Sons battling for justice after their mother’s mystery death in Greece
Jean Hanlon’s body was found in the sea off Crete. Her family say she was killed – but they are fighting police bungling and apathy to prove it
ON the morning of her disappearance, Jean Hanlon wrote in her diary for the very last time. ‘Was wakened in the night by thunder. Up at eight. Got bed changed and the washing done.’ It was an unremarkable entry, just another day in the life of the 53-year-old Scots divorcee who four years earlier had moved to the Greek island of Crete in search of sunshine and happiness.
Yet four days later, on March 13, 2009, her body was found floating in the port of Heraklion. An initial post-mortem examination concluded she had drowned. Her family refused to accept the results and a later coroner’s report revealed she had died from a broken neck before she entered the water. Jean had also suffered shattered ribs, a punctured lung and facial injuries. Her clothing and shoes were scuffed, suggesting she had been dragged. Her phone, bag and jacket were missing.
Seven years on, no one has been convicted of the murder of Jean Hanlon. Her three sons Michael, David and Robert Porter have endured years of frustrations and brick walls, hamstrung by the language barrier and ineffectual policing, even hiring a private detective at one point in an effort to investigate the situation. Greek police closed the case and the family despaired of ever finding out the truth.
Finally however, there has been a breakthrough. Last week it was revealed that Greek police had reopened the case last August and the results of their investigation are currently in the hands of a prosecutor.
While suspects have emerged over the years only to be released because of lack of evidence, the family remains hopeful that there may soon be enough material to bring a case to court.
‘There are so many unanswered questions,’ says Jean’s youngest son, Michael. ‘We want to know what happened to our mum.’
Kato Gouves is a popular tourist spot about 30 minutes from Heraklion, Crete’s pretty island capital. There is a seaside promenade packed with restaurants and tavernas, hotels that attract holidaymakers from across Europe and a long stretch of golden sand.
In the winter, however, the place is transformed. Most of the bars and hotels shut down for the season and tourists are scarce, the beachfront empty and its streets eerily quiet.
The winter of 2008 was the first Jean Hanlon had spent in Crete. A former hospital secretary at Dumfries Royal Infirmary, she had moved to the island in 2005 following the collapse of her marriage, and usually came home to Scotland in the winter months, returning when the summer season started.
‘She had always put me and my two brothers first, and when I grew up and moved out I think she thought well now it’s my time,’ says Michael, 31. ‘She wanted to do something that was for her and she wasn’t getting enough from Dumfries life.’
AT the age of 40, Jean went to Crete on her first holiday abroad and fell in love with the lifestyle and the people. In 2003, she landed an office job in a tour agency and in 2005 finally settled on the island she adored. Before long she had swapped jobs, taking up bar work, and was determined to make the most of her new life in the sun.
‘She just worked in local bars and tavernas,’ says Michael.
‘She was earning peanuts but her lifestyle of being out there in the sun, surrounded by happy people, the culture, she loved it. Money didn’t really matter to her.’
She was popular in the community and had friends in the town, both Greek and expats, something that bolstered her decision to stay for the winter despite the lack of regular work. Sometimes she went to Heraklion to go salsa dancing on the back of a Greek friend’s motorbike.
In the final months, Jean had been involved in a relationship with a Greek man, a dalliance which, as we shall see, soured during her final weeks. Otherwise however, all seemed well in her life.
‘She had a nice apartment and was getting up every day to sunshine,’ says Michael.
‘She had found her niche. Obviously she missed home and her grandkids but she was happy out there.’
Michael last spoke to his mother on March 6, 2009, three days before she vanished. They discussed Christmas presents (the pair hadn’t seen each other over the festive season and had agreed not to exchange gifts until Michael arrived on an upcoming visit) and plans for his trip.
‘There was nothing wrong,’ he says. ‘It was just a normal conversation.’
JEAN left her apartment on Monday, March 9, 2009, after completing her diary entry and did a circuit of the town, ending up at a costume shop where she looked at outfits for the upcoming Greek Easter celebration.
Then she walked down to a taverna and met a Scottish woman she knew for coffee. During the conversation she remarked that a car had been following her but didn’t seem distressed. She had also made plans to look after a disabled child in the town the following day, a favour to British friends who had returned briefly to the UK.
Then she headed down to the waterfront where she had a job interview at the Blue Sky Taverna. She got the waitressing post and the owner said that although the Scot departed happy, she left abruptly without finishing her drink. From here, the timeline becomes less clear.
Evidence at Jean’s apartment, including a pile of worn clothes and an ironing board, suggest that after leaving the taverna she returned home and changed. Urine splashes found on the toilet led her sons to believe a man had been in the apartment.
That evening, a Belgian friend in Kato Gouves named Peter called Jean’s mobile phone. She told him she was in the Marina Café bar near the port in Heraklion with a man she didn’t know. She said he didn’t speak any English and that he was a bore. Peter said that she sounded drugged, and was speaking a lot faster than she normally did.
Jean passed the phone to the man and Peter had a brief chat with him. The man did not give a name but said he was from Kato Gouves. An hour later Jean sent Peter a one word text, saying ‘HELP’. He did not reply. It was the last anyone heard of her.
By the time Jean’s body was discovered floating in the water in Heraklion port four days later, her sons had arrived in Crete to help the search for her.
‘We were told a body had been pulled from the water and were taken to the morgue,’ says Michael.
‘It was filthy. The sanitary bins were overflowing, there were dogs and cats everywhere, nobody spoke English, it was horrendous.’
Although the brothers held out hope that the body was not their mother’s, reality dawned for Michael when he saw a set of clothes laid out on a hospital bed.
‘I just knew instantly it was mum. She had a certain look and some of the clothes there she’d had for a while. I knew it was her.’
Greek police initially stated that Jean had drowned, but having seen their mother for themselves, her sons were convinced this was not the case. They were right.
A secondary post-mortem examina-
tion showed Jean had died from a broken neck as a result of a blow to the head, and had extensive injuries including shattered ribs, a punctured lung and facial and neck injuries consistent with a struggle.
THE post-mortem report also showed there was no drink or drugs in her body at the time of her death, meaning she could not have been drugged as her friend Peter had suggested. There was little water in her lungs, meaning she was dead before she entered the water.
But the family struggled to get a real investigation under way with local police.
‘You never knew if they were really listening to anything you had said. It was my brother and I who went round the town and spoke to all these people and built up a picture of what she had been doing that day,’ says Michael. ‘We were doing what the police should have done. When they took statements there would be other people waiting to give statements sitting just a few feet away from them. It was just a constant struggle and a fight to get things done.’
There are many leads which the family feel the police have done little to investigate.
On reading through their mother’s diary, the family discovered that in her final months, Jean had become involved with a local Greek man known only as Nikos. In her diary, which she kept meticulously and is now in her sons’ possession, she describes the breakdown of the relationship.
‘They met in a local bar and it had been going well but over the past couple of weeks and months before her death she wrote that she’d had enough of the way he was treating her,’ says Michael.
‘She tried to break it off and he didn’t like what she had to say. Then he would come round and ask for money and she would say, “How dare you come and ask me for money when you know I’ve hardly anything”.
‘She wrote that he came round and wanted to stay and cooked her dinner but it didn’t work out well and she told him to go and he didn’t like that and got angry.
‘So there’s this build-up between these two people, mum and this man Nikos.’
Michael says that police tracked down the Greek and interviewed him. Through statements the family have had translated, there is no sign of him having an alibi on the night of Jean’s disappearance. Yet he has never been named as a suspect. A year after the Scot’s death, however, the Greek police did name two suspects, a Belgian and a Greek. Both had been friends of Jean. Michael was told there had been ‘inaccuracies’ in their statements.
The Greek friend had lied on a number of counts, including saying the last time he had spoken to Jean was a week before, when phone records showed he had spoken to her on the night of her disappearance. He also told police he had been with another friend that night, only for police to discover that he hadn’t been.
That friend further revealed that the individual had asked him to lie to police but he had refused. He also told police he did not have a motorbike. Not only did he have one, he didn’t have a licence for it.
In her diary Jean had written about trips to Heraklion on the back of the friend’s motorbike, and how scared she had been on it.
‘She wrote in her diary many times, “Oh it was scary, he drove so fast, there were cats and dogs running out,”’ says Michael.
Her fear made her son wonder if perhaps there had been an accident and a cover-up.
‘Maybe she’s gone on the back of his bike,’ he say.
‘Maybe there’s been an accident, someone’s gone too fast and she’s come off the back. It would explain the extent of her injuries. He’s panicked, realised he would get done because he didn’t have a licence, and put the body in the water thinking it will never come back.’
MICHAEL and the rest of his family have also struggled with Jean’s friend Peter’s story about the phone call and the mystery man who did not speak English.
‘I don’t believe she was in Heraklion with someone she didn’t know who didn’t speak any English,’ says Michael.
‘Why would she get in a car with someone who doesn’t speak any English? She’s not stupid. She has just got a new job, she is looking after someone’s child the next day – it doesn’t make any sense.’
The case against both suspects was later dropped due to lack of evidence but many questions remain.
How did Jean, who did not drive, get from Kato Gouves to Heraklion, a 30-minute car drive away? Who left the urine slashes on the toilet in her apartment? Who was in the car she thought was following her earlier that day? Why did her friends not tell police the truth? Who was the mystery man her friend claimed she was with the night of her disappearance?
The latest police report may prove crucial, although Michael is nervous about just how thorough police have been.
‘It was sent to the prosecutor within two months. How can they have done a full, deep investigation in two months?’
Worse, it has been sitting unread on the prosecutor’s desk since last November. Once again Michael is concerned about how seriously Greek authorities are taking the case and whether the latest report will have uncovered any new information.
Earlier this week he was told the prosecutor has agreed to meet with him, and he has also had contact with Theresa May’s office, as well as the new Greek ambassador in London, who will meet the family soon.
Michael is determined that neither he nor his two brothers will stop fighting until they have answers to what happened to their mother.
‘Because we were flung into the investigation so immediately we didn’t really have time to grieve’, he says. ‘By fighting on, it’s as if she’s still here.’