Family met by a wall of silence one year after mum died

'WHAT if I had gone with her?" That's the question that keeps nagging at Julia Brock.

"My brother said it might have been two coffins that were brought home instead of one, but I'm still thinking 'what if I had just gone?'."

Julia's anxiety is a natural reaction to her decision not to accompany her 77-year-old mother on a short walk to her hotel room in Cancun, Mexico, almost a year ago today.

Julia Howard never returned that day, after going to fetch her sun hat at the luxurious Moon Palace Golf & Spa Resort. She was later found dead in unexplained circumstances.

There is no reason for her daughter to reproach herself. No reason why she should have left the poolside that June day to escort Mrs Howard.

Despite her advanced years, the great-grandmother from Roseburn was fit, both physically and mentally.

Why she didn't make the 35 yards to her hotel room remains a mystery.

Twelve months on, her family are still no nearer to knowing the truth, after encountering what is effectively a wall of silence from the Mexican authorities.

Mrs Howard was missing for more than five weeks before her remains were found in a swamp around three miles from the secure resort.

A private post-mortem paid for by Julia's family failed to establish a cause of death, although it is officially being treated as possible murder by Mexican police.

But the family have heard nothing from Mexican police for six months.

They now fear that the investigation has come to a complete standstill, and despite enlisting Home Office help, have struggled to get even their most basic questions answered.

"To me the folder is away in a cupboard somewhere and they are not interested," says Julia's eldest son Henry Harvey. "As far as the Mexican authorities are concerned, it's finished.

"The last thing we got was a report six months ago which was that they were treating it as a possible homicide – since then we've had nothing at all. I contacted the Home Office a couple of months ago and the consulate put in a call to the Mexican police for an update and they said 'put it in writing', which they have since done, and we've still heard nothing.

"The Mexican police don't care at all, they're not interested. It's just one of many deaths down there.

"The police that we spoke to were ignorant and dismissive."

Henry, who was on holiday with his mum last June along with his wife Glynnis and sister Julia, adds: "The last year has been absolutely terrible. There's never a day goes by that I don't wake up thinking about my mum and there's never a day that I don't go to bed thinking about her. It never goes away."

The mother-of-three's death has had a profound impact on the entire family.

Julia, who lives in Firrhill, struggles to sleep at night and attended counselling last year, while Henry still suffers regular nightmares.

"I dream at night about the skeletal remains that were found," he explains. "She must have been lying in the swamp and the animals would have been at her, it's just horrible."

The slightest reminder of their mum can trigger terrible memories for the siblings.

For Henry, it can be hearing one of his mum's favourite songs on the radio, while for Julia it can be spotting clothes in a shop that her mum would've liked.

Henry, adds: "I know everybody says time is a great healer but we're finding it very hard to move on. If we could just find out what happened, we could all move on."

Julia describes the last year as "a nightmare". She says: "You just have to try and keep yourself busy but the minute you stop for whatever reason, it's like a brick wall. It hasn't got any easier and I still feel like it's just happened. I'm not sure if that is going to change unless we get told what actually happened."

Henry and Julia both believe their mother was murdered after "seeing something she shouldn't have" in the hotel, possibly a drug deal, and her body dumped in the swamp.

The family is convinced that there is no way Julia, who previously had two hip replacements, could have reached the boggy terrain alone.

The area of jungle where the pensioner's body was found was so unforgiving that a member of the search party reportedly collapsed with heat exhaustion.

Over the last year Henry has discovered reports of another two suspicious deaths and an attempted rape at the resort in the past three years.

"Is it not a bit suspicious that there have been three deaths in the one hotel in the last three years?" he asks.

He has called on his local MP Alistair Darling, who has raised the issue with the Foreign Office, in an attempt to get answers.

Julia says the family does not know what to do next. "There has to be somebody in that hotel who knows what happened. Nobody seems to want to help and that's the hard thing.

"We need to go down a route and say if we do this and in six months' time nothing has come of it, then I think we are going to have to come to terms with the fact that we are never going to find out what happened."

On Wednesday, the family will mark the anniversary of Julia going missing – which they also believe was the day she was murdered – by visiting her grave at Mortonhall Cemetery.

They had initially planned to return to the Moon Palace to continue their search for answers but decided to cancel the booking due to safety fears following the death of another tourist there in April. Monica Beresford-Redman's body was discovered in a sewer at the resort, where she had been staying with her TV producer husband, Bruce Beresford-Redman, and their two children.

It was reported that Mr Beresford-Redman, 38, was initially detained as a suspect but then released.

Her death follows that of Alberta tourist Jeff Toews, 33, who was found dead at the Moon Palace in May 2007.

According to newspaper reports in Canada, Mexican police and authorities claimed Mr Toews had a drunken fall from his balcony. However, his family are said to believe he was beaten and left for dead.

Henry, whose family had visited the resort several times before the tragedy, adds: "What happened to my mum has changed my life totally and the way I think about everything. You never know what's round the corner. One minute you're looking forward to a great two weeks in a place my mum called "heaven on earth", and the next minute she's gone."

A spokeswoman for the Foreign Office said: "We continue to raise the case with the Mexican authorities.

"We understand the police investigation is ongoing and no conclusions on the circumstances of Mrs Howard's death have been reached."