Met urged to investigate death of British woman in Spain

The family and friends of a British IT executive who fell to her death from an apartment block in Spain on the evening of her 50th birthday have called on the Metropolitan police to intervene in a Spanish police investigation into the fatality.

- Daniel Boffey

Piia Hokkanen, who at the time of her death had borrowed her sister's holiday home for a three-day break in Torrevieja, near Alicante, was found lifeless after falling from a communal window on to a neighbour's patio shortly after midnight on 4 September.

Her body showed no signs of a struggle and a report from the Guardia Civil shared with relatives indicated that Spanish detectives believed the likely cause of death was suicide.

Friends said they were concerned that the Spanish police had rushed to a conclusion without interviewing all of the residents in the apartment block or securing and analysing evidence such as Hokkanen's two mobile phones and CCTV footage from nearby buildings.

Hokkanen, who was a product manager at Visa Europe, was on holiday with her boyfriend, Eugene Doris, 42. After an argument, he had left the apartment four hours before her fall to stay in a hostel.

Speaking to the Guardian, Doris said he had only learned of his girlfriend's death when he was formally informed by the police nearly 24 hours after their argument.