THE 2008 death of her daughter in Goa is a blur for Fiona MacKeown, but the recent rape and murder of Irish woman Danielle McLaughlin has brought the horror back into sharp focus.
Scarlett Keeling was 15 years old when she was found dead in the tourist hotspot of Anjuna, Goa, on February 18, 2008.
Her mother Fiona MacKeown had to fight authorities for them to admit that her daughter, a strong swimmer from Cornwall, did not die in a drowning accident, but was raped - with her body left in the shallows of the water on the beach.
Two weeks after her death nine years ago, she again fought to gain access to the morgue where Scarlett's remains were held, to photograph the injuries her daughter had sustained to prove that she had been attacked.
Scarlett Keeling was 15 when she died in Goa. (Picture: Sky News/YouTube)Six weeks after her death, Scarlett's body was returned to England only for her family to discover the teenager's organs had not been sent.
Four years after her death, Scarlett was finally laid to rest in England after British authorities finally released the teen's body.
Her mother still doesn't know why it took so long.
Eight years after her death, two men Samson d’Souza and Placido Carvalho were brought to trial and subsequently acquitted of rape and culpable homicide last year.
Nine years after Scarlett's death, Irish woman Danielle McLaughlin suffered a similar death in the tourist hotspot.
Now, Fiona MacKeown speaks to The Irish Post about her fight for justice for Scarlett, losing hope, and the shock of Danielle's death.
Scarlett, her mother says, was just a normal girl.
She liked dancing and music, playing her saxophone and riding ponies, she wanted to travel, and be in a band.
"She was a very happy girl," Ms MacKeown says. "Her death is a blur, it's such a long time ago and I was just in so much shock, but it just didn't seem real.
"I'd imagine that's what Danielle's mother is going through.
"It just got worse and worse for us," she recalls. "It's bad enough losing a child, it's all the other rubbish that goes with it.
"The Goan authorities denied Scarlett's murder for a start, and then the Government shut the door on us, saying that 'Scarlett shouldn't have been wearing that clothing' and that 'she'd had four partners.'"
"That's why Scarlett had died, apparently.
Danielle McLaughlin met a similar fate to Scarlett Keeling in Goa. (Picture: Caters)"There's been a total lack of support, and contact from Goa. I'd read in newspapers that the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) had summoned me for a certain day in a few days time, but no one had ever contacted me to appear."
Following Danielle's death, however, more people have come forward about the loved ones they've lost in Goa, according to Ms MacKeown.
"It was a horrible shock to hear about Danielle, and it brought it all back," she says. "But a lot more people have come forward to say they've lost people in Goa and it shows us just how big this group is.
"These people have had loved ones killed in Goa, in the same circumstances and have had the same treatment from the police," she adds.
"Denyse Sweeney, Felix Dahl, Stephen Bennett, Michael Harvey, and Scarlett all died in Goa and it's always been denied that they were murdered and none of us have ever been satisfied by the way we've been treated by the Goan authorities."
Ms MacKeown says that in order for Danielle's family and friends to get justice, they must keep the pressure on the authorities.
"Since Danielle's murder, Goan media and ministers have been saying they're going to 'make the area safer for tourists'. They did the exact same thing when Scarlett was murdered and nothing's changed.
"They're terrified of losing tourists and obviously, the more publicity there is the more pressure is on them," she says.
However, nine years on from her daughter's death, and time has taken its toll.
"I lose hope sometimes, and think is it all worth it? I get on with life and my other children for a little bit then I feel like fighting them again.
"I just want justice for Scarlett, I want justice for all of us."
