Mum who was murdered on Greek island ‘may have met killer on dating site’
A SCOTS mum who tragically died on a Greek island 'may have met her murder suspect on a dating site'.
The body of Jean Hanlon, from Dumfries, was discovered in March 2009 at a harbour in Crete, four days after she vanished.
She had been on a date and texted a friend for help before she disappeared, then aged 53.
We previously told how her body was bruised, covered in injuries and decomposed almost beyond recognition.
Her corpse was also found without hair or eyes after it washed up in Heraklion harbour.
Her heartbroken sons, Michael, Robert and David, believe that their mother was murdered, despite Greek authorities ruling her death as an accident and shutting the case.
But in a new development earlier this month, authorities revealed that her suspicious death is now being treated as foul play and a new probe was launched.
l has now revealed that Jean may have met the main suspect in the case on a dating website.
It is claimed that legal experts believe that she met the man, who has never been traced, online.
Solicitor Apostolos Xiritakis, who is acting on behalf of Jean's family, said that police never examined her online activity.
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But it is now too late to check this information as companies now only keep data for two years since 2011.
He added that he believes the murder would be solved by now if it was passed on to murder cops.
Xiritakis told the Sunday Mail: "We still have questions about the research Jean carried out on the internet looking to find a companion."
He went on: “Police checked her phone and couldn’t find any communication about the meeting.
"So this might have been organised through a meeting site. The man she met has never been traced and he is the main suspect.”
The mum-of-three had moved to the village of Kato Gouves in Crete in 2005 following a divorce.
She worked for a travel company over three summers and also took up some bar work.
Jean eventually decided to permanently move to the sundrenched Mediterranean isle in November 2008, and that year she stayed for her first Christmas.
She disappeared on March 9, 2009, after a night out.
Just hours before her death, she had chatted to friends on the phone after meeting a man and later sent a final text saying: "Help."
Her body was recovered from the harbour four days later.
Greek police initially claimed she had drowned but after pressure from her family a second post-mortem found she had suffered a broken neck, shattered ribs, a punctured lung and facial injuries consistent with a struggle.
A murder investigation was launched and a Greek and Belgian man were questioned by officers.
But both denied any involvement and they were released without charge.
In 2012, court officials ruled that there wasn't enough evidence for a prosecution.
Jean's family later hired a private investigator and launched campaigns to raise awareness of her death.
Cops reexamined the case in 2019 but that was later closed after no new evidence was gathered.
In March 2021 Greek police launched a third probe and the case was passed to the Department of Organised Crime.
Previously, her sons said: "Our lawyer is going to review the police report to look at why they think it wasn’t an accident and see what we can do to have it re-examined or try other routes.
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“It’s been a long road but we deserve to know and our mum deserves justice. Finally finding out what happened to our mum would mean the world to my brothers and I."
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