Gately had spent the evening with his partner Cowles at the Black Cat club in Mallorca's capital Palma. They returned home with someone that they had met that night, Bulgarian national Georgi Dochev. Dochev stayed in the spare bedroom. According to Dochev, he discovered Gately's body lying on a sofa as he was about to leave. He woke Cowles, who was sleeping alone in the couple's bedroom. However, Gately's solicitor and family friend, Gerald Kean, insisted Cowles was the one who found Gately's body. Spanish police were alerted at 1:45 pm by Cowles, after he had tried to revive Gately. Gately was squatting in an awkward position on the sofa, dressed in his pyjamas. Police said they had no reason to believe the death was related to abuse of substances, including alcohol and other drugs, and no suicide note or signs of violence were found on his body. It was Kean, Gately's solicitor throughout his career, who informed Ronan Keating that Gately had died.