Just three weeks ago, Jake Hall returned to Majorca to spend his summer on the island, as he has done most years since he was a teenager.
The TOWIE star, turned artist and fashion designer, had rented out a quaint two-bedroom home in a quiet village in the Majorcan hills to focus on his artwork.
Yet in the early hours of Wednesday morning, the sleepy street in the north of the Spanish island was swarmed by police officers after Jake was found dead lying in a pool of his own blood.
The night had started like any other, with Jake inviting a few close friends over to the £200-a-night villa to listen to music and have a few drinks.
Neighbours said loud music was blaring out of the terrace home from the early hours of the morning.
At 4.40am one neighbour on his way to work walked past the home. The blue shutters and the glass door behind it were wide open, with the lights on in the house.
There were no signs of trouble – the party of six people, three men and three women, continued.
By 6.30am another neighbour walked past, and there had been no change. But at 7.10am, locals said the music suddenly cut out and there was silence.
Just three weeks ago, Jake Hall returned to Majorca to spend his summer on the island, as he has done most years since he was a teenager
Picture shows: Jessica Ortiz, who lives on the street and spoke the Daily Mail about what she saw the night Jake Hall died
Pictured: David Gomez a friend of Jake Hall and owner Fit Club Mallorca
Twenty minutes later, at around 7.30am, police officers arrived at the scene to find Jake’s body and put a cordon in place blocking off access to the street.
Jake is said to have run into the glass door while agitated, smashing his head on the glass door overlooking the street.
Sources close to the ongoing investigation said the model had died at the property from a fatal chest wound caused by broken glass.
Jake’s close friend David Gomez, 38, who had known the star for almost a decade, said that Jake had been hosting a ‘little village party’ that night, with a few friends.
David said the incident, which some speculated was fuelled by alcohol and potential drug use, was nothing more than a tragic accident.
Locals in Santa Margalida – a traditional Majorcan village – are still reeling from the incident.
Jessica Ortiz, who lives on the street, told this paper: ‘At around 4.40am there was light in the home and loud music was playing but there didn’t seem to be anything strange going on at that time.
‘My flatmate passed the house on the way to work and walked past the door. The wooden shutters and the glass door behind it, the one which supposedly broke, were both open. Everything was normal, no issues.
‘Another neighbour went to work at 6.30am and the party was still going on but the music cut out around 7.10am. Everything was quiet.
‘The police then did not arrive until 7.30am and so we don’t understand why no one called for help sooner?’
Jake’s body was removed from the property at around 1pm on Wednesday
A representative for Jake’s ex-partner and mother of his daughter, Misse Beqiri said: ‘At this time, Misse’s focus is on supporting and protecting their child as they come to terms with this devastating loss.’ Pictured: Jake Hall and Misse Beqiri
In the early hours of Wednesday morning, the sleepy street in the north of the Spanish island was swarmed by police officers after Jake was found dead lying in a pool of his own blood
Another neighbour told local paper Ultima Hora that he had heard a group of people talking about drugs the day before the horror incident.
The neighbour said they ‘hadn’t been causing problems’ and seemed ‘relatively normal’, although he admitted to being scared by how one of the group members looked.
He claimed he also heard them talking in English about buying a property in the area, and reported he had been woken up a few hours before police arrived, saying: ‘It must have been around 2am. It was late but I was still awake.
‘I began to hear a very loud noise, as if they were drilling something. I felt the walls vibrate. They stopped after about five minutes and then I fell asleep.’
Authorities in Majorca have said there is no evidence at present of a crime, while a legal source said the death is being treated as an ‘accidental death’.
Officials are now waiting for the results of an autopsy that took place in Palma on Friday. The results will then be sent to an investigating judge, however, these won’t be released, as is normal in Spain.
Cops confirmed last night the reality TV star and model’s death is being treated as accidental.
A Civil Guard spokesman said: ‘There is nothing pointing to it being the result of a crime at this stage.’
The force’s officers are understood to have questioned several people who were at the house at the time the death occurred – believed to be three men and three women. Their nationalities are yet to be confirmed.
An investigating magistrate in the nearby town of Inca is understood to have been sent an initial police report and will be receiving the autopsy results as they become available.
The post-mortem will give some answers, while more tests of tissue samples will later be sent to a specialist lab on the Spanish mainland.
The results will confirm whether or not Jake had been high on drink and drugs when the accident occurred.
Hours before he died, Mr Hall shared a video showing himself dancing, painting and enjoying the local scenery.
The post – set to the Rolling Stones’ classic Beast of Burden – was captioned: ‘Life is b******s sometimes but I’m gonna try to remember the good things – ️ looking through things – I’m just making art – in many forms.’
Jake, who had ADHD and dyslexia, spoke openly about his mental health over the years – referring to Majorca as his ‘healing island’ and crediting his eight-year-old daughter, River, for saving him.
‘I was at a very low point,’ he said a year ago. ‘I’d lost something that I’d loved and grew from my bedroom. I went through a lot of turmoil. If I’m honest, River is the reason I’m here today. She’s amazing and we’ve got an incredible relationship.’
Speaking to the Daily Mail, his grief-stricken friend David, said that Jake was most ‘at peace’ and his happiest self when with his daughter.
He said: ‘What I really admired most was the relationship he had with his daughter. You can see that she was his whole world.
‘Whenever I saw them together, it was the moment I really saw he was truly at peace. His daughter brought him down to earth and calmed him down.
‘He was an amazing father. He was a very loving person and was always very friendly with everyone. He was always in a good mood.
David became friends with Jake almost a decade ago, when the model-turned-fashion designer started spending all his summers on the Spanish island.
Jake and his brother Sonny had been visiting Majorca since they were teenagers with their parents owning properties across the region with a television star referring to the country as his ‘homeland’.
According to his friend, Jake only returned to the island around a month ago, with his first sculpture being put on show at NU Mallorca beach club.
David added: ‘He would come here every summer and in the winter he would travel elsewhere. He rented out the villa to use it as an art studio, using his creativity to paint and make designs.
‘He was hoping to host some art events there and was also looking for a space to perform his music in Palma, which I was helping him with.
‘He only arrived a few weeks, perhaps a month ago and was preparing the house for summer. It was a space where he felt comfortable creating in and he was only inviting those people he was very close with to see or sell his art.’
Jack Fincham, another friend of Jake’s who previously worked with him, also paid tribute to the star, adding that he was a ‘brilliant father’.
The actor and former Love Island star told the Daily Mail: ‘He was a good friend of mine and we were doing a clothing line together at one point. But I haven’t seen him in years.
‘He was a great person and an inspiration. Whatever he put his mind to he did. We worked together, we partied together, and he even designed the clothes for my first film premier.
‘Jake was just such a pleasure to be around. A very handsome guy and a very funny guy. He was a brilliant father, you could see how great he was with his daughter
‘He was someone I aspired to be like and I used to watch him thinking that is what success is.’
A representative for Jake’s ex-partner and mother of his daughter, Misse Beqiri said: ‘At this time, Misse’s focus is on supporting and protecting their child as they come to terms with this devastating loss.
‘The family are asking for privacy, compassion and respect while they grieve privately.’
