Jean Hanlon's final message was 'HELP': So why have police only now admitted ... trends now
Her final text contained just a single word, but it haunts Jean Hanlon's family to this day. 'Help', the message read.
Four days after that desperate plea was sent, Ms Hanlon's body was found floating off the holiday paradise of Crete, where the 53-year-old Scots divorcee had moved in search of sunshine and happiness.
Fourteen years later, her devastated sons are still trying to fathom what happened to their adored mother that fateful night in March 2009, when help never came.
At the time, they were told it was a tragic drowning but something about the post-mortem examination conclusion clashed with the note of anguish in that last mobile message.
Amid their shock and grief, her son Michael Porter and his two older brothers, David and Robert, refused to settle for that too-easy explanation.
Her final text contained just a single word, but it haunts Jean Hanlon's (pictured) family to this day. 'Help', the message read.
Fourteen years later, her devastated sons Robert, David and Michael (L-R) are still trying to fathom what happened to their adored mother that fateful night in March 2009, when help never came.
Their concerns that the case has never been properly investigated only grew after family pressure led to a second coroner's report. This revealed she had died from multiple injuries, including a broken neck, inflicted before she entered the water.
It appeared to present irrefutable evidence that Ms Hanlon's death was far more troubling than a mere accident, but cajoling an apathetic local police force and sclerotic legal system into delving deeper into this perplexing mystery has developed into a grinding battle of wills.
As each unwanted anniversary rolls by, Mr Porter has pleaded for help to unravel the truth surrounding her death, only to find help remains in short supply beneath the lazy blue Cretan skies.
Last week, it seemed the impasse had been broken at last when a fresh inquiry – the third – into Ms Hanlon's death ruled for the first time that it was the result of 'foul play'. Then came the Kafkaesque twist: yes, she may have been unlawfully killed but, detectives disclosed, so much time has passed that there is insufficient evidence to find her killer.
Not for the first time, the case of an expat's death abroad was consigned to the files marked unsolved. At this point, no one would blame Mr Porter for throwing up his hands in despair after enduring endless frustrations, hamstrung by the language barrier and official intransigence.
Nothing, though, could be further from his thoughts: 'To be told, 'This isn't an accident, it is foul play, but there's just not enough evidence so we closed the case', it's heartbreaking, it's frustrating and it's just infuriating,' he said. 'Our family won't give up. We now know for certain there was a crime. Someone else was involved. Someone knows something and someone is hiding something. They need to come forward and just tell us what they know.
'It has been 14 years and we know time is not on our side and, with forensics, the more time that passes, the more difficult it becomes.
'It's a weird feeling for us knowing this because it throws up so many more questions about what happened then.' He added: 'If the police hadn't wasted so much time and had treated mum's case with the respect she deserved, there is a high chance we could have found out what happened.
Ms Hanlon's body was found floating in the Heraklion harbour (pictured) in Crete, where the 53-year-old Scots divorcee had moved in search of sunshine and happiness
'I think there is this attitude towards British residents that they somehow brought this on themselves – they automatically pigeonhole them as drunks or sexually promiscuous. They don't realise that these people chose to live on their island because they loved it there.
'I have always made it very clear we have no hard feelings with the Greek people – our issue is with the Greek authorities at the beginning because they wouldn't listen to us. And it was the wrong police department that was dealing with mum's case – they deal with sunken ships, not homicides.'
Ms Hanlon was 40 when she went to Crete on her first holiday abroad and fell in love with the lifestyle and the people. In 2003, the former secretary at Dumfries Royal Infirmary landed an office job in a tour agency there before she finally settled on the island she adored two years later.
Before long, she had swapped jobs, taking up bar work in the tourist spot of Kato Gouves, about 30 minutes' drive east along the coast from Heraklion, Crete's pretty capital. The seaside promenade at Kato Gouves is packed with restaurants, tavernas and hotels that attract holidaymakers from across Europe to its long crescent of golden sand.
'She worked in local bars and tavernas,' said Mr Porter. 'She was earning peanuts but her life in the sun, surrounded by happy people, the culture, she loved it. Money didn't really matter to her.'
Ms Hanlon usually came home to Scotland in winter when the resort shut down, returning in the summer season, but a growing circle of friends, both Greek and expats, persuaded her to stay on through winter for the first time in 2008.
Mr Porter last spoke to his mother on March 6, 2009, three days before she vanished, when they discussed his plans for a forthcoming visit. Everything seemed normal. The only dark cloud, he later learned from reading the diary she assiduously kept, was that a recent relationship with a Greek man called Nikos had soured.
On March 9, 2009, Ms Hanlon left her flat and went shopping before meeting a friend for coffee, mentioning in passing that she thought a car had been following her. The next day she was due to look after a disabled child for friends who had returned briefly to the UK.
Jean Hanlon with her young sons in Dumfries. Only last week was it ruled that Ms Hanlon was killed
Later, she headed to the waterfront Blue Sky Taverna, where she was hired as a waitress. The owner said she left happy, albeit abruptly without finishing her drink. From here, things become
