A MOTHER has described her shock on learning that her estranged daughter had become involved in a murder investigation in Spain.

Suzanna Easter spoke out after her daughter, Anne-Marie Monteith, and son-in-law Richard were detained in Torremolinos, on the Costa del Sol.

Police arrested the couple from Whitley Bay a week ago after an investigation into the death of fellow ex-pat Diana Dyson, 63.

The body of Ms Dyson, who came from Sheffield, was found in her luxury apartment at the resort.

She had been beaten and stabbed before dying from suffocation.

Police said they had found 179 pieces of jewellery belonging to the victim at the Monteith's home in nearby Benalmadena.

Mrs Easter, 73, who has not seen or heard from her daughter for two years, since she left for Spain with her husband and their teenage daughter, said: "I don't know what to believe, honestly I don't.

"From her being little she was always a terror who would never do what she was told.

"But she's still my daughter and there are times when I sit here on my own and cry."

Mother of four Anne-Marie, 47, and her third husband, Richard, 50, married more than ten years ago.

Mrs Easter, of Appletree Gardens, said: "I don't know how they've been managing over there because Anne-Marie liked gallivanting and going clubbing."

Two years ago the couple moved to Spain where they have lived the life of ex-pats in the Arroyo de la Meil area, which is known as Little England.

Margaret Brown, 56, who moved to Torremolinos 13 years ago and owns the Talk of the Tyne bar, said she met the Monteiths in October when they viewed her three-bedroomed town house.

She said: "They were very well dressed and were dripping with gold and seemed very confident.

"The agent said they were expecting a lot of compensation money from the UK and couldn't yet provide a deposit.

"The money never came and we never heard from them again."

Details of the inquiry in Spain remain under wraps following an order by the judge in charge of the investigation.