By TOM RAWSTORNE

Last updated at 10:21 07 March 2008

It was meant to be great family adventure - then 15-year-old Scarlett MacKeown was left alone by her mother in Goa. Days later she was dead. Murder... or a drunken accident? Here, her mother insists SHE wasn't at fault.

As she tearfully retraced her teenage daughter's last steps, Fiona MacKeown's eye was caught by an object lying on the edge of the dusty track.

It was a leather sandal — nothing special — but its discovery started a chain of events that has sent shockwaves through a part of the world still regarded by some as a corner of paradise.

Fiona knew at once that the shoe belonged to her daughter, 15-year-old Scarlett Keeling, whose body had been found on a nearby beach three days earlier.

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The time of her life: Scarlett Keeling was enjoying her first trip outside Britain when tragedy struck

"I was so shocked to see the shoe just sitting there that I did a sort of double-take," Fiona explained.

"It was just a Greek-type sandal, and I picked it up and I held it and looked at it, and there on the sole was the imprint of my daughter's foot.

"I knew it was hers immediately. She was my child. I recognised not just the shoe but the mark of her foot."

The discovery forced Fiona to accept that there was more to Scarlett's death than she had been led to believe by police.

Following the discovery of her daughter's body in Goa on the west coast of India, officers insisted that the girl had drowned after spending the night drinking herself insensible.

Although Fiona had struggled to accept that explanation, it was the discarded sandal that told her that something far more sinister was to blame for her daughter's death.

A quick look around and there was the other shoe, its laces broken. Nearby were Scarlett's shorts and underwear.

Fiona contacted the British Embassy, went back to the police and has spent the past three weeks demanding that her daughter's death be properly investigated.

Put bluntly, this mother-of-nine from Devon is convinced that Scarlett was first drugged, then raped, then murdered.

Then, either because police were involved in the attack or in an attempt to protect Goa's tourist industry, the crime was deliberately covered up.

So far, 43-year-old Fiona's efforts have not been without success. The case has hit the headlines both here and in India, shaming the authorities into belated action.

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Unrepentant: Fiona MacKeown insists she did nothing wrong in leaving Scarlett behind while travelling elsewhere in India

Yesterday, a new autopsy was ordered — its findings almost certain to kick-start a criminal investigation.

But at the same time — inevitably, perhaps — Fiona and her family have found themselves exposed to the harsh spotlight of public scrutiny.

Internet forums discussing the case are awash with accusations that Scarlett's mother bears some blame for her daughter's fate.

"Yet another case of parents reneging on the responsibility of raising children," is a typical comment.

"She left her 15-year-old daughter alone while she was elsewhere. How utterly irresponsible!" reads another.

It is hard not to feel some sympathy with the comments being made, since on the day Scarlett died, her mother and the rest of her family were more than a hundred miles away.

They had headed off several weeks earlier to further explore this part of India, but Scarlett hadn't wanted to leave the beach resort of Anjuna.

She had thrown a strop and (incredibly irresponsibly, some would say) her mum had given in.

And so it was that this young girl, raised in Devon and never before having travelled beyond outside of Britain, was left in the care of a 25-year-old Goan tour-guide by the name of Julio.

"He was a hard-working young man who used to get up early and go to bed early," says Fiona, by way of explanation.

"He was quite responsible and was caring for her."

What Fiona didn't know, however, was that the guide and Scarlett were sleeping together. And that when she needed him most, he would be nowhere to be seen.

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Idyllic: But Anjuna beach is known to have a seedy underside

The laid-back beach bars and £5-a-night hostels that provided a backdrop for the last days of Scarlett's life must, on the surface, have seemed like a home from home for the teenager in terms of attitude and of philosophy.

For like the resort of Anjuna, birthplace of the hippy movement, Scarlett's upbringing in the countryside close to Bideford in Devon had been anything but conventional.

"Back home, we live on our own land, we grow our own organic vegetables and fruit, we have chickens and we don't eat very much meat because the children see the animals and don't like to eat them," said Fiona.

"We have water from a borehole in the ground and electricity from a generator to bring the water up. That is it."

All very New Age. And it doesn't stop there.

The MacKeown smallholding was home to ten people — mother and offspring ranging in age from five to 20, of whom Scarlett was the third-oldest.

Although Fiona declines to go into details, the children were born to more than one father — none of whom currently appears to be involved in their day-to-day upbringing.

Until recently, all the children were home-educated. Last year, however, Scarlett began attending the aptly-named Small School in nearby Hartland.

It has just 22 pupils and is a registered charity that seeks to achieve "a balance between the academic, the practical, the artistic and the spiritual".

Given that mission statement, there was never going to be any problem taking Scarlett out of school for an extended holiday.

Despite her age, she had no immediate plans to sit her GCSEs and, anyway, says Fiona, "we had a computer that we borrowed and some school work to bring with us".

The family chose Goa as their destination because Fiona's current boyfriend, a man called Rob who lives in Cornwall, had been there previously.

"The trip was our Christmas present to ourselves," explains Fiona, whose only income is the unspecified State benefits that she receives.

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Family in grief: Fiona, Rob and their children in Goa trying to come to terms with Scarlett's murder

"We decided to have an adventure instead of having a normal Christmas.

"The children had never travelled abroad before, and what with presents and everything, it wasn't a lot more expensive than Christmas would have been anyway."

Funded in part by the sale of one of the children's ponies, the trip was initially planned to last six weeks.

The family left for India in November and, like the 200,000 Brits who go there every year, quickly fell in love with Goa's hippy lifestyle.

"We'd sleep in hammocks between palm trees and watch the dolphins when we woke up in the mornings," says Fiona. "It's an amazing place."

But for all its physical beauty and its peace-and-love past as a haven for hippies, Goa's reputation today is more linked to the rave culture — to all-night parties and, most menacingly, to drugs.

Nowhere more so than in Anjuna, where the battle to control the lucrative narcotics trade is fought over by mafia factions from as far afield as Russia and Israel.

Hand-in-hand with organised crime goes corruption, with the local police force accused of taking back-handers and failing to investigate offences.

At the same time, the head-on clash between two very different cultures — the no-holds-barred consumerism of Western tourists and the poverty of the locals — has led to other tensions.

There has been a rash of attacks and sexual assaults perpetrated against visitors, few of which ever result in the perpetrator being brought to justice.

Of course, much of this unpleasantness goes on beneath the surface. Fiona and her family certainly weren't put off by it, and as their tickets were valid for six months, they decided to extend their stay through January and beyond.

The trouble was that while Fiona wanted to travel and see more of the region, her daughter did not.

While in Anjuna, Scarlett had befriended the 25-year-old local tour-guide, Julio.

She helped hand out tour flyers for him and, in return, got to accompany him on dolphin-watching trips and visits to waterfalls and the like.

Initially, Fiona insisted Scarlett come with her and her brothers and sisters as they set off to further explore the region, but after a week of teenage moods and misery, she relented and agreed that her daughter could go back to Anjuna.

Was it really wise to leave her there on her own?

"She was not on her own," insists Fiona. "She was with Julio.

"He was like part of our family. I had been to see where he lived and to meet his aunts. They were lovely Catholic women who lived a very similar lifestyle to us.

"With their chickens and garden full of spices and vegetables, it was a really lovely atmosphere.'

But Scarlett was only 15 years old, and it was a foreign country.

"She was three months away from 16, and in England that's considered quite mature and you are allowed to have sex. And she was a young lady growing up and she really wanted to do this work with him."

But it wasn't just work that Scarlett was interested in.

Although Julio had a girlfriend, and Scarlett a boyfriend back in Devon, it appears they became close.

An entry in Scarlett's diary that her mother read after her death refers to an argument they had after Julio accused her of using him "for money and sex".

While she clearly hadn't seen that coming, the fact that Scarlett was sexually active was itself no surprise. Back in Britain, Scarlett had gone on her own to a family planning clinic to get contraceptives.

Fiona says she was "OK about that". She was also aware that Scarlett had smoked cannabis in Devon — although she insists that she herself does not touch drugs and that it only happened once or twice as "Scarlett never really had the money to buy it or take it on a regular basis".

In Goa, she admits, it was impossible to know exactly what Scarlett was getting up to. But she does not think that her daughter was taking hard drugs or drinking, believing that she would have confided in her had that been the case.

Separated, Fiona relied on occasional phone calls to keep in touch.

Mother and daughter last spoke on February 17. On that day, Fiona informed Scarlett they were going to have to return to Britain shortly.

Fiona's eldest son, Hal — the only one of her children who had not gone on the holiday — had been injured in a car crash in Britain.

On hearing of their imminent departure, Fiona says that Scarlett was delighted, "jumping with joy", and it was agreed that the next day she would come and join the rest of the family.

But it was never to be. On the morning of February 18, Scarlett's semi-naked body was found by locals on the beach.

The first Fiona knew of it was when a text came through that afternoon from Julio's mobile. It read: "Call me, it is urgent".

Fiona recalls: "I thought it was Scarlett who had sent it, so I called.

"Julio answered and I said: 'Can I speak to her?.

"He said no, that I couldn't. Julio could barely talk, he was so beside himself.

"I thought Scarlett must have been hurt, that she was in hospital after a motorbike crash. 'Please,' I said, 'just tell me that she is alive'.

"Julio said: 'No, I can't tell you that.' I knew then that she was dead.

"I still thought she must have had an accident on his bike, and I was shouting at him: 'You have killed my daughter! You have killed my daughter'.

"He said: 'No, no. She was found on the beach'."

The drive back to Anjuna took seven hours. When Fiona arrived, police showed her a photograph of Scarlett and told her that she had been drinking heavily and had drowned.

Details of what happened in the hours leading up to her death remain vague. What is certain is that Julio, feeling ill, had decided to stay at home that night.

In his absence, Scarlett had decided to go out with a Spanish girlfriend called Ruby. They, in turn, had lied to Ruby's brother, telling him they were going out with Julio.

According to police, they drank heavily that evening and shortly after midnight went their separate ways. There were sightings at around 4am of Scarlett leaving a bar with two men. Witnesses said she was drunk and at one point was unable to stand.

According to the official version of events, some time after this she went swimming and drowned.

From the start, Fiona had her doubts.

Her daughter, she insists, was not a heavy drinker and certainly would not have gone swimming while drunk.

Then came the chance discovery of her shoes and her clothing. Not only did it suggest that the incident had not been properly investigated, but also that there had been some sort of violent struggle.

Fiona demanded to see the autopsy report — which revealed scratches, bruises from a blunt weapon and the absence of water in Scarlett's lungs.

Locals confided in her that a British tourist, who has since returned to this country fearing for his own safety, had subsequently told them that he had seen her being attacked.

Ten days after her death, Fiona demanded to see the body. The injuries were worse than she had imagined, and she is now convinced that her daughter was raped and murdered.

After three weeks of hassling the authorities, today her concerns are finally being taken seriously in Goa.

She says that she has no time for anyone who criticises her decision to leave Scarlett, and adds that her main priority is to get her other children home safe and sound.

"There is someone out there who was prepared to murder my daughter, and we are obviously stirring up a hornets' nest out here so, yes, I am worried," she says.

In the meantime, she is focusing on getting justice for Scarlett, while remaining strong for her other children.

"I feel I have to show them that it is not right for people do this to each other," she says.

And as she attempts to come to terms with this tragedy, she tries to console herself with the fact that Scarlett had at least been happy in the days before her death.

"I came across some postcards she had written but not sent," she reveals.

"They said that Goa was 'unbelievable' and that she was having 'the best time of her life'."