Samantha Mythen
WHEN Pontypridd father-of-four Nathan Osman died in Benidorm, Spanish authorities ruled his death ‘accidental’ or even possibly suicide just days after his body was found.
But this didn’t make sense to his family.
“We know Nathan and recognised from the start that something was wrong. Nathan was extremely streetwise and intelligent,” his sister Alannah Hughes told The Olive Press.
They set out to get justice for their brother. From their own efforts, the case was reopened last month as potential ‘foul play.’
READ MORE: Family gets investigation reopened into Benidorm death of father-of-four who plunged off cliff
After receiving the police report on his death late last year, Nathan’s family noticed glaring discrepancies. They had to fight to receive the report in the first place.
“It wasn’t investigated thoroughly, not even a basic investigation was carried out,” Nathan’s brother, Lee Evans, said.
The report itself said police could not officially determine the cause of Nathan’s fall. It is ‘practically blank,’ Hughes added.
Evans and his sister, Hughes, took it upon themselves to investigate what really happened to their brother that night in September 2024.
This included compiling a comprehensive timeline of their brother’s movements from the minute he left the UK until the last moment Evans could find him on the CCTV cameras of local Benidorm businesses.
“He was walking very calm and collected, no sign of stress, or anxiety or paranoia. He was on his phone, with it out in front of him looking for directions,” Evans said. It was the last sighting of Nathan that night.
In March this year, they travelled to Spain and presented their timeline, in both English and translated Spanish, to the authorities.
Meeting with the Policía Nacional, and the head prosecutor and judge on Nathan’s case, Evans and Hughes shared that their brother was not a “typical Brit going abroad on a lads’ holiday.”
“Nathan liked to go and experience different places, and he’d even decided to book on his friends’ holiday and join them last minute,” Evans said.
“He drank quite rarely and has never used recreational drugs. His autopsy revealed that there were no drugs in his system,” Hughes said. “Nathan had four beautiful children and enjoyed life to the fullest. He never imagined that a break in the sun would lead to his death.”
But less than 24 hours after he arrived on holiday with his friends in September last year, Nathan’s body was found at the bottom of a remote 600-foot cliff in Benidorm.
“We knew that his death was untoward. From the moment we found out about Nathan and the severity of his injuries, we knew there was foul play involved,” Evans said. “There was no reason for Nathan to be in such a remote area.”
The family have travelled to Benidorm and retraced Nathan’s footsteps to the exact spot where his body was airlifted. There’s only one route up the cliff, and it’s difficult to walk up there on a good day, let alone in pitch-black darkness, Evans explained. “If he had gotten lost as the authorities told us he had, Nathan would have asked for directions to guarantee he arrived safely back at his hotel,” Hughes said.
It would have been a 50-minute walk from where Nathan was last seen. The family believes there was no explanation for Nathan to be up there other than if he had been taken there.
Evans had spoken with his brother the night before he left for Spain. “He was just really excited and really looking forward to seeing his friends and having a relaxing holiday.”
The family also presented the police with evidence that someone had tried to use Nathan’s bank card the morning after his death. At a shop just a nine-minute drive away from the cliff area where his body was found. Yet there was no previous police inquiry into this. “All of Nathan’s valuables were gone from him. There was only his smashed-up phone.”
Within hours of Nathan’s parents arriving in Spain, tasked with identifying his body, the police handed them back the phone. “With a normal investigation, they should have kept the phone and looked into it,” Evans said. Instead, his family got the phone working again and has since handed it back to the police to assist their investigation.
When they shared their story with the Spanish authorities, Evans said the head prosecutor showed compassion and vulnerability.
“She said to us, ‘How did we do all this investigation ourselves, and to come over here and go through everything in detail when we are also grieving?’” Evans said.
“She was blown away and said how incredibly detailed our timeline was. In tears, she said she was incredibly proud of us for following the leads and conducting the investigation ourselves. She couldn’t believe why the case had just been passed over.”
“I’ve been trying to keep it together for the family, and my way of grieving has been pursuing this case, to get justice for our baby brother”, Evans said. Just three weeks before Nathan died, his nephew was born as Evans became a father.
The judge and prosecutor agreed to reopen the case and to investigate Nathan’s death as a potential homicide, with foul play being determined due to the factors raised. Hughes said the prosecutor told them Nathan’s case would be handled seriously.
“We’ve felt abandoned, but we left Benidorm that day knowing that the investigation is wide open and is ongoing,” Evans said.
“We want to be able to tell Nathan’s children when they’re older that we tried everything in our power to get justice for their dad.”
The Benidorm police have been contacted for comment.
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