My son had the dream life in Spain – then a phone call changed everything, I may never get the answers I need

The Sun

2 days ago

A YEAR ago, Sandra Adams received a call that will haunt her for the rest of her life.
She was on her way home from work on 22 July last year and she says at that moment her old life ended.
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She was told that her only son Brett Dryden, had been found dead at his home in Spain.
While Sandra says that at times the grief is unbearable, she is kept going by her quest for the truth about the circumstances of his death.
She is driven by a burning sense of injustice, because she believes police bungled the initial investigation and Brett's death remains a mystery- one she is determined to solve.
Brett seemingly had the perfect life in the sun. The 35-year-old father-of-one, originally from County Durham, moved to Spain in 2019 with his partner.
They had a daughter. The relationship didn't work out and the couple split but Brett stayed in Spain to build his business and remained a doting father.
He lived in the laid-back Spanish seaside town of Mojácar in the province of Almería where he ran a legal cannabis club called The Dawg House.
Sandra, from Chester-Le-Street, says: 'When he moved, I was devastated but it was his choice.
'He had an amazing life there. He loved it. He had loads of friends and said he would never move back.'
But that dream life ended on July 22 last year, the day Sandra received a call from one of Brett's friends in Spain who had found his body in his villa.
'I couldn't believe what I was hearing,' she says.
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'My world caved in, I was in utter disbelief and I'm still in shock today.'
In a daze, Sandra, a carer, 56, and her husband and Brett's stepdad Rob flew to Spain that day.
One of the friends who found Brett claimed he'd overheard the Spanish police known as the Guardia Civil saying they believed Brett had been struck in the head with an axe.
However, the friends had been allowed to walk through the villa several times, which was potentially a murder scene.
A post-mortem was performed the following day. It concluded Brett died of a pulmonary embolism, caused by a blood clot in his lungs. The case was closed.
'They said it was a terrible accident. He fell and banged his head,' Sandra explains.
She was immediately sceptical. Rob had taken photos and video of blood stains in several locations around the property.
Her suspicions were further raised when she went to see her son's body.
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'He was in the chapel of rest, and there was a huge wound in the side of his head,' she recalls.
'I knew in my gut that something was not right. He had other visible injuries. To me it looked like there had been a struggle.'
The family have only recently been given details of what was contained in the full Spanish autopsy report.
They hired a Spanish lawyer who gained access to official documents in the case.
According to him, the autopsy report detailed injuries to Brett's legs, arms, head and neck and fingernail marks, cuts and bruises on his face.
There were nail wounds to his lips and neck. There was also a four-centimetre wound to his head and bruising to his ear, eye and skull on his left side.
Pathologists found internal bleeding to the right side of his head and 'intense encephalic congestion' - an injury resulting in the brain's blood vessels becoming swollen and congested.
The report also reveals police had admitted to pathologists that Brett had been the victim of a home invasion.
The report stated: 'During the examination signs of a struggle were observed on the body such as droplets of blood in various locations on the body.'
Despite all this the autopsy also said there was cocaine in Brett's system and concluded this was what triggered the pulmonary embolism and within a day of the original postmortem the case was closed.
Still raw and in shock at their loss, Sandra and Rob did their own digging.
They discovered several of Brett's personal belongings were missing including his mobile phone, his wallet and his designer sunglasses.
In the days after his death Sandra used Brett's MacBook to track the missing iPhone which was still being used and pinged at several locations in the nearby town of Vera. She showed the police.
Four days after Brett's death, with so many unanswered questions, a local court ordered the police to reopen the case and treat it as a homicide investigation.
Sandra believes cops were hoping to sweep the death under the carpet to protect the reputation of the area, which relies on tourism.
'If they could have covered it up, they would have done,' claims Sandra.
In addition to the phone location, the Adams also discovered potential CCTV evidence after Rob knocked on neighbours' doors looking for video footage.
Sandra explains: 'One neighbour confirmed they had footage but under Spanish law they're not allowed to give the CCTV footage to anybody but the police, who now have the footage.
'We haven't seen it but our lawyer has seen reference to it in the police reports, which he says clearly shows two people leaving Brett's villa the day he died.
'He says the people were carrying what appeared to be the same type of bag Brett used to carry the takings from his club.
'What's more, the manager of Brett's club also told police that he was on the phone to Brett before he died and that Brett cut the conversation short with the words: 'I've got to go, they're here.''
Where to seek grief support
Need professional help with grief?
Child Bereavement UK Childbereavementuk.org
Cruse Bereavement Cruse.org.uk
Relate Relate.org.uk
The Good Grief Trust Thegoodgrieftrust.org
You can also always speak to your GP if you're struggling.
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Sandra now believes that people who knew Brett tried to rob him, and that he fought back and was killed.
'He was only a little chap,' she says.
'He was five foot five and a half. But I know he wouldn't have let anybody come into his house and not defended himself.
'I just don't understand how we're nearly a year on and no further forward.'
After Brett's body was repatriated, UK authorities held their own autopsy. The results have yet to be released.
'When we get those details, we can compare them with the Spanish postmortem report,' says Sandra.
'If I didn't have this to fight for, I don't think I'd be here.He was my only son.
'When I had him, I wasn't with his dad, so it was me and him until I met Rob.
'He was a great boy. He was always smiling. He had a really good heart. He was happy-go-lucky and he would help anybody if he could.'
Sandra says Brett's daughter is struggling to cope with the loss.
'She's a really brave little girl,' says Sandra.
'She talks about her daddy openly, but she talks about him as if he is still here. She misses him terribly because they were really close.'
And when Sandra was diagnosed with early-stage womb cancer in 2023 and needed a hysterectomy, Brett was there to support his doting mum.
On the anniversary of his death the family will fly out to Spain to remember him. Brett's daughter, his sister, Shannon and his aunt and his nieces and nephews will be there.
'I am going to lay flowers up at the villa,' says Sandra.
''We will go to Zeppelin Bar where he spent most of his nights with his friends and where I'm going to raise a glass to him.
'I'm going to make it a celebration of his life. I'm not dreading it because I feel close to him out there. I feel at peace there.'
But until she's satisfied that she knows what happened, Sandra remains in limbo. The family have set up a Go Fund Me page to help with their legal costs.
'I want justice, I want to know what happened and I want the police to take accountability for the mess they made of it because they clearly tried to cover it up in the beginning,' she says.
'I'm going to keep talking about it and keep looking for answers because I need to keep the case out there, and to let the authorities, and whoever did it, know that I'm not going away.'
A court spokesman previously said of the case: 'The investigation hasn't been suspended or closed. It is still open, and this incident remains under investigation.
"The court is waiting for the Guardia Civil to complete their full report and present their conclusions. For the time being there's nothing more we can say.'
The Sun reached out to the Guardia Civil for comment.
'I'm hoping that they do find who did this,' says Sandra.
'I would hate for anybody to go through what we're going through. It's hell on earth every single day.
'He was my only son. I don't think I'll ever come to terms with it. I think I'll cry every day for his loss. I navigate through my grief. I'm doing the best I can. He deserves justice.'
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