The family of a Louth woman who drowned in Majorca, Spain, has hired a private investigator in a final attempt to uncover the circumstances of her mysterious death.

Jean Reilly (33), from Drogheda, was living in Majorca with her English boyfriend Kevin Martin when she drowned in the sea on 29 August 2006. Soon afterwards, an inquest in Spain returned a verdict of death by suicide.

However, at a second inquest held in Dublin in 2007, state pathologist Marie Cassidy said Reilly sustained bruising along her jawline and scalp, as well as deep bruising to her arms which could not be explained by drowning. The pathologist could not rule out third-party involvement. The jury at Dublin County Coroner's Court returned an open verdict.

George Reilly told the Sunday Tribune that his daughter's boyfriend was violent and they had on-going concerns about their daughter living with him.

"Jean couldn't swim and was scared stiff of the water, there's no way she would have gone into the sea voluntarily," he said.

Jean's family has tried, through their solicitor, to get the police investigation into her death re-opened in Spain in light of Cassidy's findings but, to date, has not succeeded.

The family has raised stg£4,000 to pay private investigator and former Scotland Yard detective David Jennings to probe the case.

"We have hired a private investigator; he's based over in Spain. He will begin his investigation in the next few weeks, it should take him two weeks altogether. This will be the last dice for us," Reilly said. "If we don't get satisfaction from this, I don't know what else we can do. Hopefully the truth about what happened will come out. We have to keep on praying.

"We know in our minds that Jean did not commit suicide. Our solicitor is still trying to get the Spanish police to re-open the case but that's been very difficult."

Reilly had been in a relationship with Martin for two and a half years. Days before her death, she rang her sister Shirley in a panicked state and told her, "they're after me. They're following me", the court was told at the inquest into her death in Dublin. She did not explain who she was referring to but her sister said she sounded extremely agitated.

Following her death, Martin told the Sunday Tribune he believed his girlfriend committed suicide as she was upset by the death of her mother six months previously.