphin guest house November 2015. Hours earlier, the 38-year-old had been beaten by boyfriend Amjad Hatib, who had also served time in jail for assaulting her months before she died.
Julie also suffered from cirrhosis of the liver. Police blamed her drinking for fatal internal bleeding, despite admitting a blow from Hatib shortly before her death could have triggered the haemorrhage.
Deborah and other fami ly members want a new police probe into her death and dispute claims it was not suspicious.
The case was raised at Prime Minister’s Questions at the end of last year by Livingston MP Hannah Bardell.
We revealed last year how a cache of Foreign Office emails showed British officials believed Israeli police had botched the investigation, making several basic mistakes.
In one, an FCO official in Israel states: “The Eilat police may not have handled this case correctly in a few aspects.
“They conducted an autopsy without the consent of the family, they did not contact the family and the family heard through a friend’s phone call.”
Yoseftal Hospital said they were unable to comment.