TRAGIC model Mairead O’Neill’s life was haunted by her mum’s horrific 80ft balcony plunge which cops had investigated as attempted murder, the Irish Sun reveals today.

The talented but “fragile” young Belfast woman, just launching into a promising career, was found dead on Monday.

Ten months ago her mum Karen Pelan died from bowel cancer, devastating loved ones.

Seventeen years ago Ms Pelan had narrowly escaped death after a terrifying plunge from a holiday balcony.

Mairead was just four when, on a family holiday in Gran Canaria, her mum fell five floors.

Medics believed her life would have been lost if she had not broken her fall by crashing into an awning above a bar area beside the pool.

Suffering broken bones and internal injuries, Ms Pelan, then 29, was treated at the island’s Clinica Roca Hospital.

Belfast man Hugh McCormick was arrested by Gran Canaria cops at the time and led from the complex in handcuffs under suspicion of attempted murder.

He was later released without charge and at all times stated his innocence.

Mr McCormick, Ms Pelan’s partner at the time, has since been jailed for an attempted murder unconnected to the events of 2001.

Local sources in Belfast’s Markets area say Mairead, 21, and family members had long sought to come to terms with the accident which almost killed mother-of-three Ms Pelan.

She died from bowel cancer, aged just 45, earlier this year.

We were told: “Karen was never the same after the fall and that has always been difficult for the family.

“It affected her in many ways and some relatives do believe that it led to the cancer.”

Her death this year was a major blow for Mairead. Colleagues have said she had been battling to recover from the painful loss.

The young model, who had worked at a string of Belfast Fashion Week events in recent years, was buried on Friday, just hours before the city’s 2018 Fashion Week was launched.