Ruth Maguire who drowned in Carlingford Lough tried calling home in her last moments, it has been revealed in a tragic twist to the story.
Ruth had called her fiance James Griffin twice to ask for a lift home on Saturday March 16 - the night she died.
Her grief-stricken partner of 12 years found the two missed calls on his work mobile, which he had forgotten to take home with him, two weeks after her funeral in North Belfast .
Speaking to the Belfast Telegraph, Ruth's sister Rachel Wilkinson said: "The thing I couldn't work out initially, after Ruth went missing, was that she'd been on her phone but I didn't know what she was doing.
"Then when Jim went back to work two weeks after the funeral, he turned on his work phone and saw that Ruth had called him twice at 12:06am, so it all makes sense now.
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"She had told friends earlier that night that she wanted to go home and I now know she was ringing Jim in the hope that he would pick her up but she'd obviously rang his work number instead of his personal phone by accident.
"Jim told me that he had to pull over in the car when he saw the missed calls, he was devastated, but in a way it's comforting for us to know that she was trying to get home to her family before she died."
Ruth who lived in Newcastle, was in Co Louth for a friend's hen party when she went missing after 11.30pm on the Saturday, sparking a large-scale manhunt.
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Her body was recovered from the Lough between Carlingford and Greenore on March 18.
At 12.12am, 40 minutes after she was first thought to have gone missing, the mum of three posted a video on Instagram of a cottage across the road from the pier.
It is believed this is what sparked a search of the water.
Her family's pain has been intensified by the fact they haven't been able to see Ruth since her body was recovered.
Rachel added: "I'm not a big fan of wakes but I felt I needed to see Ruth before the funeral.
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"But the funeral directors recommended that we didn't because she'd been in the water for 36 hours, which meant she was very discoloured and, of course, she'd had an autopsy.
"They also told us she had a gash above her eye, which is in-keeping with her stumbling, falling and hitting her head.
"Ruth was a great swimmer, we can only think she stumbled or tripped, then fell into the water and was knocked unconscious.
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"It was probably slightly more peaceful for Ruth if she hit her head and became unconscious, it wouldn't have been as horrendous as the alternative."
Ruth's family now hope to erect a plaque in her memory on a bench along the Carlingford Lough pier.
The family will also host a fundraiser next month for Newcastle RNLI who found Ruth's body.
Rachel added: "Ruth wasn't a party girl on a hen night who ended up in the Lough.
"Ruth lived for her children, she was a lovely family person, a great mum and a fantastic human being."
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