An Edinburgh woman who lost her life savings when her husband from Sri Lanka was shot dead has launched a desperate attempt to claw back her possessions.
Diane Peebles, 65, married hotel worker Priyanjana De Zoysa, 26, after igniting a romantic flame on holiday in 2011, reports the Daily Record.
The pensioner gave him a whopping £100,000 to kickstart a life for them in his hometown - but this was short-lived, as Priyanjana was shot dead in 2017, as it was revealed he had a second, younger wife.
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The 65-year-old, who originally comes from Edinburgh, managed to gather enough money to return to Scotland a year later.
However, the house she once occupied had been left in her dead husband's name and was occupied by her in-laws - leaving Diane little hope of clawing any of her savings - and life - back.
Now, the widow is trying to fundraise enough to be reunited with her physical possessions left behind in Sri Lanka - including priceless family heirlooms, like photos of her late parents.
Diane said: "I have 20 boxes of belongings there. I left everything I had.
"My family photographs are stuck there. A lot have been destroyed because mice got into the box and chewed them.
"There is a mahogany table my dad made me which is very sentimental to me. It will be in a bit of a state now but if I can get it back to Scotland my brother can restore it.
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"I’ve got all my clothes, paperwork and personal items.
"It could be as much as £5,000 but I’m living on Universal Credit and I’ve only got a small pension so can’t save a lot.
"It will take years for me to save up to get the stuff back."
Diane initially sold her Musselburgh three-bed flat and took early retirement from her job as a customer service assistant with the City of Edinburgh Council to go live with her husband in 2015.
She spent a whopping £60,000 to build a home for them in the grounds of his parents' home, and over £30,000 on a people carrier for her husband, who is 33 years her junior, to use as a taxi.
In 2016, Diane began to suspect that her husband wasn't being faithful, as she found paperwork while he vanished for days on end, claiming he was at work.
The year after, he was shot dead and she told the Daily Record at the time how she was left stranded in Sri Lanka, unable to recoup any of her savings. She was also still expected to fund her new family with her pension.
Diane believes she was lucky to escape Sri Lanka alive after an armed man turned up looking for her at the hotel she was staying in just before flying back to the capital.
She said: "This has left me very cautious of getting into another relationship. I thought Priyanjana loved me but obviously he didn’t. He just wanted to get money out of me.
"I think he thought once we got the house built and he married his younger wife, I would just get fed up and go back to Scotland and leave the house. But I had run out of money and couldn’t give him any more to get the house finished.
"I don’t think it’s safe for me to go back there. I haven’t spoken to my in laws. They’ve got the house I paid for. They live in it rent free.
"I feel like I’m not going to get anywhere pursuing the house anymore.
"The van I bought my husband was repossessed and in the hands of the police."
In 2020, retired police officer David Swindle, who linked serial killer Peter Tobin to the murder of schoolgirl Vicky Hamilton, pledged to try and help Diane get her savings back.
However, the case hit a standstill as Diane was unable to access vital documents left in Sri Lanka.
Diane’s belongings were initially in storage at the port in Colombo but when she ran out of money they were picked up by a friend and stored at a stranger’s home.
She has now launched a crowdfunder on Go Fund Me, in the hope she can be reunited with her possessions.
She added: "I’ve lost everything. I just want to raise enough money to try and get my stuff back so I’ve got something from my life before."
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