The family of a South Wales father-of-four who died during a trip to Benidorm say newly-emerged details have strengthened their belief that his death was not an accident. Nathan Osman, 30, from Pontypridd, had travelled to the Spanish resort with a group of friends for a short break in September 2024. Within a day of arriving, he was discovered dead at the foot of a secluded 200m (around 650ft) cliff by an off-duty police officer.
A post-mortem concluded he suffered fatal head and abdominal trauma consistent with a fall from a significant height. Spanish police maintained that Mr Osman’s death was the result of a “tragic accident”, saying he had become separated from his friends and was returning to his accommodation alone. However, his family argue the investigation fell short of what was required and insist that the possibility of homicide was never properly explored by the local authorities.
The case was reopened earlier this year after Nathan Osman’s family submitted a dossier of information to Spanish prosecutors, arguing that his death warranted closer scrutiny and may have involved other individuals. After the family was interviewed by Sky News in May, South Wales Police opened its own investigation into Nathan’s death.
The family’s concerns began when they learned that the spot where Nathan’s body was discovered lay far from his hotel and in the opposite direction – a remote area they say he had no reason to visit. Troubled by this, they launched their own inquiry, piecing together a timeline from CCTV footage, witness accounts and financial records. According to the family, those records indicated that attempts were made to use Nathan’s bank cards the day after his death.
After getting the phone back a couple of months ago, the family say they tracked Nathan’s last movements through a health app. This helped them determine that their son died around half an hour after he was seen on CCTV walking towards his hotel in the early hours of the morning.
Speaking to Sarah-Jane Mee of Sky News, the family also claim the phone data suggests he couldn’t have reached the spot he was found on foot.Â
“There’s a breakdown inside the app of every 10 minutes – the distance, pace, measurement of pace… every detail you can think of,” Nathan’s brother, Lee Evans, tells Mee.
“His pace wasn’t consistent with a fast walk or even a sprint.”
He says it was a faster journey, despite being uphill for 40 minutes, which has convinced the family that he was in a vehicle.
The family also went to the area where Nathan was found. “We were a bit upset, but we were very pleased we went up there”, his mother, Elizabeth, says. “We could see… there’s no way he would have looked at that area and thought, ‘I’m going up here.’
“You can see straight off, there’s no clubs, there’s no hotels up there, there’s just the odd house dotted around. It was just out in the wild, there was nothing up there.
“It was really ridiculous to think that my son would’ve walked up there [the remote location where he died] at 4am in the pitch dark.”
Nathan’s father, Jonathan, says: “No procedures were followed. Nothing was cordoned off, it wasn’t a crime scene. There’s loads of things that could’ve been taken. Tyre tracks, foot tracks, nothing. No DNA taken.”
The family have identified 27 CCTV cameras in the proximity where he was last seen, but local investigators initially reproted that no such cameras were present. Elizabeth says that they were repeatedly told by Spanish authorities that the systems were either out of order or that any recordings would have been wiped by now.Â
Undeterred, the family continued their search and, earlier this year, uncovered what they believe to be the final confirmed footage of Nathan before he died. That discovery has reinforced their belief that valuable evidence may still exist.
Even so, they acknowledge that the delay in securing evidence could mean the person – or people – involved in Nathan’s death may never be identified.
