( CNN ) -- Two former hotel workers have been cleared of the high-profile murder of an Irish newlywed on her honeymoon in Mauritius last year , police on the Indian Ocean island said Thursday . Michaela McAreavey , a 27-year-old teacher and ex-beauty queen , was found strangled in the bathtub of her hotel room in January 2011 . The police and prosecutors said she had been murdered after disturbing thieves raiding the honeymoon suite . The accused , Avinash Treebhoowoon , 32 , and Sandip Moneea , 43 , worked at the luxury Legends Hotel at the time and were arrested a day after McAreavey was killed . Both denied the murder during a two-month trial and police confirmed Thursday they were acquitted by a jury at the Supreme Court in the Mauritian capital , Port Louis . The jurors took two hours to deliberate and both verdicts were unanimous , police said . Family friends in Ireland said the ex-beauty queen 's widower , Gaelic football star John McAreavey , was in a packed courtroom along with other relatives to hear the verdict announced . The friends said family members left the court immediately , as the acquittals were greeted by cheering from local people in the public gallery . The family friends also said defense lawyers were carried from the court by jubilant supporters of the defendants . In the early stages of the investigation , the Mauritian authorities said Treebhoowoon had admitted to the murder , but his lawyers said durin the trial that police had fabricated a confession and forced him to sign it . Local media said the case provoked intense interest in Mauritius as it involved the murder of a tourist . It also dominated the news agenda in McAreavey 's native Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland . She was well-known on both sides of the Irish border as the daughter of one of the country 's best-known sporting figures , Gaelic football manager Mickey Harte , and a winner of the Ulster Rose of Tralee beauty pageant title . The Harte and McAreavey families issued a written statement after Thursday 's verdict . It read : `` After waiting 18 months in search of justice for Michaela and following the endurance of seven harrowing weeks of this trial , there are no words which can describe the sense of devastation and desolation now felt by both families . ''
The two men worked at the Mauritius hotel where Michaela McAreavey was slain . She was found strangled in the bathtub of the honeymoon suite . Supporters of the defendants were jubilant after the verdicts . Family members of McAreavey and her widower feel `` devastation and desolation ''