When beloved dad Nathan Osman was found dead in Spain his devoted family refused to believe it was an accident and have now been rewarded for their efforts.
The family of a British dad-of-four who died falling from a cliff in Benidorm have told how they turned detective to prove he was murdered. Devoted father Nathan Osman, 30, was away with friends on his first ever lads holiday when he was found dead at the bottom of a 500ft cliff.
Spanish authorities ruled Nathan’s death was an accident or that he had possibly taken his own life – but his family immediately believed there was foul play. Now they have finally won their battle to have an investigation into his death reopened – after being convinced it was foul play.
Nathan’s devoted brother and sister turned detective to trawl through CCTV evidence, gather witness statements and access phone and bank records in a bid to force police to reopen the probe. The haunting CCTV can be seen here and shows Nathan walking along Benidorm’s beachfront alone at night, he was not pictured again.
READ MORE: Brit dad’s death in Benidorm after 600ft fall ‘was likely MURDER’, cops say
And after pleading their case to Spanish police and prosecutors in March, a judge ruled a homicide investigation should now begin.
Nathan’s brother Lee Evans, 39, told The Mirror: “We met the Spanish authorities to discuss the case because we were not happy with the police report and believed there were discrepancies and a lack of investigation.”
Lee and sister Alannah Hughes played police a timeline they had established using CCTV from local businesses and records from Nathan’s phone including a FaceTime call to his friends where he suggested to them he was lost.
Lee said the last sighting of Nathan, of Pontypridd, South Wales, was at 4.08am at the bottom of the promenade and it would have been impossible for him get to the cliff from where he fell by foot.
He told The Mirror: “There is one road up so we believe he must have been taken. It is inaccessible by foot.
“To walk up that hill would be at least 90 minutes and it is a rural area.” Lee said what aroused the family’s suspicions further was that they later learned two attempted purchases had been made on Nathan’s bank card, the morning after he had died.
Lee said: “That was at a place nine minutes drive away from the place he was found at the bottom of a 500ft cliff. “We believe someone has disposed of his body there.
“There’s a person or persons who are out there who are responsible for taking him up there and for his death.”
Lee, who runs his own dog walking business in Cardiff, said they had to show Spanish police that Nathan was “not just a number.”
“He wasn’t your typical Brit abroad,” he said. “He didn’t get rowdy. He was wise, he was 30-years-old with four kids and very respectable. That’s why this was completely out of the blue.”
With the help of an interpreter Lee and Alannah presented their dossier of evidence to police, prosecutors and a judge and they hope to hear progress in the coming weeks.
Amongst their evidence was their suspicion that Nathan’s injuries pointed to an attack before his fall and that his phone had been smashed and wallet was missing.
He said they believed injuries had been caused “by an altercation at some point” and not just by the fall. They also played the judge a compilation video of Nathan playing with his four children to show he was a loving and caring father.
Lee added: “My way of grieving is to keep pursuing what has really happened because I know my brother would do the same for me and I’m doing it for every other family out there.
“We want to say to his kids that we have tried everything out there to get answers.” The family have been supported by Labour MP for Pontypridd Alex Davies-Jones who this week raised their case in the House of Commons as well as a private investigator.
But he said the family have had to “do this blind” as there was no blueprint for carrying out their own investigation involving a death abroad.
“We want to be able to help other families,” he said.