The family of a British woman who died in an Australian strip club have launched a crowdfunding attempt to repatriate her body.
Stacey Tierney’s body allegedly lay undiscovered for hours after she died in the Dreams Gentlemen’s Club in Melbourne, and was only found the next day, on Monday 19 December.
Tierney, 29, from Manchester, had worked at the club as a dancer and had reportedly been partying with a group of men when the venue closed on Sunday. Her body was discovered at about 11.50am – 12 hours after her death according to reports in the Australian press.
Her family have created a GoFundMe page to raise money to bring Tierney’s body back to Britain and give her “a sendoff fit for a princess”.
The campaign has received £11,157 in donations within 12 days of being set up, with 386 people contributing.
Tierney’s mother, Michelle, and sisters Stephanie, Kristie, and Kelly-Anne, from Stockport, were reportedly devastated to learn of her death.
A post read: “As some of you may know we sadly lost our beautiful Stacey on Monday. Stacey was living her life to the full in Australia and she has made a huge impact on everyone who knew her.
“At the moment her family are still in shock and are trying to get their heads around what has happened. This page is being set up in honour of Stacey.
“The aim is to raise funds to bring her home [and] to give her a sendoff fit for a princess. On behalf of her mum, Michelle, and her sisters Stephanie, Kristie, and Kelly-Anne and the rest of her family we would like to thank everyone for their kind messages of condolence.”
Tierney’s cousin, Colleen Bourke, 34, from Cheadle, Greater Manchester, said the campaign had had an “amazing response” within just two days.
“She was such a free spirit and had such a lovely soul. People have been saying the nicest things about her,” she added.
“The lowest estimate we have had to bring her home is £7,500. We’ve raised more than £11,000 so far and we just want to keep going. We just want to bring her home and give her an amazing funeral.
“We obviously knew how great she was. We were so proud of her and spoke to her all the time. She was so fit and loved dancing.
“She came back for Christmas last year. She had been working as a fitness instructor but she decided she was going to reapply and she was accepted back on a student visa.”
It is understood police are investigating CCTV footage of the strip club and claims she was with a group of men in the hours before she died. It was reported that the men fled without alerting the emergency services.
Bourke said the family was struggling to discover the exact circumstances surrounding Tierney’s death.
She said: “We have not been told anything by the authorities in Australia about this latest information. We have only read it in the Australian press and we have no idea whether it is true.
“The family is obviously very upset that Stacey has died. We have been shocked by the articles in the Australian press and on the face of it, it looks like it should be a murder investigation.
“But we are still trying to get in touch with the Australian police because we have still not been given any official information about how she died.”
Police said a postmortem would be conducted to determine the cause of death.
According to the Herald Sun, Tierney, a former dance student at Oldham College, had worked at strip clubs in the Gold Coast before relocating to Melbourne and starting work at Dreams.
A spokesperson for Ambulance Victoria confirmed they were called to the scene following reports of a medical issue but could not reveal the circumstances for privacy reasons.
Tierney was a dance and fitness instructor at the Manchester Aquatics Centre before leaving for Australia three years ago.
