British woman dies in Israel and there are no answers to questions of murder

Julie Pearson’s body was flown home from Israel covered in bruises and shrouded by questions.

How did a bright and lively woman from Scotland end up trapped in a cycle of poverty and abuse in the Israeli beach town of Eilat?

How could a British citizen die in unexplained circumstances in Israel without police informing her family or the UK embassy?

Why, more than two months after her death, have authorities still not completed an autopsy or announced how she died?

And for those that loved her, the most urgent question of all: was Julie murdered?

“I truly believe that she was beaten to death," said Deborah Pearson, her aunt and the driving force behind a family campaign to wring answers out of the Israeli government. "We will keep going until the truth comes out.”

The last stage of Julie Pearson's life began in the autumn of 2014. The 38-year-old arrived in Israel hoping to make a new start in the sunshine of the Red Sea coast. She applied for Israeli citizenship on the basis that her grandmother was a Jewish woman from Jerusalem who married a Scottish soldier in 1945 as British rule in Palestine was drawing to a close.

Her plans, however, soon went off course. Her citizenship application faltered in front of bureaucratic hurdles and she was arrested for overstaying her visa. She fell into a circle where drugs and alcohol abuse were common and moved into a ramshackle house with a rotating cast of Jews, Arabs and foreigners who spent restless nights on bare mattresses, tired sofas or the floor.

Most of the residents of the house on Hahorev Street were harmless lost souls dealing with their own problems. But Julie began a relationship with Amjad Khatib, a Palestinian man who was in and out of prison and who beat her brutally, according to several witnesses.

“I saw that little girl being beaten night after day. Every night she was beaten up,” said Shelly, a British woman who lived in the house and declined to give her surname. Amjad once held Julie in the doorway and slammed the door on her head again and again, Shelly said.

Israeli police arrested Amjad once after Julie called them but he was released a few days later. The relationship ended but Julie appears to have never fully broken off contact with him.

On the morning of November 27, 2015 Julie made her usual start to the day with a glass of milk and a can of beer, according to people in the house. She watched the Weakest Link and Eastenders on a laptop with a friend and then showered and put on clean clothes.“She looked fresh, she looked strong,” said Shelly.

Then she headed to the Dolphin guesthouse, a rundown hostel where rooms are rented for 100 shekels (£18).

What happened in the small room off the dark corridor is unclear.

A male acquaintance of Julie's was in the room and called the ambulance. In his version of events Julie walked in and had a drink before suddenly collapsing.

Another man who was in the hostel at the time told a different story, saying to Julie’s friends that he heard screaming from the room and thought the woman inside was being beaten and potentially raped.

Paramedics were called at 4.37pm and found Julie slumped on the floor unconscious and not breathing. They attempted CPR but were unable to restore her pulse and she was declared dead at the hospital soon after.

Medical records from the ambulance do not note any signs of violence but photographs of the body seen by The Telegraph show marks and bruises on Julie's left cheek and right eyelid. Undertakers in Scotland found additional injuries on her wrist and arm. It is not clear how or when she suffered the wounds.

The Israeli police’s handling of the case been chaotic and distressing, Julie’s family said. Authorities did not contact them and it fell to one of Julie’s friends in Eilat to call and tell the family of the death. Nor did the police inform the British embassy in Israel. UK diplomats first learned about it when the family called the Foreign Office.

“Our embassy was not immediately notified following the death as the local authorities needed to establish identity and nationality," the Foreign Office said.

The investigation was complicated because Julie had a fake Israeli ID and police initially thought she was a local. But it should not have been difficult to figure out she was British - her friends knew she was foreign and they had access to her UK passport.

Worst of all is the agonising delay in getting answers. More than two months after Julie died, Israeli authorities have still not completed an autopsy or released a cause of death. The body has been cremated, meaning the family cannot commission their own examination.

Amjad, the alleged abusive boyfriend, was questioned after Julie’s death but released pending the official autopsy’s findings.

“It is shocking that it can take this long,” said Tamara Shihada, Julie's cousin, who lived in Eilat and saw her a few days before her death. "Why didn't the authorities didn't get in touch with us. Why did my mum, in her grief, have to beg for answers?

Micky Rosenfeld, a spokesman for Israeli police, insisted there was nothing unusual about the way the case was being handled. “We can only make a decision about the investigation once we get the results of the autopsy. We have to be patient until we know where we stand,” he said.

Israel's ministry of health did not respond to questions about when the autopsy would be completed or why it was taking so long.

A brief letter to the family written by the superintendent of Eilat police said an initial investigation concluded that Julie had been beaten by Amjad and another man in the days before she died but her “death cannot be linked to the above violent incidents”.

Story continues below the document

Police have hinted they believe she died of a drug overdose but have yet to provide any evidence. Friends in Eilat offered different answers on the question of whether Julie took drugs. Some said she stayed clear, while others said she took pills or was even forced to take drugs by the men around her.

The family feel the case is not being taken seriously by the police and dozens of their phone calls and emails have been brushed away by authorities in Eilat. In their desperation they turned elsewhere for help and found an unexpected ally in Omer Carmon, the editor of the local Erev Erev newspaper in Eilat, who has tried to answer questions for a heartbroken family he has never met.

“Without him we would have no answers at all,” said Deborah Pearson, Julie's aunt. "He's Scotland's star." Mr Carmon, a heavyset but gentle man, waves away any praise. “I’m only doing my job,” he said.

Julie’s family has also turned to Hannah Bardell, their local MP, who raised the case with David Cameron at prime minister’s question time asking him for help “putting pressure on the Israeli government and authorities to look into Julie’s death”.

She has also written to the Israeli embassy in London and British embassy in Tel Aviv as well as the Israeli police in a bid to move the case forward. “Why is there no urgency about this?” asked Ms Bardell. “We’re in a position where we have a British citizen who has died abroad and we have no answers about how she died.”

The Foreign Office said it was in contact with Israeli authorities over the case and had "made clear the family’s concerns over the speed of the investigation". Tobias Ellwood, the Foreign Office minister for the Middle East, is expected to raise the issue with the Israeli government during a visit this week.

Several members of the family will fly to Eilat to pay their respects and lay flowers. But they will also bring the questions they have been unable to lay to rest, said Deborah Pearson, the aunt. “I want to look the police in the face and ask them what happened to Julie.”