The family of a woman who was allegedly raped and beaten to death in Israel are to travel to the country in a bid to find out how she died.

Julie Pearson, 38, originally from Kinross-shire, died on November 28 in the holiday resort of Eilat.

During her 14 months in Israel she had been beaten up by a boyfriend and friends have claimed there is evidence to suggest she was raped and beaten the night before her death. She was found dying in a guest house and later pronounced dead in hospital.

The Pearson family were not notified of her death until three days later, via a friend, and have struggled to get answers from the police involved in the case since.

When Ms Pearson's body was returned to Scotland her face was covered in bruises and there were fingerprint bruises around her wrists.

The Israeli authorities say a post-mortem was carried out in Israel before her body was released but the findings have never shared with her family or made public.

Her aunt Deborah Pearson, who is acting on behalf of the family, said police in Eilat failed to question key witnesses who were staying at the same guest house as Ms Pearson and were not taking the case seriously.

She will travel to Eilat on February 27 with two of her children, Ms Pearson's cousins, in a bid to move the investigation forward.

She said: "I want to sit down with the police face-to-face and ask them exactly what happened to Julie.

"Julie was a healthy lassie, she walked everywhere. She was full of life and we have no answers as to why suddenly we got this devastating phone call saying she was dead. The police didn't even tell us she was dead. One of her friends phoned us three days later.

"We're going over to try and get some answers. I'm hoping that the post-mortem will be ready and maybe that will have some answers. I will be speaking to the police, a lawyer, Israeli journalists, her friends, everyone I can."

Last month, the family turned to their MP, Hannah Bardell, who raised the issue at Prime Minister's Questions.

Ms Bardell wrote to David Cameron and Tobias Elwood, a minister from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, over the matter, with both men pledging to press the Israeli authorities for answers.

Ms Pearson said the police investigation had not yielded any answers and she believed they were not taking her niece's death seriously.

One of the only sources of information the Pearson family have is a journalist who works at the local Eilat newspaper Erev Erev.

Ms Pearson, who spent a week with her niece in Eilat last September, shortly before she died, said: "I hired a private detective for one week and he found a key witness who has information that Julie was beaten the night before she died. We had to stop after that because we couldn't afford to keep paying him.

"I hired a lawyer over there too and he actually wrote to the police asking to see all the files but they ignored him. He went to station as well but was told he couldn't speak to the chief of police.

"The next step would be to take it to court to see the police files, but that’s going to cost money, which we can’t afford."

As well as searching for answers, Ms Pearson has one other task to carry out on behalf of the family.

"I'm going to place some flowers at the Dolphin Guesthouse where Julie died," she added.

"I'm sure it's going to be horrific, but we have to do this."

The family has set up a crowdfunding page to help finance the trip to Israel, which has already reached more than half of its target.

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