Anne-Marie's body was discovered in a concrete yard beneath the balcony of her third-floor apartment in Fuengirola at 6.30am on Friday 15 September 2004. Her family, in her hometown of Clones, Co Monaghan, believe she was murdered. Two of her siblings . . . Thomas Mulligan and Sheila Curran . . . believe the Spanish police did not properly investigate her death.

Thomas Mulligan told the Sunday Tribune last week that his sister was beaten up on the night before her body was found and that her boyfriend was seen arguing with her and asking her to have an abortion. "When a friend and I went over to take AnneMarie's body home for her funeral, I met a number of her friends, " he explained. "One of them said she saw AnneMarie getting beaten up by her boyfriend up Fish Alley Street on the night of her death. She sat down and told us this for half an hour and even said that she had told the police about it. When I approached the same girl later that night about this story she denied that she had told me about it."

Mulligan also explained that Anne-Marie's boss told him that she had a drink with her boyfriend on the night before she was found dead. "Her boss said she was fine when she left the bar. She only lived five minutes from the bar yet it took her between half an hour and 40 minutes to arrive back at her apartment where one of the other girls told me she arrived beaten up.

"She had got a beating from somebody and we are assuming, from what her friend told us, that it was her boyfriend who beat her up. I just can't understand why that girl retracted her story. Her boyfriend wanted her to have an abortion but she would not have it. That's what they were supposed to be arguing over that night."

Mulligan was told that the five people who lived with Anne-Marie in her apartment were all asleep when she was discovered and were awakened by the police beating at the door. "Some of the people living in the apartment were taken in by police for questioning on the day she was found until 10.30pm that night, " he said. "One of them was not taken in and flew back to her home in Wales that day."

Amidst the Mulligan family's claims that vital witnesses were never interviewed about her death, one police officer in Fuengirola failed to turn up for appointments with Thomas while he was in Spain.

"He made several appointments to meet me but he failed to turn up on each occasion, " said Thomas. "We got a solicitor over in Spain, got power of attorney and then we went to court for three days over there.

They eventually released the body and we still don't know what happened to her."

It was 19 days after AnneMarie's death before she was finally laid to rest at home in Clones. The family is angry that the Department of Foreign Affairs did not pay for the repatriation of her remains. The people of her native Clones raised over 5,000 for the cost of flying her home to be buried in her home town.

"We do not comment on individual cases, " said a spokeswoman for the Department of Foreign Affairs. "Our consular assistance involves help with the repatriation of remains but we are not in a position to financially assist with this."

As all the documents received by her family in relation to Anne-Marie's death were written in Spanish, they have run into further difficulties. "We couldn't even read the autopsy report, " said Thomas. "We got a Spanish teacher to try and translate the documents for us but she was not able to work out what they were saying. Now [TD and MEP] Marian Harkin is getting someone to translate them for us, so hopefully we will know more after that."

Resources to translate documents are not available to the Department of Foreign Affairs, the spokeswoman said.

Anne-Marie had been working in Fuengirola for three years. She originally took a year out of her job as a manager of a Spar shop in Dublin to go to Spain but liked it so much that she prolonged her stay. It is understood that she had been going out with her English boyfriend, who had Spanish parents, for seven months before her death.

"I had been over to see her about seven months before that and she was having a great time and loved life over there, " said Thomas.

Her sister, Sheila Curran, added: "She loved travelling and seeing other parts of the world. That is why she moved over to Spain to work. I couldn't believe it when a garda came knocking at the door to tell me that Anne-Marie was dead. It came as such a shock."

Connacht-Ulster MEP Marian Harkin confirmed that she was helping the Mulligans in their fight for justice. "AnneMarie's family have had no closure on this and the loss is made even worse as it happened so far away.

"I am getting all the documents translated for the family and after that I am going to contact some of my Spanish colleagues in the European Parliament to see if they can help bring closure."

Anne-Marie's father had previously passed away and her death came as a major blow to her 66-year-old mother.

Sheila Curran said: "She had been ill and she really went downhill after Anne-Marie's death. She is in hospital at the minute and she has just been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. We need to find answers and we are not going to give up."