The Lynda Spence Murder
The Lynda Spence Murder
Episode Summary
27 year old Lynda Spence liked to live the high life; fast cars, expensive champagne, but in April 2011 her high life came to an abrupt and brutal end.
Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.
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Lynda Spence trial: Family heartache over ‘terrible ordeal’ – BBC News
Welcome To Naz-tra-demus Magazine: Lynda Spence: Two Jailed For Torture Murder
‘Unimaginable’ suffering and death of Lynda Spence – BBC News
Lynda Spence trial: Coats and Wade guilty of torture case murder – BBC News
Lynda Spence guard in tears at murder trial | Glasgow Times
Men get life for ‘monstrous’ murder – BelfastTelegraph.co.uk
Pair lose Lynda Spence murder appeals | Glasgow Times
Lynda Spence: Former accused breaks down in court | The Scotsman
Lynda Spence’s ‘monstrous’ killers jailed for 63 years | UK | News | Express.co.uk
Cross-dressing killer found with homemade shank down his trousers in prison – Daily Star
Lynda Spence trial: Murder accused pair DNA found | Edinburgh News
Murder is Everywhere: The Tragic Tale Of Lynda Spence
Calls for review into Lynda Spence’s role as police mole before her murder | HeraldScotland
Lynda Spence’s killers jailed for 33 and 30 years | HeraldScotland
Lynda Spence trial: Missing woman’s blood ‘in flat’ – BBC News
Lynda Spence murder accused ‘confessed’, court told | The Scotsman
Lynda Spence murder trial hears of victim’s crime gang links – The Sun
Glasgow torture killer kicked off uni course after being caught with blade in Shotts prison
Lynda Spence so tense before she vanished, mum tells court | Scotland | News | Express.co.uk
‘Tell parents where Lynda remains are’ | Glasgow Times
Lynda Spence trial: Murder accused ‘made threat’ to parents – BBC News
‘Warning to Lynda Spence parents’ – The Sun
Ulster Defence Association – Wikipedia
Jury to resume deliberations in Lynda Spence murder trial – Daily Record
Lynda Spence trial: Missing woman was ‘police mole’ – BBC News
Lynda Spence murder Victim had thumb chopped off – YouTube
Lynda Spence – The Free Library
Hunt for missing Glasgow woman Lynda Zejaf stepped up – BBC News
Lynda Spence detectives look for wheelie bin witnesses – BBC News
Murder is Everywhere: The Tragic Tale Of Lynda Spence
Lynda Spence trial: Ex-accused ‘did not see murder’ – BBC News
Lynda Spence so tense before she vanished, mum tells court | Scotland | News | Express.co.uk
Birthday appeal for missing Lynda Spence – BBC News
Lynda Spence case: Ex-accused admits part in ‘plan’ – BBC News
APPEAL AGAINST CONVICTION AND SENTENCE BY PHILIP WADE AND COLIN COATS AGAINST HER MAJESTY’S ADVOCATE
Crime spy Lynda Spence was left to her fate by elite squad – The Sun
Cole:
Trigger Warning – This story is pretty gruesome and graphic, so listener discretion is advised.
Dawn:
27 year old Lynda Spence liked to live the high life; fast cars, expensive champagne, but in April 2011 her high life came to an abrupt and brutal end.
Dawn and Cole:
Hey Wee Ones, I’m Dawn, and I’m Cole, and this is Scottish Murders.
[THEME TUNE]
100 THINGS WE LEARNED FROM FILM PROMOTION
Dawn:
West Kilbride is a village in North Ayrshire located on the west coast of Scotland by the Firth of Clyde looking across the Firth of Clyde to Goatfell and the Isle of Arran. Being on the coast, there are some magnificent views. West Kilbride was also the first town in Scotland to organise an annual scarecrow festival to foster community spirit and civic pride within West Kilbride and its surrounding area. Flat 4 114 Meadowfoot Road is located about half a mile from the centre of West Kilbride. This property was an old house that had been split into flats, flat 4 being on the first floor with access to the attic space. It was in this attic space where Lynda Spence spent the last 13 days of her life. She had been abducted, taken to this flat and held against her will. Lynda’s last days consisted of being systematically tortured daily by her captors, her toes were crushed by garden shears, her kneecaps were smashed by a golf club, her hands were burnt with a steam iron, her thumb was chopped off, and the tip of her little finger was cut off. Lynda was tied to a chair, not being allowed to use the bathroom and so had to urinate and defecate where she sat. It’s then believed that she was suffocated, beheaded and burnt. What had gone so wrong in Lynda’s life that it had ended in such a horrendous way? Lynda Spence was born on the 8th of September 1983 to her doting parents James and Patricia Spence. Lynda was brought up in Penilee, Paisley, which is about 7.5 miles and approximately 12 kilometres west of Glasgow. She started her schooling at the nearby Ralston Primary School before heading to Paisley Grammar School when she was 12. Upon starting at Paisley Grammar School Lynda got herself not one but two jobs in local chip shops, where she worked until she was 14. However, Lynda was always thinking of others, and so she made it her passion to help other local children also find work at Christmas time so they too could have some pocket money. In an interview in the Daily Record, Lynda’s mother, Patricia, said that Lynda was a typical teenager and that she never had any bother with her at all. She was a kind, happy girl who was always smiling and positive, and never had a bad word to say about anybody. While Lynda was still at school and between working her two chip shop jobs, she also joined the RAF Air Cadets, which she absolutely loved. So much so that when she was 17 Lynda and her mum attended an RAF recruitment drive, where apparently the recruiter said that he would be happy to take Lynda, but that she maybe shouldn’t put all her eggs in one basket and to come back to see him if she was still interested when she turned 19. However, Lynda wasn’t one for standing still and letting the grass grow under her feet, so by the time she was 19 she had already left school and secured a job working in a call centre for a bank. Over the next five years, Lynda continued to work in call centres, before deciding to try her hand at providing financial services herself, this was despite Lynda’s only experience in finance coming from working in call centres. Lynda’s new finance business mainly involved obtaining mortgages for those with poor credit histories. Lynda’s business wasn’t successful and in December 2008, a year after starting her finance business, she had to declare herself bankrupt, having debts at that time of about £40,000, which is about $56,000. However, a year later in December 2009, once the debts were written off, Lynda, who was now 26, decided to start a new business called Fraser Properties, using money her parents had given her that they had inherited from the sale of her late grandmother’s bungalow. Lynda rented premises on Great Western Road, which is about 10 miles or approximately 16 kilometres north west of Paisley, where she grew up. Lynda’s new mortgage and letting venture appeared to be extremely successful and Lynda had been able to buy two flats in a well-off part of Glasgow, she had a Mercedes convertible and she liked to buy expensive Cristal champagne. Lynda also enjoyed eating in expensive restaurant and attending bars, strip clubs and casinos. Lynda also chose to share her apparent success and wealth with her friends, and she enjoyed taking her friends out for meals and nights out, paying for everything. This kindness also extended to a school friend, Amanda Robertson, who she employed to work in her finance business. She was definitely living one hell of a high life and appeared to be enjoying every second of it. Despite Lynda’s business taking up much of her time, as well as her enjoying herself when she wasn’t working, she still found time each Saturday to take her mum out to dinner and for a drive in her car. She also took her mum shopping each week, and sometimes would even take her to the theatre. Lynda and her mum had a great relationship, they were apparently best friends as well as mother and daughter, laughing when together and enjoying each other’s company. They would talk on the phone every day and Lynda’s mum described her daughter as a loving, caring girl. From the outside Lynda was living the high life and had not a care in the world, however, this could not be further from the truth. Lynda had quickly realised that she was not going to be making the money or big deal she craved if she continued to just focus on obtaining mortgages for people, and so she began to stray into different avenues. One such avenue was her becoming involved in property development. This particular development was known as Lochburn Gate and was in Maryhill in Glasgow, which was about 2.4 miles or 3.8 kilometres away from Lynda’s offices on Great Western Road. Now, Lynda was described as being confident, charming and likable and, as such, people trusted her with their money. And so, when Lynda approached Glasgow’s Chinese community regarding this new property development she was involved in, many people wanted to be part of it and so happily handed over their hard-earned money to Lynda. It was reported that Lynda had 30 clients that wanted a home in this new development and had amassed about £175,000 in deposits from them, which would be about £240,000 and $330,000 in today’s money. Everyone was happy, the clients had a lovely new property they would be purchasing when completed, and Lynda had secured the kind of money that she had wanted. However, as time went on and the development she promised never came to fruition, the clients who had given her their deposit money were beginning to get a bit concerned. Their concern then turned to anger and dread when, after continually attending the financial company premises and demanding an update, and later their money, neither were forthcoming. They then turned to Strathclyde Police, where they claimed that they had been defrauded. Strathclyde Police in turn started an investigation into Lynda. Lynda was never satisfied and was always on the lookout for her next big deal and how she could make fast cash, and her next big deal came to her in the form of 41 year old Colin Coates, who she had been introduced to by a mutual business friend, Tony Kelly. Colin was a former I.T specialist and made his fortune in London’s financial services industry. At one time it looked like he had it made, a millionaire, wife, kids, but the money had gone to his head and had made him selfish. He started drinking through excess and developed a cocaine habit, as well as an explosive temper, leading him to losing nearly everything. He also had a history of violence against his ex-wife, for which he was fined, against his ex-wife’s sister and an elderly man who had stopped to intervene, for which he was given two years probation, also for beating up a Celtic fan, for which he was given a suspended sentence, and in October 2010 he was convicted and fined for assaulting a cabin crew member and threatening passengers on a flight from Glasgow the previous year. It’s not known if Lynda knew this information about Coates, but in early 2010 Lynda and Coates entered into a business deal, where Coates invested £85,000, which is about £111,000 and about $154,000 in today’s money, with Lynda, which was all the money he had.
Cole:
That was all the money he had? I thought you said he was a millionaire?
Dawn:
Yeah, but because of the drinking and drugs he’d pretty much lost everything. That’s all he had left?
Cole:
That’s a lot of money to spend on alcohol and drugs.
Dawn:
I can think of better things to spend that amount of money on.
Cole:
It depends on the day for me really. (laughter)
Dawn:
Lynda promised he would receive a return of about £131,000 or $182,000. However, things started to go wrong quickly when Coates realised that he wasn’t going to receive any of his money back, because there was no such deal and Lynda had already spent all of his money. Lynda however wasn’t going to let this little detail get in her way, and so she made up another lie this time telling Coates that he would in fact earn millions from a land and property deal that she had ongoing near Stanstead Airport, if he would just wait a little longer. And so he waited and waited, but no deal ever materialised. Lynda kept stringing Coates along though and eventually she told him that she was going to be paid in Danish government bonds from another deal, which was worth about £6.6 million, which is about £8.6 million and $11.8 million in today’s money, and that he would get his cut from this. He agreed. However, again, there was no such deal. So, in desperation, Lynda persuaded a printer in Glasgow to produce fake Danish bonds and she gave Coates his cut. However, Coates, not being a particularly stupid man, realised pretty quickly that the bonds were actually fake, and finally he had had enough of Lynda’s lies and started to plan his revenge. Lynda’s worries didn’t stop with Coates however. Never to let the grass grow under her feet and always on the lookout for more money opportunities, Lynda had also made a deal with property developer, John Glen, who had given her £180,000, about £236,000 and $325,000 in today’s money, as part of a non-existent deal, and he too was wanting his money back. Lynda however had already spent this money too. John became very abusive, going as far as sending her text messages threatening to cut her fingers off and chop her head off. At this point Lynda finally started to accept that things were getting out of control and her life was beginning to unravel, and she was getting scared.
Cole:
I get the feeling that Lynda’s not really learning from her mistakes and she just keeps making the same mistakes over and over again.
Dawn:
Yeah, I get that feeling as well. I just want her to stop and just pay some money back!
Cole:
And I feel like you never actually know who you’re getting into business with. And, I mean, I would be scared at this point.
Dawn:
Yeah, I would be scared as well. If somebody’s threatening to cut your fingers off. Yeah, a bit scary. So, while Lynda’s manipulating ways of getting people to part with their money and never paying them back was finally coming to a head, something that Lynda had been involved in almost ten years earlier while working in a bank was also beginning to come back to haunt her. When Lynda was 17 years old she became involved with an Albanian man called Sokal Zefraj, who was an asylum seeker. Mr Zefraj wanted to stay in the UK and Lynda, always wanting to help others, decided the best course of action would be for Mr Zefraj to marry a UK citizen. However, Lynda herself was unable or unwilling to marry him as she didn’t want her parents to know about him, so Lynda asked her school friend, Amanda Robertson, the same friend who would become an employee at Lynda’s finance business, to do her the favour of marrying Mr Zefraj to help him out. Amanda agreed to this deal and the two were married. Then apparently approximately four years later, Amanda divorced Mr Zefraj and Lynda supposedly married him herself, a fact that Mr Zefraj denied, stating that he never in fact married Lynda. It’s not known which version is true, but Lynda did use his surname when making business deals. However, Lynda did have numerous aliases that she used when she was securing fake UK passports for people from Eastern Europe, another sideline of Lynda’s. And so due to her alleged marriage to Mr Zefraj and her apparent close relationship with him, shortly before Lynda’s disappearance, she was in the process of being recruited as an informer or a Covert Human Intelligence Source (CHIS) by the now defunct agencies Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency (SCDEA) and the Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA), who both were interested in the activities of Mr Zefraj. Apparently the go-ahead to recruit Lynda as an informant had been given on the 14th of April 2011. So, had this information somehow come to light and was Lynda kidnapped and tortured due to her apparently being in the process of becoming an informant? Lynda was getting in deeper and deeper and it was only a matter of time before her dealings caught up with her.
Cole:
She’s juggling a lot of plates this girl.
Dawn:
Yeah, I don’t know how she can keep up.
Cole:
And she’s got fake aliases for fake passports to help people come into the UK?
Dawn:
Yes, that’s correct. She’s busy. Lynda’s world really began unravelling in late 2010 when her school friend, Amanda Robertson, left Lynda’s finance business due to customer complaints and rarely being paid. Amanda was however still able to access Lynda’s emails, and Amanda had sent a text message to a mutual friend following reading a specific email sent to Lynda in which she said to the mutual friend “She’s got some deal involving Arabs and Albanians going on with peeps in New York. It’s all a bit dodgy sounding.” Was this another business deal Lynda was involved in to try and keep her head above water? But was it too little too late? Despite Lynda’s pending downfall, she spent Christmas 2010 in a plush hotel in Glasgow drinking Cristal champagne, but by the New Year things were visibly falling apart as Lynda’s finance business finally dissolved. Sadly though the failing of Lynda’s finance business didn’t just impact Lynda, it also impacted her parent. As when they had given Lynda the money from her grandmother’s bungalow sale for Lynda to start up her own business, Lynda had agreed with her parents that she would pay their rent, but Lynda was now unable to continue doing this and therefore her parents were made temporarily homeless. Lynda then had to apply for benefits and Job Seekers Allowance, and in March she pawned her jewellery. Lynda’s high life at this time must have felt like a distant memory, apparently telling people that if a deal didn’t go through soon she would be in a lot of trouble. Was this the same deal that her former employee and friend Amanda had seen in her emails? No one will ever know. Whichever deal Lynda had been trying to secure, it is doubtful that Lynda could have predicted just how much danger she was shortly to be finding herself in. According to Lynda’s mum, Patricia, Lynda’s behaviour had started to change towards the end of 2010, where she would still call her mum daily but she apparently became distant and said that she was too busy to meet her mum as much. This behaviour would continue until about 6pm on Wednesday the 13th of April 2011 when Lynda went to her parents home in Castlebank Gardens in Glasgow, a mere 2.3 miles or 3.7 kilometres from Lynda’s finance business for her mum’s birthday, giving her flowers as a gift. Patricia said that the pair had kissed and cuddled and Patricia had asked Lynda where they were going for her birthday, however, she said that Lynda was very tense saying that she had to leave but that she would be back in half an hour. She never returned, and this was the last time her parents ever saw her. It is not known what Lynda did for the remainder of the day on Wednesday the 13th of April and why she wasn’t able to go out to celebrate her mum’s birthday, but on Thursday the 14th of April Lynda was apparently lured from her home in Glasgow to a house in Broomhill Path, also in Glasgow, about 2.2 miles and 3.7 kilometres from where Lynda’s parents were currently residing, which belonged to none other than Colin Coates.
Cole:
And he was the person that she gave fake bonds to, right?
Dawn:
That’s right. Yep. Lynda drove to his property in a silver Vauxhall Astra car that had been hired for her on the 1st of April 2011. Upon arriving at the property she came face to face with both Coates and his friend Philip Wade. Wade, who was 40 years old, was a drug dealer and also enforced drug debts, and he just happened to have a grievance against Lynda as well, as apparently Lynda had extorted £2,000 or $2,700 from Wade’s family.
Cole:
So, did she know whose house she was going to? Because I wouldn’t have willingly gone to his house after selling him fake bonds.
Dawn:
No, I think she didn’t know where she was going, whose house it was. She probably thought, you know, she was good at blagging her way out of any situation, so I don’t think she thought she would have a problem with this one.
Cole:
Did she know that Wade was going to be there?
Dawn:
No, I don’t think she knew anything about Wade being there, that probably threw her off a wee bit.
Cole:
Right, okay.
Dawn:
I certainly don’t think she was aware of the danger she was walking into when she went there.
Cole:
Okay. Yeah. Maybe she just should have thought about that before she, you know, went ahead with it.
Dawn:
Yeah, just a wee second thought.
Cole:
Yeah. Yeah.
Dawn:
Either way, when she arrived at the property there was no way she could have anticipated or expected what happened next. Coates and Wade restrained Lynda and transported her to a flat in Meadowfoot Road, West Kilbride, which is a 47 minute drive south east of Coates’ home. A 47 minute drive where Lynda would have been absolutely terrified, thinking about what fate awaited her. Flat 4, 114 Meadowfoot Road belonged to David Parker, who was 36 and was a drug addict. Parker apparently had been approached at the beginning of April 2011 by a fellow drug addict, Paul Smith who was 45, to ask if it was possible if he could let his flat out for a couple of days. Parker had agreed to this, as he had not actually been living in the flat since October 2010 due to problems with flooding. Apparently a couple of days afterwards Parker was picked up by Coates, Wade and Smith and they all went to the flat, where Parker was told to remove photographs and anything that had his name on it. Parker said at this point he began to wonder what exactly was going on and what he was getting himself involved in, but said nothing and did as he was told. Parker and Smith were at the property on the 14th of April when Wade and Coates arrived there with Lynda, as they had been hired by Coates and Wade to stay at the property with Lynda in between Coates and Wade’s daily visits. Lynda was forced up to the attic, and Parker said he had heard “raised and muffled cries.” Once Coates and Wade had left, Parker went up to the attic and said he saw Lynda tied to an office chair by her waist and arms, and had tape over her mouth, with glasses on covered in tape so she wasn’t able to see her surroundings or where she was. He said that he was shocked and scared and just couldn’t believe what was happening. He said that when he spoke to Smith about his concerns Smith told him that Coates and Wade were serious guys not to be messed with and to just go along with it, what choice did they have now? Unbeknownst to Lynda, she would spend the last two weeks of her life in this attic, tied to a computer chair, facing the most horrendous torture imaginable. Apparently when Coates and Wade returned Wade had a torture kit with him, which included large garden shears, bandages, surgical tape and a bucket. Coates and Wade would apparently attend the attic daily, but as Wade was six foot six inches he was unable to stand up properly in the attic, and so it was left to Coates to inflict the torture on Lynda while Wade just stood and watched from the side-lines. Parker and Smith apparently would give Lynda cups of tea and soup when Wade and Coates left, and were well aware of her injuries and what was happening to her. They knew that she had injuries to both of her hands, her toes, bruising to her face, and she also apparently complained her legs were sore, but they said that they were too frightened to do anything to help her, too frightened to save her life. Parker said that Lynda was in a frightened state at one point saying that she wished she hadn’t got herself into this mess. All Parker said he could do was urge Lynda to tell Coates and Wade what they wanted to know. Apparently Lynda asked Parker at one point “Do you think Colin and Phil will ever let me go?” Parker was unable to answer this question. In the meantime, obviously Lynda’s parents would have been concerned, as, yes, Lynda had become distant and they hadn’t been seeing her as often as before, but she still called daily and obviously hadn’t been able to since being abducted on the 14th of April.
Cole:
Was anyone aware of Lynda’s disappearance or was anyone searching for her?
Dawn:
Well no, not initially, because, allegedly, in the days following Lynda’s disappearance, Coates and mutual business friend, Tony Kelly, paid a visit to Lynda’s parents home and warned them about contacting the police, telling them Lynda owed Coates £10,000 or $14,000, and that she had pawned two of his watches. On hearing this information apparently Lynda’s mum, Patricia, said “If she’s stolen your money I’m going to report it to the police. She has no right stealing money.” In response, allegedly Coates jumped to his feet and banged the couch saying “If the polis look into my computer I’ll get years, and don’t forget I’ve got UDA people and London people.
Cole:
The polis. [Laughter] UDA?
Dawn:
Yeah. It means Ulster Defense Association and it’s an Ulster loyalist parliamentary group in Northern Ireland that was involved in the troubles in Ireland.
Cole:
Okay. So did Coates have involvement with these groups or people?
Dawn:
Well, it’s not actually confirmed anywhere that this was the case, but Lynda’s parents took it seriously enough as they didn’t get the police involved for another month after this. Apparently, Mr Spence did ask Coates if he knew where Lynda was and he said that he didn’t.
Cole:
I don’t think that would have put my mind at rest though.
Dawn:
No, me neither. I would have at least checked it out and tried and got hold of Lynda.
Cole:
Yeah, definitely.
Dawn:
And then on the 20th of April 2011, six days after Lynda just disappeared and stopped calling her parents, Mr and Mrs Spence received a phone call on their mobile phone from Lynda.
Cole:
What? Had she escaped?
Dawn:
No, she hadn’t, and it’s never been explained why she was allowed to make this call. Maybe it was in order to stop her parents actually getting in touch with the police, maybe Coates realised that as time went on his threat would be less effective. Whatever the reason, she was allowed to call her parents. Mr Spence said that they were on their way to the supermarket and the phone rang and the caller ID said it was Lynda. Lynda’s mum answered but she was so distraught Mr Spencer had to take the phone off her. He asked Lynda where she was, but she apparently was very evasive saying that she was in London. He said that she seemed normal but he was not reassured by this phone call at all, and she would not tell him exactly where she was and just kept being evasive. Before ringing off, Lynda told her parents that she would speak to them again soon, but this was the last time they would ever speak to their daughter again.
Cole:
Okay. So, I don’t really understand, because if she’s been kind of tied up to a chair and she’s been tortured, why would she not ask for help or say I’m being held against my will?
Dawn:
I thought about that and maybe she was just trying to protect her parents. I mean she now knew exactly what Coates and Wade were capable of, maybe she thought if she didn’t comply then they might hurt her parents too. Or she thought if she did comply they might let her go. I mean, she probably wasn’t in her best frame of mind after having been abducted, tortured and held against her will for six days at this point. How she managed to come across as normal is a mystery.
Cole:
Yeah, I guess I suppose she didn’t actually know where she was, so I guess maybe she just didn’t know what was going on and she thought the best thing to do was to kind of follow what they told her to do.
Dawn:
Yeah. I can’t explain it at all. I don’t know what it was about. It didn’t appear to be a coded message, or at least if it was Lynda’s parents didn’t understand it. Anyway, on the same day this call was made by Lynda to her parents, Wade and Coates had already paid their daily torture visit to the flat in Meadowfoot Road, where Coates had cut off the tip of Lynda’s finger. However, later the same day Smith said that Coates came back by himself to the flat, which was unusual as Coates and Wade always came together. He said that Coates was extremely angry at this point and he said that he was “going to take her thumb”. Coates then apparently proceeded to go up to the attic, where Lynda could be heard to cry out “No Colin!” Coates then reappeared in the living room and indicated that he had Lynda’s thumb in his pocket. After Coates left, Parker went to the attic and saw that Lynda had tape around her hand, but that there was nothing where her thumb was supposed to be.
Cole:
So, did he leave the house with her thumb? Why would he even take that with him?
Dawn:
Well, because he had a plan. While Lynda was being tortured and questioned by the pair of them about her financial dealings, she’d mentioned a man that she was doing business with called John Glen, and that she had given a lot of Coates’ money to him. So, on the same day, the 20th of April, Coates decided to pay John Glen a visit to try and get his money back from him, as he obviously wasn’t getting it back from Lynda, and maybe he felt that taking Lynda’s thumb with him would give him more leverage. And he would be right. As when Coates threatened John and showed him Lynda’s thumb in a plastic bag and demanded he give him his money back that Lynda had given to him, John was frightened enough by this to hand over what money he could to Coates. Now you’d think at this point Coates would be satisfied because he’s got some of his money back and he’s taken out some vengeance on Lynda by the torture that he had carried out, however, Lynda’s nightmare would continue for a further seven days and nights, where she continued to be beaten and subjected to horrific torture daily.
Cole:
I just don’t understand why he would continue to do that when he’s already got what he wanted.
Dawn:
I have no idea. It’s horrific. He’s just evil.
Cole:
He really does sound evil.
Dawn:
So, on the 27th of April, 13 days after Lynda was first abducted, Coates and Wade told Parker and Smith that they could leave the property. Both Parker and Smith at this time apparently had the feeling that this wouldn’t be good news for Lynda, and still they didn’t go to the police to try to save Lynda’s life. Lynda’s parents had also not informed the police that Lynda was missing at this time, so no one would be coming to save Lynda. Apparently on the 28th of April, Coates dragged Lynda into the bathroom and killed her, before cutting off her head with a hacksaw. He then put her remains in the boot of Lynda’s silver Vauxhall hire car. On the 29th of April, using mobile phone records of the pair to track their journey, Coates and Wade drove Lynda’s hire car to a friend of Wades’, Lee Winyard’s, caravan in Tighnabruaich in Argyll, which is a two-hour drive away from the flat at Meadowfoot Road, West Kilbride. Wade apparently asked to use Lee’s boat, saying that they had something to get rid of, however, Lee refused their request. It’s not known where Lynda’s car or body were taken. A week after Lynda’s body was removed from the attic, Coates, Wade, Parker and Smith started on a month-long clean-up of the flat, where every square inch was scrubbed with bleach, and all the furniture, including the chair Lynda was tied to, bedding , crockery and carpets, were removed, as well as the floorboards being ripped up and replaced. Apparently the majority of the items removed were burned by Wade.
Cole:
So, it sounds like they did a really good job of cleaning up then, they’re not taking any chances to find any of Lynda’s DNA or of them being found in the flat either.
Dawn:
Yeah. They certainly did do a good clean-up job, however, not quite good enough, and they completely forgot that bought items can be traced too. The first time that Lynda is actually reported missing in any way is on the 13th of May 2011, a full two weeks after Parker and Smith were told to leave the flat where Lynda was being held, when fraud investigators called at Lynda’s parents home asking for her whereabouts, due to Lynda being investigated for defrauding a number of people in Glasgow.
Cole:
Oh yeah, the Chinese community went to the police didn’t they? So, they started an investigation into that. So that was exactly a month later when she was reported missing?
Dawn:
Yeah. it was a bit of a gap between going missing and being reported missing. So, by this time Coates and Wade presumably thought that they had gotten away with what they had done to Lynda, as they had tortured Lynda for two weeks, disposed of her body, and still there was no police involvement or even a report of Lynda being missing. Coates must have thought the threat he had made to Lynda’s parents had resulted in their silence. And this continued even when the police arrived at Lynda’s parents home looking to speak to Lynda on the 13th of May. Lynda’s parents did tell the police that they hadn’t seen Lynda since the 13th of April, but also that they’d spoken to her by phone on the 20th of April. They also didn’t divulge the fact that Coates had visited them and warned them from contacting the police. Therefore, a more serious missing person inquiry did not begin. It might have been assumed at this time that Lynda had chosen to disappear based on the allegations she was facing rather than anything else . At this point only posters were put up detailing that Lynda had been last seen on the 13th of April 2011 and was believed to be driving a silver Vauxhall car. It wouldn’t be until around three weeks when a full-scale missing person inquiry finally began. This was because Lynda’s mum, Patricia, had received a phone call from Lynda’s mobile phone, but it wasn’t Lynda calling. On the 2nd of June 2011, Lynda’s mobile phone had been found in a bin at a cafe in Kilbirnie, Ayrshire, a 20-minute drive north east from where Lynda was being held, and also apparently about a mile away from where Wade lived. The lady who found the phone called Lynda’s mum saying “I’ve called mum. I’ve found this phone.” The woman immediately took the phone to the local police station. It was following Lynda’s phone being found that Mr and Mrs Spence went immediately to the police station and told them everything they knew regarding Lynda and Coates’ business dealings, including the fact that Coates had visited them and threatened them into not contacting the police about Lynda’s disappearance. Finally on the 14th of June 2011 an appeal was made by Lynda’s mum and dad where Lynda’s mum was incredibly upset and sobbed throughout the appeal. She pleaded for anyone with any information about Lynda’s disappearance to contact the police. The investigation started with the police carrying out an extensive proof-of-life inquiry, which led to no clues about Lynda’s whereabouts. These lack of clues demonstrated to detectives that Lynda’s life had most likely been taken, not a case of choosing not to make contact but not being able to. Now, obviously, police were investigating Coates due to his business dealings with Lynda and also due to the threats he had made to Lynda’s parents about not calling the police, but the police had got nowhere with Coates and found that no one was willing to talk about him, so they hit a brick wall. Until that is they found that an automatic number plate recognition camera had picked up Lynda’s hire car on a section of motorway which runs between Glasgow and Kilmarnock in East Ayrshire on the 20th of April, but even more interesting is that both Coates and Wade’s mobile phones were cell cited in the same area at the same time. Coates had denied that he had seen Lynda since her disappearance. So could it just be a coincidence that Coates, Wade and Lynda’s hire car were in the same vicinity at the same time? Yeah, the police didn’t think so either. But yet again the police came across a brick wall, no one was willing to talk to them. But it was becoming clear to the police that Coates and Wade were somehow involved in Lynda’s disappearance, they just needed a breakthrough, and this came in the form of John Glen on the 16th of August 2011.
Cole:
So, John Glen was the guy that Coates showed Lynda’s thumb to so that he could scare him into giving him more money, is that right?
Dawn:
Yep, that’s the guy. John Glen had been sufficiently scared by the thumb incident that he had also kept his mouth shut about what he knew. Until that is Coates paid him a visit again on the 15th of August 2011, where, before he extorted money from him, he made him strip naked. John was terrified and scared that he would become Coates’ next victim, and so this time he didn’t keep quiet but went straight to the police the next day and told them everything he knew. Armed with this new information, the police bit by bit managed to get other witnesses to come forward and talk to them about what they knew, including Pamela Pearson, a friend of Wade’s, who said that Wade had actually told her that he’d help dispose of a woman’s body, until finally even Smith and Parker admitted to the police their part in the horrific last two weeks of Lynda’s life, including the address where it all took place. On the 28th of October, six months after Lynda was murdered, police broke down the door of Flat 4, 114 Meadowfoot Road, where they were met with a completely refurbished flat and attic space. Forensic teams spent a week examining every inch of the flat and attic space and, despite the clear clean-up job, a tiny blood speck was found on the linoleum next to the bath, which following being swabbed and tested was identified as matching the DNA profile of Lynda. A fingerprint was also found on the bathroom door which was identified as belonging to Coates. So, the police had witnesses coming forward with damning statements, they had Lynda’s DNA in the flat, and now Coates’ fingerprint was placing him in the property. To add to the evidence mounting against Coates, through some great detective work, CCTV footage was found of Coates buying floorboards, sandpaper, white spirits and nails on the 25th of May 2011, presumably purchased for the clean-up job at the flat. Things were starting to seriously unravel for Wade and Coates, but it only got worse for them on the 31st of October 2011 when Coates, Wade, Smith and Parker were taken into police custody and charged with Lynda’s abduction and murder. The trial of Coates, Wade, Smith and Parker on the charge of abducting, torturing and killing Lynda Spence began on the 16th of January 2013 at the High Court in Glasgow, one year and nine months after Lynda first went missing, with all four men pleading not guilty. The jury consisted of six men and seven women. The jury were firstly made aware of Lynda’s lifestyle and of the many “deals” she had on the go where she would take other people’s money in the pretence of investing it but actually spending it herself. They were told of her financial business and of how she helped those with poor credit gain mortgages fraudulently. They were also told that Lynda had been secured as an informant by the now defunct Scottish Crime and Drug Enforcement Agency on the day she was abducted. Now, I’m going to come back to that later in the story. They were also told that Lynda was being investigated by the police in connection with a fraud allegation involving the Chinese community. They were then told of Lynda’s abduction, the horrendous torture she suffered and her subsequent murder, based on witness statements and evidence. They were told DNA evidence had been found in the flat at Meadowfoot Road proving Lynda had been there, along with Coates’ fingerprint. They heard from witnesses, including Wade’s friend, Pamela Pearson, who told of Wade’s confession that he had helped dispose of a woman’s body. As well as evidence from Wade’s friend, Lee Winyard, that the two men had driven to his caravan at Tighnabruaich and had expressed a desire to get rid of something. Lee also testified that he believed the car the two men arrived in was the same car that had been featured in the missing person poster, Lynda’s silver Vauxhall hire car. They also heard from an inmate, Peter Hadley, who had been friends with Coates while he had been in prison for suspicion of murdering Lynda, who advised that Coates told him that he had killed Lynda, that she had tape over her mouth and he’d held her nose until she died, before cutting off her head and burning her remains in a furnace, having to set it to its hottest temperature as there were” still parts of it left”. He told the courts that Coates had told him that there had been other people present when she was killed, but that apparently no one else was directly involved. Although when cross-examined by Derek Ogg QC, Hadley was accused of being a malicious self-serving liar who had simply made up this story in order to secure benefits for himself, such as an early release from prison. The jury were also played a taped police interview with Parker when he was arrested on the 31st of October, in which he denied being involved in Lynda’s murder, but talked about being aware that his golf club had been used to hit Lynda but he wasn’t sure by who only that he had found it twisted to bits. John Glen also gave evidence against Coates from behind a screen, having been forced into a protection program as he was so scared of repercussions. He told the jury that Coates had threatened to kill him and had brandished Lynda’s thumb. John Glen wasn’t the only witness that was scared of repercussions from Coates and Wade if they talked, as both Coates and Wade threatened any potential witnesses. It was suggested at the trial that even the three men that were on trial with Coates were afraid of him. Thankfully, regardless of how scared of Coates and of any repercussions people were, they were willing to come forward as witnesses for the prosecution against the four men on trial because they were disgusted by what they had learned had been done to Lynda.
Cole:
It really sounds like none of the men involved could keep their mouth shut. I can’t decide if they were boasting about what they had done hoping to scare people to be quiet or if they were just stupid.
Dawn:
Yeah, I’m not sure either. Will we go with stupid?
Cole:
I would hazard a guess it’s stupid.
Dawn:
And then on the 6th of March Parker and Smith were cleared of murder and instead a reduced charge of detaining Lynda against her will, assaulting her and attempting to defeat the ends of justice was accepted by the Crown. The pair had decided to turn on Coates and Wade and give evidence against them to save themselves. Wade and Coates continued to be on trial for the murder of Lynda and continued to deny this charge. Both Paul Smith and David Parker appeared in court on the 15th of March to give evidence against Wade and Coates. The pair both testified that they were asked by Wade and Coates to keep Lynda at the flat in Meadowfoot Road and that Wade and Coates would visit the flat daily to inflict violence on Lynda. Parker actually broke down in tears when he recounted the violence that was inflicted on Lynda, recalling one particular time he heard Lynda crying out “No Colin” just after Coates had told him “I’m taking her thumb.” The pair may have given evidence against Coates and Wade, but they still did nothing to help Lynda in the last weeks of her life. Smith justified this by saying that he was too scared to do anything saying that he quite liked his fingers the way they were. Then it was Wade and Coates’ turn to take the stand. When Wade was questioned by the prosecutor, Leslie Thomson, regarding Smith and Parker’s testimony about Wade’s involvement in Lynda’s kidnapping, torture and death, Wade replied that it was “total fantasy.” He continued to state that he had no idea of Lynda’s whereabouts, but that he hoped she would hand herself in. He also stated that when he saw her last she was alive and “just the usual Lynda.” Wade had been described throughout the trial by witnesses as Coates’ right-hand man in the abduction, torture and killing of Lynda. When it was Coates’ turn to take the stand he had a completely different story to tell about Lynda’s disappearance than anyone else that had testified already. Coates told the court that he was in fact a close friend of Lynda and that he had helped her when she had to get out of Glasgow as she was being threatened by other business associates due to unpaid debts. He went on to say that she had actually arranged to stay at the flat with Smith herself and that it was sort of a safe house for her until she could get further away from the area, and then she simply disappeared one day, taking with her Coates’ laptop and Parker and Smith’s drug stash. Because, wait for it, that was actually what the attic was being used as, a cannabis factory.
Cole:
Was there any evidence of that when the flat was taken apart?
Dawn:
Eh, no, none that I can find. I think it was just more lies. Coates said that it was actually monstrous lies that had been told about him abducting, torturing and killing Lynda. Coates said that he did think people were scared, not of him though but of the police, and that every witness that had testified was under pressure by them to tell these lies about Coates. Not surprisingly Coates also denied showing John Glen a thumb in April 2011, as well as denying that he kept Lynda on a chair in the attic at the flat at Meadowfoot Road. Coates’ defence QC, which is Queen’s Council, Derek Ogg, tried to back this up by saying that Lynda’s DNA being found in the flat could have a perfectly reasonable explanation, and that Lynda may simply have cut herself. The defence stated that the Crown had not proven that Lynda was even dead. However, Prosecutor, Leslie Thomson, QC, countered this by saying that if Lynda had indeed been laying low in the flat as suggested, her DNA would have been all over the place instead of minuscule drops of blood being all that was found, thus indicating a thorough clean-up job. She went on to state that although no body had been found Lynda’s lack of contact with her parents, who she was in constant contact with normally, could conclude that Lynda was indeed dead. Following the closing statements, the jury finally retired for deliberations on the 2nd of April 2013. It took the jury about 20 hours over five days to come to their verdicts, following the 11-week trial, but on the 8th of April 2013 Wade and Coates were found guilty of abducting, torturing and murdering 27 year old Lynda in April 2011. They found Coates unanimously guilty of murdering Lynda and disposing of her body. Wade too was convicted of both of these charges, but he was cleared of cutting off Lynda’s head. Coates was also found guilty of threatening behaviour towards John Glen and of trying to extort money from him. Before sentencing, Lord Pentland said that it was due to Parker and Smith’s “despicable and cowardly” actions of providing Coates and Wade a place to keep Lynda and by keeping guard on her that ultimately led to what had happened to her. He went on to say that Coates and Wade had been convicted of “a truly monstrous and barbaric crime”. He described Wade as a “violent, dangerous man with no respect for human life or respect for civilised society”. He went on to give his opinion on Coates saying “from the extensive evidence I am left in no doubt you were the more dominant actor. You were the prime mover behind the abduction, torture and murder of Lynda Spence. I am convinced you have a devious and cruel personality. In my view you are a ruthless and dangerous man.” As the four men’s sentences were heard, they stood with their heads bowed. David Parker, 38, was sentenced to 11 years and three months and Paul Smith, 47, was sentenced to 11 years. Philip Wade, 42, was sentenced to spend at least 30 years behind bars and Colin Coates, 42, was sentenced to a minimum of 33 years in prison. This was one of the longest jail terms that had ever been handed down in a Scottish Court. There were gasps from the gallery as the men were handed down their lengthy sentences, before being led away. Following the verdict, whilst I’m not saying Lynda’s family felt relief as their beloved daughter was still presumed dead, they certainly must have felt that justice had indeed been served. Lynda’s parents, James and Patricia, did release a statement saying “There is no verdict that will bring our daughter Lynda back or spare her the terrible ordeal that took her life. We will never begin to imagine her suffering or comprehend the cruelty of any person who would do that to another human being. We cannot begin to understand or forgive what they did to our daughter, Lynda. No words can begin to describe the heartache and pain we are suffering. Lynda was a warm, kind and thoughtful daughter and was someone who always had time for others. We miss her so much.” In this statement, Lynda’s parents thanked the lead detective involved in the murder investigation, Alan Buchanan, and his team, the prosecutors who had worked to bring their daughter’s murderer to justice, as well as an organisation called PETAL, standing for People Experiencing Trauma And Loss, who had offered them a great deal of support. The detective who was in charge of the murder investigation, Detective Superintendent Alan Buchanan, advised that he was pleased with the guilty verdicts and the sentencing. He hoped that in some way it gave some satisfaction to Lynda’s parents, especially after they had to endure the horrendous details in the court case of what had been done to their daughter. He appealed to the accused to show some common decency and tell Lynda’s family where her body was so they could lay their daughter to rest. Unfortunately, Coates and Wade have shown that they have no such thing as common decency as they have never told the family where Lynda’s body is. While there was a search carried out in February 2012 in a well at a farm at Law Brae, West Kilbride, and a field has been excavated in the search for Lynda’s body, so far the searches have turned up nothing. Sadly, due to not having Lynda’s body, the exact details of what happened to her and how she died may never be known. All there is to go on is the boasts by her killers and the confessions of their accomplices. Now, I mentioned earlier about the Court being told that Lynda had been recruited as an informant. Well, after the ourt case, senior officers were asked to investigate their dealings with Lynda, as it had emerged in Court that Lynda had actually been recruited as an informer before she had disappeared not the day off as previously thought. Well, apparently, because she was an official informer for the agency before her disappearance, things maybe should have been handled differently. For example, apparently Lynda’s handler at the defunct SCDEA actually got told that Lynda had disappeared within 48 hours of this happening, but her handler didn’t deem it necessary to inform Strathclyde Police of Lynda’s involvement with them. Sharing this information between agencies could have proven vital, not only because Lynda was an authorised Cohort Human Intelligence Source and her safety and welfare should have been protected under the law, but also because if this information had been relayed to the police 48 hours after Lynda went missing, the police presumably would have started an investigation into her whereabouts a whole lot sooner, but also it might just have given Lynda a fighting chance of being found. In my opinion, agencies need to learn to better communicate and share information so that everybody involved has the big picture instead of small parts of it, because nobody can work effectively this way. So, what happened to Coates and Wade? Well, of course, after the sentencing they both launched an appeal, stating that they were victims of a miscarriage of justice, and also a further appeal against their lengthy sentences. After reviewing their appeals, one of the judges presiding over the case, Lord Gill, said that in his view it was an overwhelming case that the accused murdered Lynda and that in his opinion there was no miscarriage of justice. As for their sentence appeal, Lord Gill said he considered their sentences to be appropriate and he saw no basis to interfere with them. The appeal judges deemed that there was overwhelming evidence that both men were guilty of the crime they were charged with. Coates continues to cause trouble in prison. In January 2019 it was reported that he had been found with a plastic pointed three-inch t-shaped weapon on him made from plastic cutlery from the canteen. As punishment, he had been put in segregation for three weeks and removed from his Open University course he had been on. He was given a four-month sentence to run alongside his life sentence for this crime and was moved to another prison. Also in 2019 it was reported that Wade, who was then 49 and in Kilmarnock prison, had been given a job counselling other convicts. Apparently he got this role after being trained by the Samaritans. Lynda’s family were up in arms about this saying that it was all rubbish, how can he have this role after the horrific crime he committed? And if he was reformed and so caring now, why wouldn’t he tell them where Lynda’s remains were and put them out of their misery? Apparently, other inmates think it’s a joke that after what he did he is in this role. But a Samaritans spokesperson said “the listener scheme is our peer support scheme which aims to reduce suicide in prisons. Volunteers select, train and support prisoners. The listeners then provide face-to-face support to fellow prisoners who are struggling to cope. We have a rigorous selection and application process.”
Cole:
I think I’m with Lynda’s family and friends here, how can this man be the right person for the job?
Dawn:
Yeah, I agree. Now, sadly, in February 2014, Lynda’s mum, Patricia, who was aged 57 at that time, was diagnosed with terminal cancer and she was given less than two years to live. At this time, she appealed again to Coates and Wade to finally tell her where her daughter was, but again this fell on deaf ears. Now, Lynda was portrayed in Court as a con artist, known for providing fake bank statements and other documents to aid people with low income or bad credit to appear able to get a mortgage or loan etc, as well as manipulating people into giving her their money for ventures and projects that never were to take place and spending their money like it was her own, however, Lynda was a daughter and loved very much. Her mother, Patricia, stated that Lynda was a loving, caring girl and that she meant everything to her.
Cole:
I think this is a really unfortunate case, and obviously Lynda didn’t deserve what happened to her. I think she made some questionable decisions, but to kidnap and torture someone for two weeks over money, it doesn’t seem… I mean murder never seems justified, but to kidnap and torture someone over money doesn’t seem right at all.
Dawn:
It’s not right Cole. It’s just absolutely horrendous what they did to her, regardless of what she had done.
Cole:
Yeah, it really was horrendous.
Dawn:
Lynda clearly was a swindler and she had made many people victims of her manipulation and they did deserve justice for having their money taken from them, but by means of the proper legal channels. Lynda did not deserve what happened to her. Lynda was a victim too.
And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them, don’t keep it to yourself.
Cole:
Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com, as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.
Dawn:
So that’s it for this week, come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.
Dawn and Cole:
Join us there. Bye.
Granny Robertson:
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn
Hosted by Dawn and Cole
Researched and Written by Dawn Young
Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull
Production Company Name by Granny Robertson
Music:
Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
The Arlene Fraser Disappearance
The Arlene Fraser Disappearance
Episode Summary
A violent husband, a hit man or a pig farm owner; who kidnapped and murdered Arlene Fraser?
Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.
Listen on:
Death in a cold town: The Arlene Fraser case
by Steve MacGregor
Synopsis
There is a common misconception that, if a body can’t be found then no-one can be brought to trial for murder. That isn’t true, as one Scottish man discovered. Twice!
Arlene Fraser was an attractive, vivacious mother of two young children who lived in the peaceful town of Elgin in the north-east of Scotland. On the morning of April 28th, 1998, she was seen waving to her children as they left for school. One hour later, she called the school to check about a trip. It was a very ordinary day in an ordinary Scottish town. Yet, that was the last time that anyone saw or heard from Arlene Fraser.
Police found no signs of a struggle or foul play in the house and Arlene’s spectacles, contact lenses, medication, keys and passport were all still where she had left them. A vacuum cleaner was found in her daughter’s bedroom, plugged in but switched off, as if Arlene had been interrupted during housework and had stepped outside for a moment. However, despite one of the biggest police operations ever mounted in Scotland and a massive search involving the RAF, police dogs and members of the public, no trace of Arlene or her body were ever found.
Despite having a cast-iron alibi for the relevant time, Nat Fraser, Arlene’s husband, was eventually charged with her murder. However, many people felt that his trial was unfair, with the police accused of withholding vital evidence and questions being raised about the motivations and honesty of one of the main witnesses for the prosecution. Nat Fraser appealed, his sentence was eventually quashed and he was freed. Then he was tried again using essentially the same evidence and the same witnesses. The original verdict was repeated. He appealed, again…
This case raises a number of questions which still remain the subject of heated debate in Scotland. What happened to Arlene Fraser in April 1998? Did her husband really arrange for her abduction and murder? Were any of the trials and appeals fair? Were the verdicts correct? Who was the murderer?
Find out the answers to all these questions in this detailed and unbiased look at this extraordinary case.
Our Review
Dawn:
A violent husband, a hitman or a pig farmer, who kidnapped and murdered Arlene Fraser?
Dawn and Cole:
Hi wee ones, I’m Dawn and I’m Cole, and this is Scottish Murders.
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WINE, DINE AND STORYTIME PODCAST PROMO
Dawn:
33 year old Arlene Fraser was living at number two Smith Street in Elgin with her two children, Jamie ten and Natalie five, at the time of her disappearance. Her husband Nat had a restraining order as he had attempted to murder Arlene previously, however, this hadn’t kept him away. The 28th of April 1998 was just like any other weekday for Arlene Fraser, she got her kids ready for school and waved them off, but that wave goodbye to our children would be the last time she was ever seen again. Elgin is a town in Moray, now with a population of over 24,000, and is situated in the northeast of Scotland, lying on the south coast of the Moray Firth, approximately halfway between Inverness and Aberdeen. Elgin once had been a city in the 13th century when an imposing Cathedral had been built, but the cathedral was later abandoned making Elgin a town. The ruins of the cathedral remain to this day. For today’s story I gained most of the information from a book called Death in a Cold Town by Steve McGregor, where you can find even more in-depth information about Arlene and Nat Fraser than I’ve been able to include in this story. Arlene was a popular and outwardly confident person, but internally she lacked confidence and didn’t believe people when they told her she was pretty. This lack of confidence could have stemmed from always being compared to her elder sister Carol, who could apparently do no wrong. However, by 1985 Arlene’s sister had married and had moved to Erskine, just outside of Glasgow, and her parents had split up, with Arlene opting to stay with her father Hector in Elgin, where she worked in a clothes shop. At Hogmanay in 1985, when Arlene was 21 years old, she attended a party where she and Nat Fraser, who was 26 years old, finally got together. Nat appeared to be quite the catch as he was a friendly, confident, popular man, and he was a partner in a successful fruit and veg business in Elgin. Nat also played the guitar in a local band as well as being a rugby player. However, there was another side to Nat, he had a habit of fighting with others, both verbally and physically, after a few drinks, but due to his friendly nature this was shrugged off as just being Nat’s way. Nat was also very popular with the females and he would regularly have new girlfriends, sometimes even having a couple on the go at the same time. However, when Arlene and Nat finally got together at the Hogmanay party, he seemed to, at least initially, change his ways and to have really taken to her and she him. However, not everyone was quite as taken with Nat and Arlene’s relationship. Apparently Arlene’s sister, Carol, advised her to be careful and that Nat wasn’t the best match for her. However, Arlene ignored this advice and forged ahead with her relationship with Nat, actually moving into his bungalow at number two Smith Street only four months after meeting. The couple lived together quite peacefully and happily it would appear, both carrying on with the normal duties, Nat carrying out fruit and vegetable deliveries in the Elgin area and Arlene working in the clothes shop. It was in September 1986 that the couple announced they were engaged and had set a date for their wedding of the 9th of May 1987. However before the big day arrived, in late 1986, Arlene found out that she was pregnant. The couple were delighted with the news and were so looking forward to their wedding and their child’s arrival shortly afterwards. Arlene’s wedding day finally arrived and she looked beautiful in her white wedding dress with her father Hector walking her down the aisle to the waiting Nat, who wore a kilt and sported two black eyes. Apparently the stag do had turned a bit violent, but well that was apparently to be expected from Nat and it was just brushed off, and the couple went on to have a great evening reception. In August 1987, three months after the wedding, Arlene and Nat welcomed baby Jamie into the world. Nat and Arlene apparently were thrilled with the new arrival and they seemed to settle down into newly married, new parents bliss. Nat did want to continue to play with his band every weekend, and with him working Monday to Saturday delivering his fruit and veg, Arlene was finding it difficult to bring up Jaime without Nat’s support. Arlene asked Nat if he would give up playing in the band but he refused saying that he needed to let off steam after a full week of work, and he said that they needed the money. It also appeared that Nat had returned to his old ways from before he met Arlene. Arlene had heard that Nat had been seeing other women, but when confronted of course he denied this vehemently. The problem was Arlene was feeling more and more isolated, she had given up her job at the clothes shop to take care of Jamie and she also was finding it increasingly difficult to see her friends. Nat liked this though as he became extremely jealous if she went out without him, criticising what she was wearing for starters. He was very controlling and she was completely dependent on Nat, not only for support but financially as well, as her only source of money was her weekly allowance that Nat gave to her. Arlene was lonely and stuck at home more and more by herself, until she met 17 year old Dougie Green, a delivery driver who worked for Nat, less than a year into their marriage. Dougie ended up visiting Arlene when Nat was out at weekends and one night the pair ended up sleeping together. Nat found out about this and was furious with Arlene. As Nat’s jealousy and suspicions towards Arlene escalated, he became more and more angry and eventually his anger turned physical and he started to push her around. Arlene had apparently confided in her family that she was afraid of him sometimes when he got like this. One night in 1990, when Arlene came home from a Saturday night out with her friends, she was met by an angry Nat who accused her of being with another man. He ripped at
her clothes, slapped and punched her until she fell to the floor, where he then proceeded to kick her in the stomach. At this point Arlene had had enough and she was terrified of Nat, so she took Jamie and went to stay at a woman’s refuge for ten
days. During this time she also saw a solicitor in regards to divorce proceedings. However, as always, Nat was very sorry, he hadn’t meant to hurt her and that he got angry because he loved her so much and the thoughts of her being with another man had just taken over. He sent her gifts while she was at the refuge, until finally she agreed to move back home. Everything seemed to settle down again for a while, and in 1992 Arlene and Nat welcomed baby Natalie into their family. However, Nat’s jealousy festered continually in the background, and every time Arlene went out with her friends an argument between the two ensued when she returned. Apparently from the time Natalie was born and Arlene’s disappearance she had visited her solicitor a further three times regarding a divorce, but each time Nat would apologise and give her a lovely gift and convince her to give it another go. She actually had an appointment with her solicitor on the afternoon she went missing to discuss the divorce and finalise the paperwork, an appointment that she unfortunately wouldn’t be able to keep. In 1997, with Natalie now being five and Jamie being ten, Arlene decided that it was time to get some of her independence back, financially at least, and so she enrolled in a two-year business studies course at the local college to learn new skills she could use to make her own money. It appeared though that the allowance Nat gave Arlene was very generous as she had somehow manage to save up £3,000 or about $4,000, and in 1997 she had decided that she wanted to spend this money on a breast enhancement. She went ahead with this procedure without telling Nat who, because he hadn’t been in control of Arlene, was pretty angry about this.
He took his bad temper out on her in various ways for the rest of 1997, such as hiding her glasses or contact lenses and ripping her clothes, all to try to prevent her from going out with her friends. However, in February 1998 his temper erupted again and he attacked Arlene, beating her so badly in the jaw that she was unable to eat. Following this attack she lost weight and became depressed. She apparently told her friend, Michelle Scott, that she didn’t love Nat anymore and was terrified of him. After this vicious attack Nat agreed to leave the home for a month and to go and live with his friend Hector Dick, who lived in a farm just outside Elgin. However, after less than a week Nat was seen by neighbours back at the home, and soon after he had worn Arlene down and had moved back into the home. Only a month later on the 22nd of March 1998, which was Mother’s Day, Nat beat Arlene and strangled her to the point that she passed out. She had been on a night out with her female friends at a bar and after closing time the group decided to go back to Arlene’s friend Michelle’s house to continue the party. What had set Nat of this time, although it didn’t take much, was that Arlene hadn’t got home until 5:30am. I think maybe he could have been worried about her, but it does sound more like he was angry that he wasn’t in control of her. Yeah, I agree. However, when Arlene came around
she hadn’t remembered the attack. Nat had told her that she’d had some kind of fit and had collapsed. So, she didn’t remember being strangled? Yeah. Maybe she had passed out and blocked out what had happened. Maybe she was just in shock. However, later that morning Arlene noticed some worrying red dots on her eyelids and eyes, so she took herself to the doctor. Terrifyingly, the doctor told her that the red dots were caused by strangulation and that he had only heard of this being seen normally on the dead bodies of strangulation victims.
Cole:
Wow! I’m not surprised she didn’t remember after that then.
Dawn:
After some persuasion, Arlene went to the police and told them about the attack and what the doctor had said. This was confirmed by the police’s own specialist. Subsequently, Nat was arrested and charged with attempted murder. Nat was bailed and had an injunction against him not allowing him to go near the house on Smith Street or Arlene. Arlene visited her solicitor again after this and this time decided to start the ball rolling with a divorce and settlement. The settlement figure that her solicitor came up with was £250,000, which is about £460,000 and $577,000 in today’s money. Arlene was a bit reluctant to ask for this amount of money as she knew Nat would be angry, but her solicitor reminded her that Nat had a very successful business and that this was just a starting figure and that it was best to start high and come down, so Arlene agreed and a letter was sent to Nat’s solicitor. When Matt found out that Arlene was going ahead with a divorce and that the settlement figure she was asking for was in the region of £250,000 he was furious. Apparently he had said to Arlene that if she wasn’t going to be living with him then she wouldn’t be living with anyone. Nat was clearly thinking of himself as the victim in the situation he found himself in. To further anger Nat, part of the injunction was that he wasn’t allowed access to his precious car, a Ford Granada, as it was parked at the house in Smith Street. Arlene had apparently started using this car. That is until the 5th of April, two weeks after the horrific attack on Arlene, when this car that was parked on Arlene’s drive went up in flames, destroying the car. This fire was apparently deliberately started.
Cole:
Wow, that’s a coincidence, isn’t it?
Dawn:
Yeah. I wonder who could have done that? Then just over three weeks later on Tuesday the 28th of April 1998 Arlene disappeared. Arlene was seen hanging out washing at around 8:15am by a neighbour, and then seen by another neighbour at around 8:50am when she was waving Jamie, ten, and Natalie, five, off as they walked to their school not far away. Jamie was apparently going on a group event to Inverness with his school that day so Arlene called the school at about 9:41am to find out what time he was returning. The receptionist didn’t know the time so she said she would check and call Arlene back. However, when she called Arlene back approximately ten minutes later, there was no answer. The receptionist had been the last person to ever speak to Arlene Fraser. So, what had happened to Arlene between 9:41 and 9:51am? As Arlene had Tuesdays off from college, she liked to use this day to catch up with her friends whenever possible, and on Tuesday the 28th of April she had arranged for her friend, Michelle Scott, to come and have lunch with her at the bungalow. When Michelle arrived at about 11am for this lunch date, she knocked but there was no answer. The door however was unlocked so she went inside. She did find the fact that the door was unlocked very strange as Arlene was very security conscious.
Cole:
Yeah, I think that would have been a red flag for me too after what she’d been through.
Dawn:
Yeah, me too. Definitely. So, Michelle called out but there was no answer. When Michelle had a quick look around she didn’t find Arlene, but she did find a vacuum cleaner standing in the middle of Natalie’s room plugged in as if ready to be used but not switched on. She also found the washing machine on, which she also found strange as Arlene was terrified of the washing machine going on fire so she never put it on if she wasn’t going to be in the house. She also found Arlene’s contact lenses, glasses and Crohn’s medication lying on her bedside cabinet. Arlene had been diagnosed with Crohn’s disease a few years previous and had had bad flare-ups, she never would have left indefinitely without her glasses, contacts or Crohn’s medication. Michelle did notice that Arlene’s favourite brown coat was missing, so she assumed that Arlene hadn’t gone far and maybe she had just got delayed. Unfortunately, Michelle had to leave as this had just been a quick lunch visit, however, she did ring Arlene a couple of more times, but each time there was no reply. This was just so unlike Arlene, she was a creature of habit and didn’t just go missing for hours on end. Michelle went back to the bungalow again about 1pm, but there was still no sign of Arlene and everything was still the same way it had been when she was last there. This time Michelle left Arlene a note asking her to call when she got back. By 3pm Natalie had returned home from school and was spotted outside her house crying by neighbours, Irene and Graham Higgins, as her mum wasn’t home. They knew Arlene and Natalie so took Natalie into their home until Arlene arrived home. However, at 8pm there was still no sign of Arlene, but Michelle had arrived back and this time was beginning to think something was seriously wrong. Irene and Michelle went back to Arlene’s home again and found everything exactly the same as before, except there was now a note from Jamiee saying he had been home and had gone to a friend’s house as Arlene wasn’t there. Nobody had seen Jamie arrive or leave the home. When they returned to Irene’s home, following a debate with her husband, they decided to call the police. Two police officers, PC Neil Lynch and PC Julie Clark, arrived that evening and they looked around Arlene’s home, spoke with Graham and Irene Higgins and Michelle Scott. However, at this point, as it was very late in the evening and there was no body or crime scene, all they could do was put out a description of Arlene to see if she was spotted around the area. It wasn’t until the following day, the 29th of April, the detectives arrived on the scene and a detailed examination of the house was carried out and video recordings of the whole property were taken. While it clearly didn’t look like anything untoward had occurred in the property, the fact that Arlene’s glasses, contact lenses, medication, passport, driving licence and keys were all in the property, and after taking into consideration that her husband had been charged with strangling her until she passed out just over a month ago, the police decided to treat Arlene’s disappearance as something much more sinister than a missing person case. However, as there was no body or crime scene they knew it was going to be an uphill struggle to prove this. It wasn’t until the 3rd of May, five days after Arlene was last seen, that a massive search took place of all open spaces around Elgin. This was carried out by police and volunteers, including Arlene’s father and stepfather, however Nat did not attend.
Cole:
Okay, so why did it take so long to arrange a search?
Dawn:
I think it was because there was no body or crime scene, and that they were just busy searching the house and doing interviews. I think they also held out a bit of hope that Arlene would probably just come back.
Cole:
And do we know why Nat didn’t attend?
Dawn:
No.
Cole:
Well that’s suspicious.
Dwan:
Isn’t it. Interviews were carried out with any potential witnesses or locals that could give a better picture of Arlene and her life. A lot of people were of the impression that Arlene had just gone on holiday without telling anyone, and had just left her children to come home from school with no one to look after them.
Cole:
People actually thought that that’s what she would have done?
Dawn:
Yeah, I can’t believe it either. She was supposed to be a caring and compassionate person and doted on her kids, there was no way she was just going to have left and gone on holiday.
Cole:
No, that would be classed as neglect and she doesn’t sound like that type of person at all.
Dawn:
No, I don’t know what these people were thinking. There were also other rumours going around which also got into the newspapers, that Arlene was into drugs, drink and sleeping around. Well she had had that one affair and she did enjoy a night out with her female friends now and again, but did this really make her a bad person or parent or mean that she would just have left her children suddenly? Not only did her friends and sister Carol both confirmed that these stories were nonsense, but the police actually carried out tests using hairs from Arlene’s hairbrush post her disappearance, and this proved conclusively that she had not been taking drugs. It turned out that these rumours had actually come from Nat himself trying to paint a bad picture of Arlene and draw attention away from himself. Nat appeared to have a lot of supporters in and around Elgin and they were happy to repeat these untruths about Arlene. When detectives went to interview Nat, he was ready with a cast iron alibi. He stated that he started work at around 7:30am that morning, and that he had also taken a van boy with him on this occasion to help him with the deliveries. This was a very unusual thing for Nat to do, he always preferred to do the deliveries alone. He stated that about 9am he had made a phone call from a phone box in Elgin, leaving the van boy in the van. He had called a Hazel Walker, who he had previously been in a relationship with but hadn’t spoken to her in quite a while and he didn’t call again afterwards either. He said that the call had lasted about 40 minutes and then he continued with his deliveries. And wait for it, it just so happened that of all the phone boxes in Elgin this phone box was one of the few that had a CCTV camera pointing right at it, further providing and backing up Nat’s alibi.
Cole:
Very smart if you’re looking for an alibi.
Dawn:
Yeah, that was clever. And he just so happened to have made this phone call at the approximate time that Arlene is thought to have gone missing as well.
Cole:
That’s also suspicious.
Dawn:
Detectives were also immediately suspicious of Nat as this was a pretty cast iron alibi, backed up by witnesses and a camera. Who normally has such a cast iron alibi when carrying out the day-to-day duties?
Cole:
Having such a solid alibi such as his is almost as incriminating as not having one at all I think, sometimes.
Dawn:
In this case certainly. So, the police at this point have no body, no crime scene, no forensic, no witnesses, and Nat has a solid alibi. So, what had happened to Arlene Fraser? Now, the police did continue to have their suspicions about Nat Fraser having something to do with Arlene’s disappearance, even though he had a cast iron alibi, but all they could do was keep an eye on him. For the first few days after Arlene went missing, Nat came across as being very upset and concerned about Arlene, he checked the hospitals in the area and would constantly get in touch with the police to find out if they had any developments. However, after a couple of weeks his attitude completely changed, he stopped contacting the police for updates, they had to contact him to tell him what was going on. He was apparently joking to his friends that the kids would get used to Arlene being away. So, he’d gone from this really caring, worried estranged husband, who behind closed doors was controlling and beating Arlene, to showing his true colours and really not caring about where Arlene was or what had happened to her. Also, a few months after Arlene’s disappearance, Nat started to tell anyone that would listen the story that Arlene had simply ran away and had betrayed and abandoned her family, she had left her children, Nat, her sister, her mom and dad behind to start a new life. Now it all made sense why he had been spreading untruths about Arlene’s character, so he could set the scene for his next plan of telling everyone that she’d just ran away, all to take the limelight off him as a suspect. He was no fool, he knew that he would be suspected by the police of being involved in Arlene’s disappearance, which the police did suspect practically from the start of the investigation, but they just had no proof. Now, something else strange happened. On or around the 7th of May 1998, after the police had finished with the bungalow forensically and they had taken video recordings of all the rooms, they had allowed the family back in to use it. It was a few days after that a member of the family found Arlene’s engagement ring, wedding ring and eternity ring in the bathroom on a special hook. The family member was sure they had not been there before and so let the police know. The police immediately checked the video recording and discovered that these rings had indeed not been there at the time of Arlene’s disappearance. So, where had they come from? Nat had access to the house after the police had finished with it, so had he removed the rings from Arlene’s dead body and placed them back in the house? But why? Was this perhaps to back up his story that Arlene had simply ran off and left them? But wouldn’t she have taken her rings with her so she could maybe sell them for money?
Cole:
Yeah, that doesn’t make any sense if he was trying to portray that she ran away, she would have had her rings on her, she wouldn’t have stopped to take them off. And I can’t imagine why putting those rings back there would work out for him. It just doesn’t make any sense.
Dawn:
Then in October 1998, six months after Arlene’s disappearance, the police issued a further appeal asking for information on Arlene’s disappearance, but this time stating that they believed she had been murdered. Following this appeal, a mechanic who worked in Elgin was identified, who stated that he had sold a beige Ford Fiesta to a very good friend of Nat’s, Hector Dick, on the day before Arlene’s disappearance, that he had delivered it himself to Hector’s farm, and he said that Nat had also been present at the farm for the delivery of the car.
Cole:
What’s strange about that?
Dawn:
Well, nothing, if it hadn’t been a cash in hand job, with extra cash given to the mechanic if he said nothing about the deal, and the fact that three men proceeded to take the same Ford Fiesta, having been partially crushed and burnt, to a scrapyard at the beginning of May 1998 to be crushed and recycled. Although Hector Dick was questioned repeatedly about this, he denied ever having seen this car. At the beginning of 1999, with no word or sightings from Arlene, the police felt sure that she had been murdered, but without any evidence or a body they had to set about trying to prove for sure that she was indeed dead. They needed to prove this in order to charge anyone with her murder. They did this by checking Arlene’s bank accounts to see if there had been any withdrawal since her disappearance, which there hadn’t been. They had to establish that she had not been in contact with any friends or family since her disappearance, which she hadn’t. They checked that she had not been in contact with any GPS or Opticians in the UK to get vital medication or glasses or contact lenses, but she hadn’t. All the while Nat continued his daily routine of fruit and veg deliveries and maintained that Arlene had just gone on holiday, nearly a year since her disappearance. But fewer and fewer people were buying that story anymore. Plus, Nat had the most motivation for killing Arlene, he was waiting a criminal trial for her attempted murder five weeks before her disappearance. He possibly thought he wouldn’t go to prison if she wasn’t around to give evidence. She was also asking for a divorce and a huge settlement which would damage him financially, and he had an injunction against him after he had attempted to murder her so he wasn’t allowed in or near his home. If Arlene wasn’t around he would get back into his home again and see his kids. But he had a cast iron alibi, so even though the police felt he was involved somehow, obviously he couldn’t have kidnapped Arlene that morning, so the case went cold. Until October 1999, a year and a half later, when Hector Dick and Nat Fraser were charged with perverting the course of justice in connection with the Ford Fiesta. However, due to the lack of evidence, the charge against Nat was dropped and Hector’s trial was deferred. Then on the 1st of March 2000, nearly two years after Arlene went missing, Nat had his day in court in Inverness for the charge of attempted murder of Arlene just over a month before she went missing. This charge was reduced to assault and he was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Unbelievably he was released from prison in December 2000 after serving only half of his sentence. While Nat was in prison for the assault of Arlene, the police investigation continued and they were monitoring who had visited Nat in prison. He had frequent visits from another of his good friends, a Glen Lucas, so the police started looking at this man in connection with Arlene’s disappearance too. The meetings between Glen and Nat were recorded but there was no audio, so the police got in touch with a deaf lip-reading expert to help them determine what had been said between the two. Her findings were very damning. Basically she said that Nat was describing to Glen how he had cut Arlene’s bones into very small pieces so that no DNA could be found.
Cole:
Oh wow.
Dawn:
He made the motion of sawing his wrist as he spoke about how he had cut her up, with Lucas supposedly agreeing that this had been a good idea and that he was sure Nat would get away with it. They also mentioned a third man involved, Hector Dick, and how he had been instrumental in Arlene’s disappearance. Unfortunately the lip-reading expert’s findings were not able to be used in court, but had given the police what they had needed, they now knew that Nat had definitely been involved with Arlene’s disappearance.
Cole:
So, why would it not be usable in in court?
Dawn:
I think it was because things of this sort were relatively new and hadn’t undergone rigorous testing to ensure this was a valid practice to be used.
Cole:
How could he have been so stupid to say these things while he was in prison.
Dawn:
Oh don’t worry, we’ll get into that later.
Cole:
Oh interesting.
Dawn:
February 2001 was when Hector Dick’s trial for perverting the course of justice in relation to his involvement with the Ford Fiesta finally went ahead, with him pleading not guilty. However, on the fourth day Hector changed his plea to guilty. He now was stating that he had indeed purchased the beige Ford Fiesta but that it had been to use for a drink smuggling scam he and Nat were involved in. Due to his change of plea he was sentenced to one year in prison, and during his time in prison he attempted to hang himself. Now, in April 2001, Nat also found himself back in prison after being found guilty for lying about his finances in order to receive £18,000 or about $25,000 of legal aid funding. This was four months after being released from prison for assaulting Arlene. He was sent back to prison this time for 12 months, although he was out again in October 2001 after serving half of his sentence.
Cole:
There seems to be a pattern going on here.
Dawn:
Yes, half seems to be enough. After being released again in October 2001, Nat tried to get on with his life again, still doing his fruit and veg deliveries, but by this time there were less people who actually believed that Arlene had simply gone on holiday and left her children, people were starting to look at Nat a bit differently.
Cole:
It’s about time.
Dawn:
Plus the police were constantly questioning him about Arlene’s disappearance. Things were not going too well for Nat. Then on the 26th of April 2002, about six months after Nat was released from prison for fraud, Nat, Hector Dick and Glen Lucas were indicted for the murder of Arlene Fraser, each being charged with conspiracy to murder Arlene, murdering her and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
Cole:
So, did they find her body or have any other evidence?
Dawn:
Nope, nothing had changed, but things were about to get interesting. The trial of the three men began on Tuesday the 1st of January 2003 at Edinburgh’s High Court. The prosecution laid out their case, and on the Friday the jury were shown the video recordings of the bathroom, showing how there were no rings present at the time of Arlene’s disappearance, but that they had appeared in the bathroom on or around the 7th of May 1998. Everything seemed to be going well for the prosecution, until Tuesday the 14th of January when it was announced that the charges had been dropped against Hector Dick and Glen Lucas, and they were immediately released.
Cole:
What? Why?
Dawn:
Well, over the weekend Hector Dick had decided to turn on his long-term friend Nat to save himself, and he had told the police an amazing story of what had happened to Arlene. He said that Nat had hired a hitman to kidnap and kill Arlene, but her body had then been burnt and dismembered in a machine on Hector’s farm that was designed for cow disposal, and then her ashes were scattered. Now you might think okay, great, now we know what happened, good for Hector, however, it just so happens that Hector had been caught by the government and had a humongous tax bill to pay due to him smuggling booze, and this bill would have ruined him. Hector didn’t agree to testify against Nat until he had it in writing that the tax bill would be wiped out, which he received.
Cole:
Wow, you’re kidding, right?
Dawn:
No. So, now Nat would be standing alone with a new charge of arranging Arlene’s abduction and murder. So, the trial reconvened on Monday the 20th of January 2003 and Hector Dick was questioned for a prolonged period of time, and of course the question of the purchase of the beige Ford Fiesta was brought up again. Bearing in mind that at Hector’s trial in 2001, he said that he had bought the car for drink smuggling that he was involved in with Nat, however, now at Nat’s trial he said, under oath, that he had bought the car on behalf of Nat. So Hector had lied about ever buying the beige car initially and now he was saying under oath that he had been lying about what it was used for. What was to say that he was now telling the truth? Were the police and the prosecutors just grasping at anything they could to convict Nat as they knew they didn’t have enough evidence, regardless if it was lies or not?
Cole:
Yeah, I’m beginning to wonder that myself.
Dawn:
Over the course of the trial, Hector continued to say very derogatory things about Nat, blatantly pointing the finger at him for Arlene’s kidnapping and arranged murder any way he could. Nat also gave evidence at this trial in his defence where he denied vehemently murdering his wife or being involved in any way. Nobody knew what the outcome of the trial was going to be, it was very superficial, and the case rested on whether the jury categorically believed that Nat had returned Arlene’s rings to the house after she had been murdered. Carol, Arlene’s sister, and Hector, Arlene’s dad, were extremely nervous about attending for the verdict on the 29th of January 2009, almost five years since Arlene’s disappearance. But they needn’t have worried, Nat Fraser was found guilty with a majority verdict. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, to serve a minimum of 25 years. So, finally the family had some closure and peace to grieve for Arlene, even if they didn’t have her body they could try to get on with their lives as best they could. Right? Wrong. The story doesn’t end there. Following the trial Hector Dick appeared to have negotiated various deals with newspapers and he continued to give new statements about what had happened to Arlene, saying things like Nat had hired a hitman who had strangled Arlene at home and then Nat had gone and cleaned up, amongst other things. Bearing in mind this man had already lied repeatedly. This was extremely difficult for the family to hear, especially when they had their suspicions that Hector was more involved in Arlene’s disappearance than he had been letting on. Now, Glen Lucas didn’t just fade into the background either, he was apparently sick of having the finger pointed at him by everyone and so persuaded a newspaper to pay for him to have a lie detector test to prove once and for all that he wasn’t involved. He passed. In April 2005 a book was published called Murdered or Missing? The Arlene Fraser Case, which was co-written by Glen Lucas himself. This book basically suggested that Arlene was still alive and had walked out on her children. He alleged that she had been into drinking and drugs and having affairs. The book also ridiculed Hector Dick’s testimony. Glen Lucas was still a good friend of Nat’s and had stood by him protesting his innocence for years, he wasn’t going to stop now. That was until he died in September 2006 from a heart attack. Now, following Nat being convicted and sent to prison, revelations about the prosecution’s leading evidence for charging Nat started to come into question. There were now questions being raised about the three rings that were found in the bathroom. PC Neil Lynch and PC Julie Clark, who were first inside Arlene’s home on the night her disappearance was reported, came forward to say that they had actually seen these rings in the bathroom when they had first checked Arlene’s home that evening. They had apparently informed their supervisors about this but for some reason this information never reached the relevant people and Nat was charged, with the three ring saga being a large part of the prosecution’s case.
Cole:
So, who removed them then?
Dawn:
Well, it was claimed by a PC David Alexander, who had been part of the investigation, that these rings had been seen in a desk drawer of a Detective Sergeant. However, PC Alexander had his own problems and was in court for a breach of the peace charge in 2004 and was subsequently suspended from the police, however, he widely made it clear that he felt there was a cover-up going on in this case. He went on to give Nat’s solicitors a statement where he admitted that it was a Detective Sergeant David Slessor who had told him about seeing the rings. David was also involved in Arlene’s investigation. However, this fact couldn’t be corroborated by Slessor as he had apparently killed himself in July 1998.
Cole:
This just keeps getting more and more confusing.
Dawn:
So, was it true that there was a cover-up going on with this case, or was this just a scorned police officer wanting to have revenge?
Cole:
Why would it be a cover-up?
Dawn:
Yeah, exactly, I don’t know why. It doesn’t make sense. After this came out, an announcement stated that an investigation would be carried out into what had happened in the Arlene Fraser case to see if there was any merit behind the former PC’s statements. So, obviously this was great news for Nat, and so his solicitors immediately appealed against his conviction, and on the 12th of May 2006 Nat Fraser was released from prison on bail while he waited to hear about his appeal against his murder conviction.
Cole:
Okay, so he’s out of prison again?
Dawn:
Yep.
Cole:
So, is that him out of prison for good?
Dawn:
Well Nat might have thought so. Nat’s appeal hearing started on Tuesday the 13th of November 2007 in Edinburgh, this lasted for two weeks where all the evidence was presented and gone over. It can often take months for a verdict to be decided after all the evidence is presented, so Lord Johnston, the judge overseeing the appeal, instructed that Nat go back to prison to await the result. Everyone was shocked by this. In actual fact the verdict of the appeal wasn’t announced until the 8th of May 2008, so Nat had been in prison for six months waiting for the verdict. His verdict was upheld, his appeal was refused, and he was to serve the remainder of his sentence.
Cole:
It’s like being on a roller coaster now.
Dawn:
I can’t keep up. So, following this, Nat’s legal team continued to ask for appeals, which were all refused. That was until May 2011 when Nat finally had an appeal granted. He won this appeal and his conviction for the murder of Arlene was quashed and he was free to live his life again.
Cole:
Are you kidding?! What is going on here?
Dawn:
(laughs) At this point I just feel really sorry for what Arlene’s family must be going through. They just weren’t allowed any peace. It’s bad enough that they still didn’t know what happened to Arlene or have her body, now the only person who has the strongest motive for wanting Arlene dead and who had been making her life a living hell while she was alive, was now a free man, free to carry on with his life. This verdict must have crushed them. They thought that finally at least the ordeal of going through a trial was over, but it had all been for nothing and they were back where they started, no Arlene, no evidence, no witnesses, and Nat free to live his life. It was however announced straight away that the Crown office would be building a case in order to bring a future charge against Nat for the murder of Arlene Fraser. Upon Nat’s release, the police decided that it would be a good time to release extracts of the lip reading report which was pretty damning for Nat. There may have been a few stragglers in Elgin who still believed that Nat was innocent, but after these extracts were released, their minds finally changed. Nat was on his own. Even his fruit and veg business partner turned against him saying he wanted nothing further to do with him, going as far as suing him for an unpaid tax bill. So life for Nat probably wasn’t as great as he would have expected back home, but at least he was still alive. However, things were about to take a positive turn for Nat. Reports had started to surface questioning the lip reader’s expertise who had been used to determine what Nat and Glen had spoken about during the prison visits. Her credentials turned out not to be true, and when police gave the recordings and the original transcript of Nat and Glen talking in prison to experienced forensic lip readers to see how it compared, the results were alarming. The original lip reader produced a transcript which consisted of 2,100 words, and the new experts agreed with only 234 words of this.
Cole:
Oh no.
Dawn:
Not only that, but other lip-reading recordings the lip-reader had produced detailed transcripts for were reviewed, and many were deemed to be such poor quality that they weren’t able to confirm any words, even though the original lip-reader had produced a detailed and long transcript of what was being said.
Cole:
Oh my God.
Dawn:
So not only had the three rings appearance in the bungalow come into question, but now also the only other evidence that the police had had now been proven unusable. How could they now possibly bring a murder case against Nat? But they did, as on the 23rd of April 2012 the second murder trial of Nat began in Edinburgh, this time with the addition of cameras being allowed to record the trial as a documentary, which was later shown on TV, and called The Murder Trial. Nat’s defence team started the proceedings by saying that Nat had a solid alibi and he could not possibly have kidnapped or murdered Arlene, and Hector Dick was named as the actual murderer. In this trial, the questions about the ring placement validity and the lip-reading expert’s report was brought up by the defence. Also, Hector Dick appeared again as a witness for the prosecution.
Cole:
Really?! I mean it’s been proven that he lies and lies again under oath, why bring this man to be a witness again? Plus, he was happily selling stories to any paper that would pay him. It’s just annoying.
Dawn:
Yeah. It annoyed others too, and the defence spent four days ripping his stories apart, basically making him out to be a liar, although he did a good job of this by himself with his ever-changing answers. Other witnesses that were called included Hector’s brother James, Nat’s previous business partner Ian Taylor, police officer Neil Lynch, who had been first on the scene, the manager and employees of the scrapyard, and a taxi driver from Elgin, amongst others. None of these witness statements were as damning as Hector’s. Nat did not take the stand at this trial. Arlene’s sister, Carol, and her father, Hector, went through the ordeal again of not knowing what the verdict would be and were terrified this monster would walk free again. Thankfully they wouldn’t have long to wait, the jurors took only one day to deliberate. On the 30th of May 2012, 14 years after Arlene’s disappearance, the verdict by majority was guilty. Nat was sentenced to serve 17 years in prison without the possibility of parole. It was finally over for the family, they again had the verdict they deserved. They must have been overwhelmed with emotion this time, that finally they could concentrate on their grief of losing Arlene and not have the continual threat of her killer, her husband, being a free man. And that was the case until September 2013.
Cole:
Oh no, not again.
Dawn:
When Nat tried to appeal the verdict of the second trial. However, this appeal was refused.
Cole:
Thank God.
Dawn:
To this day Nat continues to plead his innocence, and has tried to appeal the verdict on numerous occasions. He will be 69 when he is eligible for parole. After the second trial, Hector continued to give exclusive interviews, for money obviously. Even as recently as the 28th of April 2018 he’s been making statements to the newspapers, this time he was urging Nat to finally reveal where he had buried Arlene’s body. Arlene’s family continue to believe that Nat arranged for Arlene to be killed, but many of them believe they know who the actual murderer is and that he should be behind bars too. Now, Nat’s daughter Natalie, who in 2020 was 27 years old, went on to have her own children. She has always maintained that her father is innocent of killing or being involved in her mother’s murder. She insists that the actual killer was her dad’s then friend Hector Dick. Jamie apparently lived in the bungalow in Smith Street for many years, with Natalie living there when she briefly split up with her partner. Arlene’s dad, Hector, who at the time of recording was 79, has only one wish, for Nat Fraser to finally reveal what he has done with Arlene’s remains. And finally, Hector Dick. He is still living in Elgin. Is it fair that this man told so many lies that he didn’t know himself what was true anymore, and that he had his tax bill written off? This man turned on his friend, told more and more outrageous lies, and yet he has lived a long and free life. Has there been justice for Arlene Fraser? Now, obviously there is a lot of information about this case and there’s only so much I can say in this episode, but like I said I did get a lot of information for this episode from a book called Death in a Cold Town The Arlene Fraser Case by Steve McGregor. I really enjoyed reading this book, as strange as that sounds, there was so much information there that I just couldn’t find anywhere else. If you have time and want to know even more about this case have a read, I’d highly recommend it. And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them, don’t keep it to yourself.
Cole:
Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com, as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.
Dawn:
So that’s it for this week, come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.
Dawn and Cole:
Join us there. Bye.
Granny Robertson:
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn
Hosted by Dawn and Cole
Researched and Written by Dawn Young
Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull
Production Company Name by Granny Robertson
Music:
Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
Glasgow's Day of Horror: The 1969 Shooting Rampage
Glasgow's Day of Horror:
The 1969 Shooting Rampage
The 1969 Shooting Rampage
Episode Summary
TRIGGER WARNING – This episode contains strong language, so listener discretion is advised.
Dawn and Cole recount the harrowing events of 15 July 1969, when James Griffiths went on a shocking shooting spree in Glasgow. What began as a misunderstanding escalated into a violent rampage, leaving twelve injured and one dead. The episode explores Griffiths’ criminal past, his escape from HMP Parkhurst, and the tragic murder of Rachel Ross, which led to a controversial royal pardon for Paddy Meehan. The hosts explore the complex web of crime, police actions, and the eventual justice—or lack thereof—for the victims involved.
Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.
Listen on:
Meehan v. Beltrami in case of Deadly Innocence | HeraldScotland
James Griffiths | Glesga Keelies Message Board
1960s Nutters in Glasgow – James Griffiths – General West End Chat – Pat’s Guide to Glasgow West End
Patrick Meehan – Peterman.org.uk
A madman on the rampage – Daily Record
WolfieWiseGuy: James Griffiths – Demented Gunman
The Griffiths Incident – 15 July 1969 – Glasgow Police Museum
Famed defence lawyer Joe Beltrami dies at 83 – Law Society of Scotland
The Ferris Conspiracy: Amazon.co.uk: Ferris, Paul, McKay, Reg: 9781840183887: Books
Deadly Innocence: Amazon.co.uk: Beltrami, Joseph: 9781851582976: Books
The Ferris Conspiracy
Paul Ferris with Reg McKay
Synopsis
On Glasgow’s meanest streets life started well for the young Paul Ferris. How did he become Glasgow’s most feared gangster, deemed a risk to national security?
Arthur Thompson, Godfather of the crime world and senior partner of the Krays, recruited young Ferris as a bagman, debt collector and equaliser. Feared for his capacity for extreme violence, respected for his intelligence, Ferris was the Godfather’s heir apparent. But when gang warfare broke, underworld leaders traded in flesh, colluding with their partners – the police. Disgusted, Ferris left the Godfather and stood alone.
They gave him weeks to live.
While Ferris was caged in Barlinnie Prison’s segregation unit accused of murdering Thompson’s son, Fatboy, his two friends were shot dead the night before the funeral and grotesquely displayed in a car on the cortége’s route. Acquitted against all the odds, Ferris moved on, determined to make an honest living.
They would not let him.
The National Crime Squad, MI5, the police and two of the country’s most powerful gangsters saw to that. A maximum-security prisoner, Ferris is known as ‘Lucky’ because he is still alive.
This is one man’s unique insight into Britain’s crime world and the inextricable web of corruption – a revealing story of official corruption and unholy alliances.
Our Review
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn
Hosted by Dawn and Cole
Researched and Written by Dawn Young
Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull
Production Company Name by Granny Robertson
Music:
Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
Cole:
Warning Wee Ones, this episode contains some strong language.
Murder, a shooting spree and a royal pardon. Nobody could have predicted the shocking events that took place in Glasgow, that all started with a murder in a town 40 miles away.
Dawn and Cole:
Hi wee ones, I’m Cole and I’m Dawn, and this is Scottish Murders.
[THEME TUNE]
CRIME DIVERS PODCAST PROMOTION
Cole:
On Tuesday the 15th of July 1969, James Griffiths went on a shooting spree lasting about two hours, which started in the west of Glasgow and ended up in an area in the northeast of the city. What started as a misunderstanding created a domino effect, that might otherwise not have been if it were not for a cruel and heinous robbery and a murder that had happened on the 6th of July 1969. This case is still being talked about on the streets of Glasgow today by those that remember the terror of the day or through stories passed down by family members. Today, Glasgow has a diverse architectural scene and is the fifth most visited city in the UK. Glasgow is situated on the River Clyde which is host to an abundance of futuristic looking buildings, including the SEC Armadillo. The population is estimated at over 611,000. In 1969 however, the Glasgow streets were known for their bloodshed due to gangs such as the Cumbie and the Tongs, but nobody was prepared for what happened on an otherwise quiet Tuesday morning. James Griffiths was brought up in Rochdale, Greater Manchester in England, and from an early age he was involved in crime, later turning to armed robbery and safe blowing by the age of 13. James was in and out of young offenders centres as a child, and as an adult he frequented prison. However, even though James was a time-served criminal, he was not respected by his fellow cons, mainly because he would spend his time in prison boasting about his crimes and saying things like one day he’d use a gun on the police and that he would never be taken alive. He wasn’t taken seriously and just thought to be all talk. After being caught and arrested for yet another crime, James was sent to HMP Parkhurst prison, which is a high security prison on the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England. Here he shared a cell with two Scots; Archibald Hall, who went on to become a serial killer known as the killer butler, and Paddy Meehan. Meehan was a top safe cracker and friend to Arthur Thompson, who the media dubbed The Godfather. Neither could be bothered with James and his usual boasting ways, until that is James managed to escape from HMP Parkhurst and get off the island, spending the ferry crossing chatting to a prison warden and his wife.
Dawn:
Did the prison guard not recognise him? Was he still in his prison clothes?
Cole:
It’s presumed that James had somehow changed from his prison clothes into civilian clothes, or at least had a coat on to cover his prison gear.
Dawn:
Okay.
Cole:
James was, however, captured again a few hours later on the mainland and brought back to Parkhurst, where he suddenly had a friend in Meehan, who invited him to Glasgow when he was released in early 1969, presumably for criminal activity as they were both safe crackers. Whatever the reason, this would prove to be a massive mistake by Meehan, one he would pay for dearly. James took Meehan up on the offer to come to Glasgow once he was released. On Sunday the 6th of July 1969, the two set out for a town called Stranraer, which is about 88 miles or 141 kilometres Southwest of Glasgow, to scope out a post office there that they had wanted to rob. On the way to Stranraer, Meehan and James would have passed through a town called Ayr, which is just under halfway between Glasgow and Stranraer, and it just so happened that the same night two men were breaking into the Ayr home of a wealthy elderly couple, Abraham Ross and his 72 year old wife Rachel, to steal their valuables. These two men tied up the couple before disgustingly assaulting and torturing them until they revealed where their valuables were. Mrs Ross had been bludgeoned so badly that she had sustained horrific head injuries from which she died. Abraham Ross was tied up and he had to lie beside his wife for a further 24 hours before being found.
Dawn:
Oh no, that’s horrible.
Cole:
It really is. And this murder shocked and scandalised Scotland.
Dawn:
I can understand why.
Cole:
Now, as Meehan was very well known to the police they frequently kept an eye on him, and they knew that Meehan was in the vicinity of Ayr that night, so he was arrested and taken in for questioning. On Monday the 14th of July 1969, eight days after the horrific murder, an identity parade was set up and a very frail and grief-stricken Abraham Ross identified Meehan as being the man that had broken into his house that night.
Dawn:
What?!
Cole:
There’s more. Abraham had also reported to the police that the robbers had addressed each other as Pat and Jim. Both the identity parade and the evidence was later stated by Meehan and others to have been set up by the police.
Dawn:
Oh okay.
Cole:
So, Meehan was in a bit of trouble. He knew he didn’t do what he was being accused of, but he’d been up to no good with James that night. Meehan didn’t want to point the finger at James and use him as an alibi, something to do with the criminal code, and James wasn’t coming forward by himself. When it became clear that Meehan was facing a murder charge he eventually gave the police James’ name as an alibi, and said that he was staying at 29 Holyrood Crescent in Glasgow’s West End under the name of Mr Douglas. Meehan was released from custody while the police spoke to James about providing him an alibi. The police knew that James, now 34, had a criminal record for armed robbery and safe cracking, so they sent five plain clothes detectives to question James about providing Meehan an alibi, at his flat in Holyrood Crescent on the morning of Tuesday the 15th of July 1969. They could not have imagined in their wildest dreams exactly what was about to unfold in front of them. Now, from his flat, James saw the detectives arriving. He heard them climbing the stairs of the block of flats and knock repeatedly at his door. They received no answer. The detectives knew that James was home and upon getting no answer they broke the door down, coming face to face with James screaming, swearing and firing a sawn off shotgun at them.
Dawn:
Shit!
Cole:
The detectives ran for the stairs but a shot caught one detective, DC William Walker who was 28, square in the back, sending him tumbling down the stairs. James barricaded himself in the flat, and going from window to window took shots at anyone that had the misfortune of being near his flat at the time, including Samuel Collins who was 65, Mary McKinnon who was 46 and Jack Kerr who was 22. All had been short but thankfully survived their injuries. Now, apparently a lady who lived just along from where the shooting was taking place was up a ladder decorating her front door. At first she didn’t pay any attention to the gunfire, maybe just a normal Tuesday for her. It wasn’t until a bullet embedded itself right next to her in the wall that she decided that maybe she had better get inside out the way. James would have known that if he was to continue to keep the police at bay, then he would need more ammunition, so he made his way down to his car, undetected, and from the boot of his car he retrieved a sniper’s hunting rifle and bullets, before heading back to his flat and continuing to shoot at anything or anyone in the vicinity, including the ever-increasing police presence with their bulletproof shields and police marksmen. There’s actually a picture of James at the window of his flat in Holyrood with his rifle in his hand taking shots at everyone below, which I’ll put on our website. It’s really eerie to see it now. The street would have been in complete panic with gunfire raining down onto the street, and people below screaming and running to escape. The police were just about ready to move in with tear gas when suddenly there was silence. The police below looked at each other perplexed. Had James given up?
Dawn:
Well had he?
Cole:
No. James had escaped his flat through an attic window and made his way down into an alley behind the flat. The next sighting of James was on Henderson Street, about a six minute leisurely stroll from his flat, although I doubt he would have been strolling, I think he would have been running.
Dawn:
I think he might have been.
Cole:
Here he came across a 57 year old salesman, James Kerr, in his car, who probably just stopped to find out the details of the next client he was going to visit. He hadn’t seen James approach, so he was a bit taken aback when a dark-haired frenzied man with a bandolier of bullets across his chest loomed over him, with a rifle in one hand and a shotgun in the other. His surprise rapidly turned to fear as James raised his gun and fired a shot through the car window, deafening Kerr, before pulling him out of his car and speeding off in it.
Dawn:
Was Kerr shot as well?
Cole:
Yeah, James Kerr had been shot on his left shoulder, but thankfully he survived the shooting.
Dawn:
Oh good.
Cole:
As James drove manically about the nearby streets, he continued to shoot at passers by, and unfortunately shot at and grazed 24 year old John Curry’s ear in Napier’s Hall Street. He also shot Ian Watson who was 23 in Great Western Road, and shot at Robert McAdam, who was 57, in Barrington Drive. Again, thankfully, although they would have been in an absolute shock and disbelief, these men survived their injuries. Obviously, James found it quite difficult to drive while firing shorts at pedestrians as he passed them, as after only driving the stolen car for about three miles or just under five kilometres he crashed it. Unfortunately he was unhurt and he ran to the nearest pub, which was The Round Toll on Possil Road. Now, pubs in the area were used to a bit of trouble, but I think this was even a step up for this pub. Once in the pub James waved his rifle around, firing two shots into the ceiling and yelling “Don’t Mess! I’ve got a gun, I’m gonna stick you up!” Bang, bang, bang, bang. bang!
Dawn:
(laughs) You fuc*ing idiot. What did he really say, Cole?
Cole:
“Don’t mess! I’ve shot two coppers already.” He then helped himself to a bottle of brandy and proceeded to gulp it down, while the punters looked on terrified. A 65 year old man called William Hughes happened to move slightly, causing James to turn around and shoot him twice. William died a few days later from his wounds.
Dawn:
No!
Cole:
Yeah. It was really unfortunate.
Dawn:
Oh poor man.
Cole:
The bar manager, James Connolly, was having no more of this. He had tolerated James helping himself to a drink, but when he picked on his customers he stepped over the line for the bar manager. The bar manager shouted at James “You dirty bastard! What did you do that for?! He was just an old man.”
Dawn:
Oh I love this man.
Cole:
He then grabbed James by the scruff of his neck and forcibly threw him out of the pub, dumping him on the pavement, before turning on his heels and walking back into the pub.
Dawn:
Yay!
Cole:
Usually in Scotland you get oxtered out of the club.
Dawn:
Is that true?
Cole:
Yeah.
Dawn:
I’ve never heard of that.
Cole:
Yeah. They put their hands under your armpits and oxter you out of the club.
Dawn:
Oh. No, I did not know that.
Cole:
I saw Billy Connolly talking about it once. Do you want to explain what an oxter is?
Dawn:
Oh, it’s your armpit.
Cole:
It’s the Scottish word for your armpit. James Connolly, the bar manager, was recognized for his bravery and received the Glasgow Corporation Medal for Bravery for his heroism. So well deserved. What an amazing guy for protecting his punters.
Dawn:
I’m so glad that he was recognised for doing that. That was pretty amazing.
Cole:
Yeah. Really brave. No doubt James wasn’t too happy about being dumped outside on the pavement, and probably fully intended to march back into the pub and finish the job he started. However, another brave passer-by had seen James wielding a gun and a rifle and decided to tackle him outside the pub. Unfortunately, the man was unsuccessful and was left wounded in struggle. By this time the police had heard the shots being fired and were in pursuit. James would have heard the sirens getting closer, so now he was looking for his next mode of transport to escape. It just so happened that a lorry driven by John Craig had pulled up nearby the pub when he heard what he thought was an explosion. He certainly didn’t expect to see a man wielding a rifle and a shotgun, firing shots at him, while running in his direction on a Tuesday morning. John, thankfully, had quick reactions and was out of his cab sprinting away to take shelter behind a lamppost as fast as he could, with James taking a final shot at him and thankfully missing, before he jumped in his lorry and sped away.
Dawn:
I’m sorry, he hid behind a lamppost?
Cole:
Yes, he hid behind a lamppost, he must have been a very skinny gentleman. So, James, in his newly acquired lorry, continued to shoot at unsuspecting pedestrians as he flew down street after street, this time hitting Peter Patterson who was 39 in Possil Road. James wasn’t that familiar with the city but he probably would have thought that as long as he could hear the sirens of the police then he could avoid them, changing his direction and just keeping one step ahead of them. This might have been a good strategy if he’d known the area, however, he ended up in the Springburn area of Glasgow, about a 1.5 mile or 2.4 kilometre drive from The Round Toll Pub. He hurled the lorry into Kay Street and slammed on the brakes, he had reached a dead end. He then jumped down from the lorry cab, with his shotgun and rifle in hand, and made his way to 26 Kay Street, where he broke into the top floor flat. There have been two different reports about what he found when he broke into this flat; one version is that the tenants, Valerie Boyd who was 21 and her young daughter, were inside the flat. It was reported that Valerie had been shot but not fatally, before they managed to escape the flat. The second version is the flat was in fact empty when James broke. I’m not sure which version is true, either way nobody was killed. James then went from window to window in the flat in Kay Street, from the back to the front of the flat, again firing at anyone that happened to be in the vicinity. Unfortunately, situated at the back of the flat and within shooting distance was a children’s playground where many children were enjoying being out and about in the sunshine, as it was the school holidays. James’ shots managed to hit an eight-year-old boy, called Peter Traynor, in the stomach, but thankfully it was only superficial, still traumatic though. And also a mother called Mrs Irene Reid, who was shot in the leg. The police eventually did manage to get all of the terrified and crying children and their mothers out of harms way. The police had by this time surrounded the whole flat, back and front, so there was at least no chance of James slipping out through a back alley this time. The police also by this time realised just what they were dealing with and a phone call was made to the Army asking for help. In the confusion a baby in a pram had been left on Kay Street and bullets were fired around the pram. I really can’t imagine why the pram with a baby in it had been left in the streets, in the line of fire, when a gunman was firing shots, but thankfully the baby was not hit and a brave policeman crawled out from safety, grabbed the baby and it was passed safely into a ground floor flat. Hopefully, afterwards, Child Services were also called.
Dawn:
(laughs) Can you imagine though. You’re just walked along the street, and you’re like, gunfire, I know what I’ll do. (laughs) I’m just leaving this thing here, fu*k it. It’ll be fine.
Cole:
Fu*k this baby.
Dawn:
Didn’t like it anyway.
Cole:
Also walking down Kay Street, unaware of what was about to happen, was a man who had just come out of hospital where he’d been recovering from a knife attack. James shot this poor man in the neck. Someone else who had been in the wrong place at the wrong time was a couple who had only just got married, Irene Reed, who was an 18 year old, was hit, and her new husband was so angry that the police had to jump on him and hold him back as he ran towards James and his shotgun.
Dawn:
Oh don’t mess with his woman eh?
Cole:
Exactly. So, with the shooting spree now having been going on for almost two hours, and shots still being fired from every room of the flat above, endangering everyone below, and with no end in sight, the daunting task of stopping James was given to two brave police officers, Chief Superintendent Malcolm Finlayson and Detective Sergeant Ian Smith. They both armed themselves with revolvers and made their way undetected to the flat, slowly and quietly going up the stairs. When they got to the front door of the flat Finlayson opened the letterbox so that you could see inside. However, the metal squeaked on being opened and gave them away to James inside.
Dawn:
Oh no.
Cole:
On finding out that the police were at the door of the flat he raised his rifle and came running towards the door. Knowing James would be more than likely to shoot them if they didn’t do something, Finlayson placed the barrel of his gun through the letterbox and fired once, hitting James in the shoulder. James fell to the floor and the two men instantly came through the door and surrounded him. They kicked his guns away and carried him downstairs to their waiting colleagues. However, on reaching the street, James had died from his wounds. Apparently, the bullet had gone into James’s shoulder, ricocheting off a bone and sliced through his aorta artery, the main artery of the heart. Later, a pathologist said the path the bullet had taken was a chance in a thousand. The frenzied shooting spree was finally over, but not before James had shot a hundred bullets, injured 12 people and killed one, William Hughes. James was the first wanted man on record to be shot dead by Scottish police. James was given a paupers funeral and lies in Linn Cemetery in Glasgow. Chief Superintendent Malcolm Finlayson and Detective Sergeant Ian Smith both received the Glasgow Corporation Medal for Bravery, and were given the British Empire Medal by the Queen at Buckingham Palace. Finlayson apparently got to keep the actual gun that he shot James with when he retired in 1971, and he kept it in a box at his home on the Isle of Skye until he died in 1994 at the age of 83.
Dawn:
Good for them, I’m glad they both got recognised for what they did.
Cole:
Yeah, me too. So the story doesn’t actually end there, because we still haven’t had justice for Rachel Ross.
Dawn:
Oh my God, yes! I’d totally forgotten about why this had all started.
Cole:
Yeah, well, a lot has happened since then.
Dawn:
Yeah, it has.
Cole:
So, after James’s shooting spree, the police took this as an act of guilt, and in their minds that meant Meehan was guilty of the murder of Rachel Ross too. So, Meehan was immediately arrested and charged.
Dawn:
I don’t quite follow their thinking there, but, okay.
Cole:
I guess they couldn’t really know because James had died and hadn’t got a chance to say why he did what he did.
Dawn:
Yeah. So, they’ve just made an assumption.
Cole:
Yes. Meehan went to trial on the 24th of October 1969, where he submitted a defence of incrimination, claiming that the murder had actually been committed by another man named Ian Waddell.
Dawn:
What does defence of incrimination mean?
Cole:
So, it just means that he was alleging someone else had committed the crime, Ian Waddle.
Dawn:
Ah, I see, okay.
Cole:
Meehan knew of Waddell due to their crime world connections, so I’m assuming he was given Waddell’s name by one of his associates. However, despite this, Meehan was found guilty by a majority verdict of the murder of Rachel Ross and received a life sentence.
Dawn:
Okay, but I thought that he was somewhere else that night?
Cole:
Well, that is what he maintained, but obviously because Abraham Ross identified him they thought that it was an open and shut case, but not everybody agreed.
Dawn:
Hmm I can see why.
Cole:
Meehan spent his time in prison in solitary confinement and continued to proclaim his innocence from prison. He continued to appeal and assert that he was the victim of police framing, specifically stating that the identity parade had been rigged and the evidence had been suppressed that pointed to others haven’t actually committed the murder. This was backed up by journalist and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy, Meehan’s advocate at the trial Nicholas Fairbairn, and others, who all suspected that there had indeed been a miscarriage of justice. Also, in Kennedy’s book in 1975, he puts forward two names that were likely to be the killers; Ian Waddell and William Tank McGuinness.
Dawn:
Okay, he’s new.
Cole:
He is new. With the support of Kennedy, Fairbairn and Joe Beltrami, Meehan solicitor at the time of the trial, a campaign was set up, which eventually secured Meehan a Royal Pardon in May 1976, as well as receiving compensation of £50,000 in 1984, which is around £170,000 and about $213,000 in today’s money. On receiving his Royal Pardon and being released, Meehan had spent seven years in prison.
Dawn:
How were they able to secure the Royal Pardon? Was there new evidence presented?
Cole:
Okay, so this is quite a story, with a couple of different versions being told. So, you remember I mentioned that Ludovic Kennedy had put forward in his book that a likely killer of Rachel Ross could have been William Tank McGuiness?
Dawn:
Yes.
Cole:
Well, it turns out that William Tank McGuiness was also a client of Joel Beltrami, Meehan solicitor at the time of the trial and before.
Dawn:
Oh really. Wouldn’t that have been a conflict of interest?
Cole:
It would, and this is why Joe Beltrami was unable to reveal the fact that he actually knew of Tank McGuiness’s involvement in Rachel Ross’s murder, that was until Tank McGuiness’s death in 1976.
Dawn:
So, he knew that someone else was actually responsible for Rachel’s murder, but he kept quiet, even though he was representing Meehan and he was actually going to go to prison for it?
Cole:
Yes. Although Joe Beltrami believed that due to a client confidentiality he was unable to reveal this fact until after Tank McGuiness’s death, and this may have been the reason why he fought so hard to secure a Royal Pardon for Meehan.
Dawn:
That’s quite shocking that Beltrami only came forward with this information after Tank McGuiness’s death.
Cole:
I know. Meehan’s Royal pardon followed shortly after.
Dawn:
Poor Meehan. I mean he really got the raw end of the stick here didn’t he?
Cole:
Yeah, he did. And in an inquiry report by Lord Hunter, he too did not agree with Beltrami’s claim that there was a solicitor client relationship between him and Tank McGuinness at the time in question, going as far as suggesting that perhaps the best thing that Beltrami could have done back in 1969 when he was representing Meehan was to have stepped down and let another solicitor represent Meehan.
Dawn:
Well, yeah, that was the least he should have done. So, anyway, what happened to Tank McGuiness? How did he actually die?
Cole:
Well, there’s a couple of different stories. One is he was killed in a drunken street brawl. However, I found another story that was very interesting. In the book The Ferris Conspiracy by Reg McKay and Paul Ferris, it is stated that an arrest warrant was out for Tank McGuiness when he was picked up by two police officers. One of these police officers later stated that instead of taking him to the police station, they were ordered to drop him in a specific street in Glasgow, where he was subsequently beaten to death.
Dawn:
Oh, so, who was behind that?
Cole:
Well according to The Ferris Conspiracy book it was Arthur Thompson, who was a Scottish gangster known as The Godfather, who had ordered Tank McGuiness to be killed.
Dawn:
Why would he do that?
Cole:
Well, the book goes on to say that both Meehan and Tank McGuinness were long-term friends and asssociates of Arthur Thompson. However, more importantly, Joe Beltrami was Arthur’s solicitor, who had frequently got him out of tight scrapes, and he knew that Beltrami was struggling to get Meehan a Royal Pardon and was unable to break his client confidentiality restrictions with Tank McGuiness, so Arthur stepped in.
Dawn:
Alright, that’s quite interesting.
Cole:
And there’s even more. Following the information about Tank McGuiness’s involvement in the Rachel Ross murders coming out, it was then reported that apparently McGuiness had been stopped near Rachel and Abraham Ross’s house on the night of the murder by the police.
Dawn:
What?!
Cole:
But he supposedly pretended he was just drunk and had just missed the last bus home to Glasgow. He wasn’t arrested but sent on his way.
Dawn:
I’m shocked. I don’t know what to say.
Cole:
Well, I guess the police didn’t know about the break-in and the murder of Rachel at that point, it would have been 24 hours later before they were found tied up, but when they did know you’d think they might have followed up that line of inquiry.
Dawn:
Yeah, they should definitely have followed up that line of inquiry. I can now understand why Meehan was so suspicious of a police cover up.
Cole:
Yeah, it really makes no sense. A further interesting development that didn’t happen until after McGuiness’s murder is that apparently there were two witnesses, a Mr and Mrs Marshall who had seen two men acting suspiciously near Rachel and Abraham’s house shortly before the murderer. Upon Mrs Marshall finally being shown the correct photograph seven years later, she positively identified that it was William McGuiness that she had seen near Rachel and Abraham’s home that day.
Dawn:
Wait, you said they were shown the correct photograph seven years later, what did you mean?
Cole:
Well, according to Meehan in an article in The Herald newspaper on the 22nd of November 1989, Beltrami had told the police to show the witnesses a picture of a Michael McGuiness instead of a William McGuiness.
Dawn:
What?
Cole:
Yeah. Even though Beltrami knew William McGinnis and presumably what he looked like as he was one of his clients. And even more incredulously, William McGuiness actually had a record of tying people up.
Dawn:
That’s quite incredible really, and I could totally see why Meehan felt overwhelmingly that he was being framed.
Cole:
So can I. In Beltrami’s book A Deadly Innocence, he did concede that with hindsight there could have been MI5 involvement.
Dawn:
What now?
Cole:
He went on to state that he knew nothing of William McGuiness’s involvement until much later. And, according to the Law Society of Scotland, he had only been able to disclose this information following McGuiness’s death, due to their client solicitor relationship, but that he had campaigned for seven years to secure Meehan a Royal Pardon.
Dawn:
Alright, that was really big of him.
Cole:
I know. Joe Beltrami died in 2015 at the age of 83. Following Meehan’s Royal pardon in 1976, journalist and broadcaster Ludovic Kennedy continued a prolonged campaign and eventually an inquiry was ordered into the miscarriage of justice, which was chaired by Lord Hunter, who was a Scottish judge at the time. However, having received and processed all of the information that was available to him about this case, it would take a further five years before Lord Hunter eventually concluded in a report in July 1982 that Meehan could not have committed the murder, but that he may actually have been involved in the background. So, he believed that Meehan may have been aware of the robbery, but maybe not what would be done to Rachel and Abraham. The report also added that there was insufficient evidence to support the claim that Meehan had been a victim of police conspiracy. Ludovic Kennedy, who has written many many books, also wrote a book about Meehan’s case called A Presumption of Innocence, just if you want to delve further into this particular case. I could literally do a whole episode about Meehan alone. If you are interested there is a whole host of information on the internet about Meehan and his fight for justice. Meehan died from throat cancer on the 14th of August 1994 at the age of 67.
Dawn:
So, after all that, we still haven’t had justice for Rachel Ross’s murder, with Meehan now being pardoned and Tank McGuiness now being dead. So, what about the guy mentioned at Meehan’s trial? Was it Ian Waddell?
Cole:
Yes. He was the man named at Meehan’s trial, and by Ludovic Kennedy in his 1975 book as a potential suspect in the killing. Not long after the trial, Ian Waddell actually confessed to journalists that he had indeed committed the murder of Rachel Ross.
Dawn:
What?!
Cole:
Yeah. However, it wasn’t until 1976, after Meehan’s pardon, that Waddell was finally charged and tried for the murder of Rachel Ross, where he too submitted a defence of incrimination and claimed that the murder was actually committed by Meehan.
Dawn:
Oh okay. What is wrong with this guy?! He speaks to journalists and says yeah, I did this, and then when he’s charged and on trial he changes his story and says no, it wasn’t me, it was actually Meehan.
Cole:
Yeah, I know. He seems to be a bit all over the place. I don’t really know what he was thinking there.
Dawn:
Yeah, he’s just messing about.
Cole:
Anyway, even more incredulous the judge presiding over Waddell’s trial, Lord Robertson, in his closing statement managed to sway the jury into acquitting Waddell, simply because he was still not convinced of Meehan’s innocence or happy about Meehan receiving a free pardon. So, Waddell was acquitted.
Dawn:
I’m beginning to feel that everybody just has it in for Meehan. I’m not saying that he’s a saint, but he was pardoned!
Cole:
Yeah. He wasn’t actually there that night. Waddell was actually murdered in 1982 by Andrew Gentle, an associate of his, after they carried out a robbery together where they had murdered a woman called Josephine Chipperfield. Unfortunately, Waddell was dead so he couldn’t be charged and tried for this murder, but Gentle was convicted of both the murder of Waddell and Josephine. Gentle later committed suicide in prison, but that’s a whole other episode right there. So, what started that day in 1969 as just a few detectives wanting to speak to James about providing an alibi for Meehan the night of Rachel Ross’s murder, had turned into a shooting spree from Glasgow’s West End to the north of Glasgow, and continued to have ramifications over many years to come. What I did find seriously lacking though was information about Rachel and Abraham Ross and their story. I would have loved to have said more about them both, the victims. I would like to know what happened to Abraham. I know this was back in 1969, but if anyone can remember anything or if any details have been passed down by families, please send us a message to let us know, cause we’d love to do a mini episode about Rachel and Abraham Ross and their lives.
Dawn:
And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them, don’t keep it to yourself.
Cole:
Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com, as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.
Dawn:
So that’s it for this week, come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.
Dawn and Cole:
Join us there! Bye!
Granny Robertson: Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.
Left Behind
Left Behind
Episode Summary
Dawn and Cole explore the tragic disappearances of Marion Hodge and Helen Wilkie. Marion vanished in 1984, leaving her family in turmoil and her case unsolved. Helen disappeared in 1974, and her remains were discovered years later, which finally led to a conviction. The episode examines the impact of these disappearances on their families and the ongoing quest for justice. Join Dawn and Cole as they uncover the haunting details of these cases.
Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.
Listen on:
BBC NEWS | Scotland | Murder move in missing woman case
BBC NEWS | Scotland | Missing person case is re-opened
1984 Hodge, Marion Pagan – (07/06/1984) – PorchlightEurope
Hodge, Marion Pagan – (07/06/1984) – Porchlight International for the Missing & Unidentified
Appeal over woman missing for 25 years | HeraldScotland
Appeal focuses on missing Marion – Daily Record
MUM MURDER ARREST; Cops hold man 22 years after Marion killing. – Free Online Library
Gala days: researching a Scottish tradition | National Museums Scotland Blog
Remembering Pan Am Flight 103 — FBI
If you have any information relating to this case, contact;
Crimestoppers UK anonymously on 0800 555 111 or crimestoppers-uk.org
Galloway Police Dedicated Phone Line on 01387 242355 (UK)
Refuge – 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000 247 (UK) or nationaldahelpline.org.uk
The Law Killers
by Alexander McGregor
Synopsis
True crime from Dundee, covering the most fascinating and shocking cases from the last century. Having reported on many of them first-hand, journalist Alexander McGregor has unique insight into the cases and his stories are as chilling as they are compelling. In The Law Killers Alexander examines some of the country’s most fascinating and chilling cases and peels back the civilised layers of our society to reveal what lies beneath.
Our Review
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn
Hosted by Dawn and Cole
Researched and Written by Dawn Young
Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull
Production Company Name by Granny Robertson
Music:
Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
Dawn:
Marion Hodge and Helen Wilkie’s tragic stories may be ten years apart, but the outcome for their children was the same, they were left behind to grow up without their mothers after they suddenly disappeared from their lives.
Dawn and Cole:
Hi Wee Ones, I’m Dawn and I’m Cole, and this is Scottish Murders.
[THEME TUNE]
Dawn:
Marion Hodge was a 34 year old married mum of two when she disappeared in 1984. Little is known about Marion’s younger life. other than she would have been called Marion Gibson and she had a brother Robert. It’s also been mentioned that she had been a Gala Queen when she would have been about 14 or 15 years old, but I wasn’t able to confirm this.
Cole:
So, what’s a Gala Queen?
Dawn:
Yeah, I didn’t know what that was either. We didn’t have anything like this when we were growing up. But, according to the National Museum Scotland website, a Gala day is quite a tradition every year in certain parts of Scotland, where young and old people come together, where sports are played, houses are decorated, and there are food stalls, parades, floats, fancy dress and brass bands, kids get to be the centre of attention and one of them is crowned either king or queen for the area that year where the gala day is being held.
Cole:
Alright, that sounds like a really nice day out.
Dawn:
It does doesn’t it?
Cole:
Yeah.
Dawn:
I don’t know why we didn’t have something like that when we were growing up.
Cole:
Me either. I’d have loved that, and I would have been crowned for sure.
Dawn:
(laugh) You didn’t laugh.
Cole:
It’s not a laughing matter.
Dawn:
Oh you were deadly serious, oh sorry. Well it’s thought that Marion was crowned the Lockerbie Gala Queen, but like I said I haven’t been able to confirm this for sure from my research.
Cole:
Did she did live in Lockerbie?
Dawn:
She did live in Lockerbie.
Cole:
Oh.
Dawn:
That’s why she was the Lockerbie Gala Queen.
Cole:
Lockerbie.
Dawn:
I know but we’re not alluding to our other story.
Cole:
A lot, a lot seems to happen in Lockerbie.
Dawn:
Hmm really?
Cole:
Well, let me tell you a story.
Dawn:
Maybe, maybe we’ll leave that for another episode.
Cole:
Okay.
Dawn:
Anyway, so, in March 1969, when Marion was 19 years old, she married Bill Hodge, who was 24, in her hometown of Lockerbie, where they continued to reside. According to Wikipedia, Lockerbie is a small town in Dumfries and Galloway located in south western Scotland approximately 75 miles or 120 kilometres south of Glasgow, and is about 16 miles or 25 kilometres away from the England/Scotland border.
Cole:
Did you know that Calvin Harris is from Dumfries and Galloway.
Dawn:
You told me that already.
Cole:
Well, it’s one of my top Scotland facts and one of my top Lockerbie facts. I’m apparently obsessed with it. Carry on.
Dawn:
Four months after Bill and Marion got married they welcomed their son Bobby, followed about two years later by their daughter Kathryn. The couple and their children lived in a farmhouse in Balgray, a remote property, but still only a few miles from Lockerbie Centre, where the couple raised their children. Now, it seems that Bill had a number of jobs over the years, he was apparently a manager at an agricultural merchants.
Cole:
Is that someone who sells farm animals and equipment?
Dawn:
Nearly. But it’s someone who works closely with farmers helping them to purchase items such as grain, fertilisers or seeds. He also apparently worked as a security officer and/or safety officer, although they may have been the same job. Once the children were at school Marion worked as a clerk in a bank in Lockerbie. Now, it’s not known the state of Marion and Bill’s relationship throughout the years, but presumably the relationship had been having problems, as on the evening of the 5th of July 1984, Bill accused his wife of having an affair with a family friend. Going as far as confronting the man the same night about this, but the man denied the allegations. Now, I can imagine the couple would have fought that night, because if Bill had these thoughts in his head he was hardly just going to let it drop, and at some point apparently Marion told Bill that she was going to leave him. Bill said that the next morning about 8 a.m. on the 6th of July 1984, he dropped Marion off at the bus station in Whitesands in Dumfries, which is about a 30 minute drive from their home, after Marion had asked him to take her there. He said that she’d taken a blue suitcase with her and a brown handbag, and that she had about a £1,000 or $1,300 in cash with her.
Cole:
So, do we know why she had so much cash on her, or like where she was planning to go?
Dawn:
It wasn’t known by Bill where Marion might be going. Maybe she just wanted to get away for a while. Maybe the cash was to help her get by while she was away. Now, as this was a Friday, presumably Bill would have then gone to work, no doubt with a lot of emotions about what was going on in his private life. The fact that Marion possibly wanted to get away for a while wasn’t really a surprise, and her brother even said in an interview in The Sun Newspaper later that he could understand Marion wanting to get away from Lockerbie for a bit as everybody knows everybody, and there probably would be a bit of gossip about an affair. However, he also said in the same interview that there had never been a whiff of scandal in relation to Marion. The strange thing about Marion leaving on this day was the fact that it was her son Bobby’s 15th birthday. Regardless of what is going on in a mother’s life, would Marion have really just walked out that morning on the very same day as her son’s birthday? Although he was turning 15 so perhaps her son was planning on spending time with friends for his birthday, so maybe she thought she’d not be missed. Anyway, Marion wasn’t there for her son’s birthday. And as time went on and her family had had no contact with Marion they began to worry. Now, it’s not reported exactly when the family contacted the police, I imagine they would have given Marion some time thinking she just wanted a break, but they would have become worried when Marion didn’t make contact. When the police were contacted a missing person inquiry was launched, and the police had to firstly try to determine if it was more sinister than just Marion wanting time alone, even though her family were adamant that she was a devoted mother to her children and that she would not just disappear of her own accord and not contact her family again, something which the police themselves also found baffling. So, the police’s first port of call was the bus station to try to find out where Marion could have gone, but they could find no trace of Marion ever having been there. Nobody, including taxi drivers, staff or the public, remembered seeing her at all.
Cole:
Oh, that’s quite odd and kind of ominous.
Dawn:
Yes, it is a bit odd that nobody could place her there. Following having no luck in tracing Marion’s movements at the bus station, the police issued a nationwide appeal for anyone to come forward if they’d seen Marion Hodge, who they described as 34 years old, five foot four inches, slim build, dark brown collar length hair, sharp features, fresh complexion, prominent teeth, brown eyes and wore contact lenses or glasses.
Cole:
Prominent teeth? Was she a vampire?
Dawn:
(laughs) Well, I’ve seen a photo of Marion, which is also on the website, and all I can say is that she has a slight overbite, but, no, she’s not a vampire. (laughs)
Cole:
Well maybe we’ll just never know.
Dawn:
(laughs) The police, now beginning to wonder if Marion wasn’t just missing, also searched a quarry and other locations in the area, but Marion was not found. During a missing person investigation, the police try to establish if the person that is missing is deliberately missing or if there is another reason, such as they’ve been murdered, and they do this by trying to establish if bank cards, phones, doctors, dentists etcetera have been accessed or used since their disappearance. What the police found out was that an hour after Bill said he dropped Marion off at the bus station her bank card had been used to withdraw £100 or $130 from a cash machine in Dumfries. This was the last time the card was used.
Cole:
Didn’t her husband say that she had cash on her?
Dawn:
Yeah, he did.
Cole:
So, I wonder why she’d go out and get some more cash then? Definitely not to buy garlic.
Dawn:
No. (laughs) It could have been to buy garlic. No, it’s actually a good point. But even more strange is the fact that it took three attempts for the right pin number to be entered.
Cole:
Oh that’s strange.
Dawn:
It is a bit strange, but maybe she was upset and maybe just forgot, I’ve actually done that myself. But her brother Robert had other ideas. He said in an interview with the Daily Record that when the police told the family that the pin number had been put in wrongly twice he immediately felt that this was Marion’s killer trying to convince everyone that Marion had left of her own free will. He went on to say that he had no doubt his sister was murdered the day she disappeared. Another strange thing that the police found out upon speaking to Marion’s colleagues at the bank where she worked, was that three days after her husband dropped her off at the bus station a colleague of Marion’s was called at his home and told that Marion was okay but that she wouldn’t be returning to work. This caller was never traced.
Cole:
Okay, that is quite weird. I mean, why would someone ring her colleague and not her boss? But also why would you say she’s okay but she’s not going to be in? That makes me feel like she’s not okay. It’s just all very suspicious.
Dawn:
Yeah, it is, it’s very strange. And why call him at home as well, you would just call the bank not somebody at home.
Cole:
Yeah.
Dawn:
I mean, the bank card being used and the pin number being forgotten I could just about accept, but this, no, this is something more sinister.
Cole:
Yeah. And maybe you could accept the bank card, but I, I can’t accept that.
Dawn:
All right then, well, fine.(laughs)
Cole:
So, was Marion’s husband a suspect? You know it’s always the people closest to you that are looked at first.
Dawn:
So, yes, he would have been interviewed by the police as he had when the last person to see her, or one of the last people to have seen her alive, but no he was never an official person of interest. The police would have checked out his account of what happened on the morning Marion disappeared, and even though there was no cameras or CCTV back then, which could easily have corroborated his side of things, there must have been some evidence or a witness that came forward to have backed up what he had said. Also, nothing is said about whether Marion and Bill’s children, Kathryn and Bobby, were in the house the night before or the morning Marion asked to be taken to the bus station, but perhaps they were present and could back up what their dad had said had happened. I’m only guessing of course. And so, with no evidence or witnesses or further information to go on, the case grinded to a halt. But Marion’s family were convinced that Marion was dead, with her brother Robert saying in an interview with The Sun Newspaper in 2017, that Marion was a straightforward person who he trusted. She would never have just disappeared and not contacted her family again. She would have got in touch with them if she could, and would never put a family through the heartache that they were going through. Over the years Marion’s family’s heartache would continue, but it boiled over in 1992, eight years after Marion’s disappearance, when her husband, Bill, made an application for the court to officially declare Marion dead. This attempt was blocked by Marion’s parents, who alleged that they believed Bill had in fact killed Marion. However, this finally was granted by the court of session in Edinburgh, stating that Marion had officially died at midnight on the 6th of July 1991.
Cole:
So, why did he decide to get Marion declared officially dead at this time? I mean obviously he would have wanted to get on with his life, but was there a reason?
Dawn:
Well, he actually waited a further year after the standard period of seven years, but, yes, I imagine he wanted to get on with his life and end that chapter. Bill had actually met another woman called Penny three years after Marion went missing.
Cole:
Okay, so that was a respectable time after Marion went missing, and he waited a year after the official seven years to have Marion declared officially dead, so nothing suspicious or disrespectful in that.
Dawn:
No, I agree. Bill and Penny did marry soon after Marion was declared officially dead and the couple lived about 15 miles away from where Bill had lived with Marion.
Cole:
Yeah, I can imagine it would have been strange being married and living in the same house where your missing wife used to live.
Dawn:
Yeah, it would have been. The marriage didn’t last long though and ended abruptly one day when Penny came home to find that Bill had packed all of his things and left her.
Cole:
Oh, okay. Did she know that was coming at least?
Dawn:
Well, from what I’ve read no, I don’t think she did.
Cole:
Oh, that’s nice.
Dawn:
Mmmh. So, life did go on for Marion’s family and children, although the fact that Marion was still missing had hung over the family for years. Oh and by the way, all this time Marion was still classed as a missing person, however, that was to change in March 2006, 22 years after her disappearance.
Cole:
Is that because they still hadn’t found a body?
Dawn:
Yes, that was the reason. In February 2006 Detective Superintendent Bill Gillis, who led the team who looked at unsolved cases, released a statement saying that the missing person inquiry into Marion’s disappearance was Dumfries and Galloway police’s last outstanding long-term missing person inquiry and that there continued to be a lot of unanswered questions, and so his team would be taking a further look into it, starting by putting up posters throughout the region asking for any information about what became of Marion and any sightings of Marion at the time or since. However, Detective Superintendent Bill Gillis confirmed that he was still treating it as a missing person inquiry. At the time, Marion’s brother, Robert, said that he continued to believe that Marion had been killed and he was hoping for some new information so the family could finally have some closure. Only a month later, following the posters being put up in the region things had changed, and finally this case was now being classed as a murder.
Cole:
Oh, so what happened? Did they find Marion’s body?
Dawn:
No, they definitely hadn’t found Marion’s body, but I can only assume the new information was that someone had come forward giving the name of a person thought to have been involved in Marion’s disappearance. As on Saturday the 11th of March 2006, Dumfries and Galloway Police made a statement saying that a man had been detained in connection with Marion Hodge’s murder, and that a report was going to be sent to the Procurator Fiscal in Dumfries recommending prosecution. However, after this man was detained and questioned for six hours, Detective Superintendent Bill Gillis confirmed that this man had now been released without charge. Despite the 12 strong team working on this case and hoping for new evidence to lead them to Marion’s killer or body, other than one man being questioned, the case went cold again. However, three years later in 2009, on the eve of the 25th anniversary of Marion’s disappearance, another appeal was launched asking for information into the disappearance of Marion. There was a new detective on the case now, Detective Superintendent Kate Thompson, and she said “We remain resolute in our belief that the circumstances surrounding Marion’s disappearance are suspicious, and therefore it is vital that any person who has any information which could assist this inquiry come forward now. We fully appreciate the distress this investigation has had on Marion’s family and we will continue to investigate all lines of inquiry to try and provide the answers they so desperately need. While the strange surroundings of Marion’s disappearance continue to be investigated and police officers do continue to make appeals and ask the public for information and have assured Marion’s family that they will continue to do so, Marion is still missing and her family still have no answers.” Marion’s brother, Robert, continues to believe that Marion would not just have walked away from her life, her children or her family, and it’s the not knowing what happened to Marion or where she is buried that is the worst. Sadly, Marion’s parents, Robert senior and Agnes, died without having any answers or being able to lay their daughter to rest or have any justice for Marion. So, what about Marion’s children who were left behind? Bobby had just turned 15, how on earth would a teenage boy have coped with his mother just disappearing, and on his birthday. What must he have thought as a lad? And Marion’s daughter, Kathryn, was only 13 at the time her mum went missing, just a teenager and needing guidance from her mum. What would life for young Kathryn have been like? It’s sad to think about the children that were left behind who, for such a long time, probably believed that their mother had simply left them. From all accounts though, Marion Hodge would never have left her children, not by choice anyway. It was reported though that both Bobby and his sister Kathryn to this day remain very close to their dad, Bill. It was reported in 2017 in The Sun Newspaper that after Bill walked out on his marriage to Penny, he then moved to England to start a new life. Marion’s body sadly has never been found. If you have any information on the disappearance of Marion Hodge in 1984, there has been a UK dedicated phone line set up for all inquiries on 01387 242 355, or contact the confidential CrimeStoppers line on 0800 555 111. We’ll also put these numbers on our website. I hope that one day Marion’s body is found and her killer is caught and brought to justice, and it does seem her case is still being looked into and the police are clearly not given up.
Cole:
So, before I start my story, most of the information I found about this case came from a book called the Law Killers by Alexander McGregor. In April 1973, 18 year old Helen Maxwell, who worked as a hairdresser in the city of Dundee, married James Wilkie, known as Baby Face Jimmy, who was 17 years old and worked as an apprentice fitter. Many at the wedding thought quietly to themselves that the pair were just kids still, but their friends and family were happy to celebrate the couple as they exited the village church in Longforgan, a village about seven miles or 11 kilometres west of Dundee, where Jimmy had lived with his mum. The real reason for the marriage was that Helen was a couple of months pregnant. She had been scared of bringing shame on herself and her family for having a baby out of wedlock, and refused to have a termination. She had reluctantly agreed that marrying Jimmy was the best option. Unfortunately, though, it turned out that marrying for this reason, and maybe marrying so young, wasn’t going to sustain this couple’s relationship, and it wasn’t long before the marriage was in trouble. Following the wedding, the couple resided at a flat in a tenement block at Hill Street in Dundee. According to Wikipedia, Dundee is situated on the east coast of Scotland, lying within the eastern central lowlands on the North Bank of the Firth of Tay, and is Scotland’s fourth largest city. Following the couple’s wedding in April, and before the birth of their child in November, neither Helen or Jimmy would be monogamous. Helen would first find Jimmy in bed with another woman. Apparently, when she had tried to talk to Jimmy about this he wasn’t having any of it and instead assaulted her, while she was still pregnant. Helen was a bit put out about finding Jimmy having sex with another woman.
Dawn:
I can’t imagine why.
Cole:
No. So, she decided to rekindle a previous relationship herself. This man was 19 years old and was also married.
Dawn:
Oh asking for trouble.
Cole:
Despite both Jimmy and Helen now engaging in extramarital affairs, and despite continuous fights between the pair, the couple continued to stay together. And then in November 1973 Helen gave birth to a baby boy. I do hope that the birth of their baby boy gave the couple some joy, even if only briefly. Whatever state the couple’s marriage was in, on the 3rd of February 1974 a christening for the wee baby boy took place. Although the day may have started with everyone in good spirits, during the subsequent hours, and after a good amount of alcohol had been drank, Helen and Jimmy began to irritate each other and began to quarrel, although Jimmy later said that he was the only sober one at the celebration and that he had been the designated driver for the evening. As it was a special day, despite their disagreement, once the christening celebrations were over and everybody had been driven to their homes by Jimmy, the couple took their baby to Jimmy’s mums in Longforgan, while the couple, trying again to reconcile, went out for a meal in Dundee. This attempt however failed and the couple started fighting almost as soon as they sat down, with Helen storming out of the restaurant before they could even order. Now, Jimmy said that Helen was so drunk that she had tripped down some stairs and had bashed her nose, causing it to bleed all over her clothes. At this point Jimmy apparently took Helen home so she could change her clothes, where she apparently put on a wine coloured dress. Jimmy then advised that the couple tried to go again for a sit down meal, which was a success this time. Jimmy then said they drove into Dundee town centre looking for his sister, but having not sighted her, the couple then decided to drive back to his mum’s house to pick up their baby boy and go home. As you could probably guess on their way to Jimmy’s mum’s house the couple started arguing again. At this point Jimmy said he stopped to use the public toilets on the road just outside of Dundee centre. Upon returning to the car, Jimmy said that Helen was nowhere to be seen. He said he hung around for about ten minutes and checked the female toilets but there was no sign of Helen. He then said he headed back into town looking for her and then onto his flat to check if she maybe got the bus home, then headed back into Dundee when she wasn’t at the flat, before eventually going to his mum’s house at Longforgan to see if Helen was there, but she wasn’t. So Jimmy collected his baby and all his belongings and headed home, assuming that Helen would turn up at some point. The next morning when Jimmy awoke to get ready for work, there was still no sign of Helen. Not seeming to be phased or particularly bothered, he got himself ready for work and he got his son ready to take to his mother’s house so that she could look after him, and then he went to work. After work he went to his mum’s house and had tea there, before heading home again without Helen. It wouldn’t be until two days after Helen vanished that it was reported to the police, who began to tentatively look into Helen’s disappearance. Helen’s parents hadn’t even been aware that Helen was missing until this time and only because Jimmy’s mum had phoned them asking if Helen was perhaps with them as she was growing concerned. Helen’s mum hadn’t spoken to her daughter since the day of the christening. She knew about the troubles with her daughter’s marriage but she also knew that Helen loved her wee boy and would never just disappear and leave him behind, or her family for that matter, Helen and her parents were very close. Helen’s Dad wasn’t satisfied with the police investigation as he felt that the police always thought Helen had just had enough with her life and simply walked away, and so he started looking for traces of where Helen might be himself. Due to his own inquiry, he found out that there had been possible sightings of Helen in Dundee, other parts of Scotland and even as far as London, but despite this Helen’s parents were still convinced that Helen had not just walked out of her life voluntarily and had started to think that Helen had been killed. Just before Christmas 1974, about ten months after Helen’s disappearance, Jimmy’s mum received a Christmas card, apparently from Helen, with a postmark from Dundee.
Dawn:
Oh, okay, so did that convince Helen’s parents that she was okay?
Cole:
No, it didn’t. It sounded like it was possibly a practical joke, as Mrs Wilkie said that she didn’t recognise the handwriting. Helen’s parents continued to believe that Helen had been killed, they just wanted to know where her body was. As the months passed life slipped back into some normality, Jimmy actually handed over his and Helen’s baby boy to Helen’s mum and dad, who later adopted him. Jimmy left Dundee, where he started another relationship. The couple briefly moved to Canada, before Jimmy eventually moved back to Scotland and lived and worked in Aberdeen. The years went by and Helen and Jimmy’s wee boy grew up without his mum or dad, but I’m sure he was very loved by Helen’s parents, it maybe filled a big hole in their lives too, and Helen’s strange disappearance just slipped from people’s minds. That was until March 1978, four years after Helen’s disappearance, when workmen at a quarry near Longforgan uncovered a skull and informed the police. Following further excavations of the area, a shallow grave was discovered containing a headless skeleton. Jimmy, who is now living just outside Aberdeen with his girlfriend, was escorted to Dundee by the police, where he was asked to identify the items found with the skeleton, to determine if the skeleton found was Helen. The items included the wine coloured dress Helen had changed into the night she disappeared.
Dawn:
So, if the dress she was wearing the night she went missing was found, does that mean that she died the night she disappeared?
Cole:
Yes, it must have. The only item of clothing found that wasn’t Helen’s was a blue tie, which had been wrapped around her neck three times and tied at the back.
Dawn:
Oh. So, Helen died from strangulation then?
Cole:
Yes. When Jimmy was shown the tie he confirmed that it was the tie that he had worn to the christening, which he told the police he had taken off sometime throughout the christening celebrations and put into his wife’s bag. Upon being told that it was actually found tied around Helen’s neck Jimmy apparently said “I hope you don’t think it was me.” But apparently that’s exactly what the police had thought, and within a few hours Jimmy was charged with Helen’s murder.
Dawn:
So, based on the tie?
Cole:
Yeah, it’s a start.
Dawn:
Yeah, it is. And I guess it’s unlikely that Helen would have wandered off and somebody else would have found her, gone through her bag, found Jimmy’s tie and decided to strangle her with it.
Cole:
It is a stretch. And, I mean, we only have Jimmy’s word that he put the tie in Helen’s bag in the first place.
Dawn:
Yeah, that’s true.
Cole:
So, in June 1978, three months after being arrested and charged with Helen’s murder, Jimmy found himself in Dundee High Court listening to witness after witness describing the young couple’s arguments, their heavy drinking, the fighting between them, which was both physical as well as verbal, and specifically of an occasion where Jimmy was seen to have kicked Helen while she was pregnant. The majority of witnesses deemed that this was a failing marriage and that neither party were particularly happy. Two other witnesses for the prosecution were called, one was a friend of Jimmy’s who said that after having a few drinks together and upon bringing up the subject of Helen, Jimmy had said “I don’t think they will find her, she’s well buried.” While the other witness, who knew both Helen and Jimmy as well as Helen’s parents, said that she had overheard Jimmy talking to a friend in a cafe and he said “My wife’s at Ninewells, six feet under.”
Dawn:
So, two separate people had heard Jimmy mention that either Helen was buried or six feet under and nobody thought to mention this to the police?
Cole:
Well, it’s not known exactly when these conversations took place, and the man he was having a drink with when he said “she’s well buried” said he did ask Jimmy the next day if he remembered the conversation and he said he didn’t. Plus, I think they’d both had a bit to drink, so maybe the man didn’t trust his own memory.
Dawn:
Okay. But what about the female witness who overheard him in a cafe?
Cole:
Yeah, I don’t know. Maybe she didn’t want to get involved in case she was wrong. Anyway, lastly it was Jimmy’s turn to take the stand, and he basically repeated to the court what he had said to the police nearly four years earlier when Helen went missing. His memory was very good apparently, although he did counter some of the physical abuse allegations by saying that he might have slapped Helen but never with a clenched fist.
Dawn:
Oh right, well that’s okay then.
Cole:
I know, right.
Dawn:
Did he say anything in response to supposedly saying to the man he had been drinking with that Helen was well buried?
Cole:
Yeah, he did actually. He said that what he probably meant was that if Helen hadn’t been found by now she wasn’t going to be. After the closing statements and three days of witnesses being called to give evidence, the jury retired to make their decision. The police were a bit dubious if they would actually secure a guilty verdict, so too were the press that had attended the trial. However, after only an hour and ten minutes, everyone was back in the courtroom again, as the jury of nine men and six women came back with a verdict of guilty. Jimmy’s mum and girlfriend were visibly upset as Lord Robertson, the Judge residing over the case, said to Jimmy “You have been found guilty by the jury of what can only be described as a horrible crime, and there is only one sentence I can impose.” This was a life sentence. Jimmy was then taken away to begin his sentence, which wasn’t as long as you might think. In January 1979, seven months after Jimmy Wilkie had been sentenced to life, he found himself back in the courts again, this time in Edinburgh High Court as an appeal had been made as new evidence had been found, which Jimmy’s solicitor believed could set him free.
Dawn:
Oh wow, that appeal went through really quickly.
Cole:
Yeah, it did, but, according to the book The Law Killers by Alexander McGregor, this was the first time since 1927 that permission had actually been given for new evidence to be heard which could possibly result in a person being released.
Dawn:
Okay, it must be pretty good evidence then.
Cole:
Well, no, it’s not actually.
Dawn:
Oh okay.
Cole:
So, shortly after Jimmy had been convicted the lead investigator in the case, Chief Inspector Fotheringham was advised that a witness had come forward adamant that she had seen Helen after she was thought to have disappeared.
Dawn:
Who?
Cole:
A neighbour of the Wilkies at the time the couple had both lived in Hill Street, a Valerie McCabe. She said that she had seen and spoken to Helen three months after she disappeared. Valerie didn’t have a phone in her flat and would use the Wilkies phone now and again, and on the 18th of May 1974 she stated that Helen Wilkie came to Valerie’s flat to tell her that Valerie’s husband was on the phone in Helen’s flat wanting to speak to her. Valerie said she went to Helen’s flat where her husband was on the phone to tell her that his bus had broken down and he would be laid back. After finishing speaking to her husband Valerie McCabe popped her head round the living room door and said thanks to Helen for the use of her phone, which was located in the hall.
Dawn:
Oh, okay. Well, that sounds pretty credible to me. How old was Valerie?
Cole:
She was 27. Are you thinking that maybe she was older and her eyesight wasn’t too good?
Dawn:
Yeah, I was.
Cole:
Well, Valerie was asked this too and she said that she did wear glasses but her eyesight was quite good.
Dawn:
But I’m assuming that it wasn’t Helen, so how could she have made that mistake?
Cole:
Well, to try and determine that Valerie actually had the right date and wasn’t perhaps mixing it up with a time before Helen went missing, Chief Inspector Fotheringham asked Valerie how she could be sure of the date, to which Valerie replied that she knew for sure because there had been a football match on that day between Scotland and England playing at Hampton Park. She was also 100 percent sure she had seen Helen after she had gone missing.
Dawn:
Oh, well, that sounds pretty definite to me.
Cole:
That’s what Chief Inspector Fotheringham had began to think too. Until that is he went back to the police station and just happened to find out that apparently back in 1974, just after Helen went missing, a young police officer had separated from her husband and had started seeing Jimmy, who just so happened to look very similar to Helen.
Dawn:
He’d taken up with someone else three months after his wife disappeared?
Cole:
Yeah. So, Chief Inspector Fotheringham went back to speak to Valerie, this time with a photo of the young police officer to show her. While Valerie accepted that Helen and the young police officer did look very alike, she was adamant that it was Helen that she had seen and spoken to on the 18th of May.
Dawn:
But, did they not ask the young police officer if she’d been at the flat at the time?
Cole:
Presumably not, as seven months later Jimmy was back in court for the appeal. Lloyd Emslie, the judge residing over the appeal trial, went through the evidence given by Valerie McCabe and Chief Inspector Fortheringham and came to the conclusion that, even if Valerie’s evidence had been in the original trial, the jury would have still come to the same decision. He said that while Valerie McCabe had not come forward with this evidence maliciously, she was mistaken in her belief that she had seen Helen Wilkie on the 18th of May 1974. He further backed this up by saying that Jimmy Wilkie himself said in his statement two days after Helen’s disappearance, and in subsequent interviews he had with the police, that he never saw Helen and she’d never returned to their flat again after the night she went missing on the 3rd of February 1974. Lloyd Emslie did not believe that Helen would have come back the flat for one night only, unbeknownst to Jimmy, and then disappear again without a trace.
Dawn:
Plus, of course, there was the wine coloured dress she was found in that she was wearing the night she went missing.
Cole:
Yeah, I agree with that. And I do agree with the Judge, Helen wasn’t the person that Valerie saw in the flat on the 18th of May, Helen was murdered the night she disappeared. Having gone through all the evidence and pulling everything apart, Lloyd Emslie refused the appeal and Jimmy Wilkie was sent back to prison to carry out the rest of his sentence. Jimmy’s parents continued to appeal over the years, however, these never went anywhere, Jimmy was destined to do what little time he had been given for murdering Helen.
Dawn:
How long was he actually in prison for?
Cole:
So, I did say that he got life in prison, however, Jimmy Wilkie actually walked free from prison eight years later in 1986.
Dawn:
Eight years later?! That’s all he’d served?
Cole:
Yep, that was it.
Dawn:
That is crazy.
Cole:
So, upon leaving prison, Jimmy found work as a JCB driver and settled back into life. Until 1996, 10 years after being released for serving eight years for murdering the mother of his child, he was killed in a road traffic accident. He was 40 years old.
Dawn:
Oh God, I didn’t expect that.
Cole:
Yeah, it’s quite shocking.
Dawn:
I’ve just had a thought, you know the Christmas card that was sent to Jimmy’s mum the year Helen went missing?
Cole:
Yeah.
Dawn:
Was it thought that Jimmy had maybe sent it to try to convince people Helen was still alive? We know it didn’t come from Helen that’s for sure.
Cole:
Actually, no, that wasn’t thought at all. Remember I said that Jimmy had moved to Canada briefly with his girlfriend? Well, when the Christmas card was sent he was safely in Canada. No, I think that was just someone being mean.
Dawn:
Ah okay.
Cole:
Good thought though.
Dawn:
So, Jimmy had already handed over his baby boy to Helen’s parents and moved to Canada before Christmas the same year Helen went missing?
Cole:
Yeah. Helen went missing in February and Jimmy was already in Canada by December with his new girlfriend.
Dawn:
Wow, that is quick.
Cole:
It really is.
Dawn:
A pretty tragic story.
Cole:
Yeah, there’s no winners here, least of all Helen and Jimmy’s child left behind. I mean, yes, he was adopted and no doubt given all the love he needed and wanted from his grandparents, but he wasn’t even a year old when his mum just disappeared and shortly after he was given away by his dad to his grandparents. So much trauma and disruption in such a short time. At least he would have been young enough to maybe not understand that he’d been left by both his very young parents, but he’d one day find out that in actual fact his father killed his mum.
Dawn:
Yeah, that’s not gonna be nice finding that out.
Cole:
No, definitely too much heartache for everyone left behind. And that’s the end of my story. But you can find much more information in the Law Killers book by Alexander McGregor, available on Amazon.
Dawn:
And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them, don’t keep it to yourself.
Cole:
Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com, as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.
Dawn:
So that’s it for this week, come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.
Dawn and Cole:
Join us there. Bye.
Granny Robertson:
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.
Police Failures and Unsolved Cases: Two Lives, Two Tragic Ends
Police Failures and Unsolved Cases:
Two Lives, Two Tragic Ends
Episode Summary
Dawn and Cole explore the mysterious and tragic deaths of Alexander “Sandy” Drummond and Nicholas Randall. Sandy, a kind-hearted man who cared for his family, was found dead under suspicious circumstances in 1991, leading to a botched investigation that left many questions unanswered. Similarly, Nicholas, who struggled with depression, vanished in 2005, only for his remains to be discovered years later in a tent with puzzling evidence that was never fully investigated. The episode examines the failures in both cases, highlighting the devastating impact on the victims’ families and the lingering quest for justice.
Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.
Listen on:
Oversteer | Morris Marina Owners Club & Ital Register | INFORM – PRESERVE – DRIVE – ENJOY
New leads in Sandy Drummond murder case – The Courier
Sandy Drummond Has Scotland Perplexed • Enormous Crime
The Death of Sandy Drummond : UnresolvedMysteries
Unsolved Murder of Sandy Drummond : UnresolvedMysteries
Unsolved: Sandy Drummond – Murdered by Jujitsu – YouTube
PressReader.com – Your favorite newspapers and magazines.
Breakthrough claimed in Sandy Drummond murder case – The Courier
Guardbridge, Main Street, Paper Mill | Canmore
Crimewatch axed: Tayside and Fife cases that featured on hit BBC show – The Courier
Fatal accident inquiry – Wikipedia
Contact Police Scotland – Police Scotland
Who we work with | Crimestoppers
Boarhills Feature Page on Undiscovered Scotland
If you have any information relating to this case, contact;
101 (UK)
Crimestoppers UK anonymously on 0800 555 111 or crimestoppers-uk.org
Nicholas Randall – Strange deaths in the Scottish Highlands — StrangeOutdoors.com
Police chiefs probing claims hiker Nicholas Randall was murdered and case hushed up
Nicholas Randall – Strange deaths in the Scottish Highlands — StrangeOutdoors.com
Top law officer probes Angus whistleblower’s cover-up claims over hiker’s deatrh – The Courier
West Highland Way body identified | Walkhighlands
BBC NEWS | Scotland | Edinburgh, East and Fife | Missing man’s body found in tent
Skeleton in tent is body of city climber | The Scotsman
PressReader.com – Your favorite newspapers and magazines.
The Bridge of Orchy | And how do you cross over a river? Why… | Flickr
If you have any information relating to this case, contact;
Police at Dumbarton on 101 (UK)
Dawn:
Most of us make assumptions about things in life sometimes, but when it comes to police making assumptions it’s a whole different ball game, and in Sandy and Nick’s case, things could have turned out a lot different.
Dawn and Cole:
Hi Wee Ones, I’m Dawn and I’m Cole, and this is Scottish Murders.
[THEME TUNE]
Dawn:
Alexander Drummond, or Sandy as he preferred to be known, had always wanted to be an engineer so he joined the army thinking that an army apprenticeship would be the best route to achieve this goal. When he was 18 years old he joined Blackwatch. For 18 months this decision appeared to have paid off, however, then things changed and Sandy was sent to Northern Ireland, where he spent the remainder of his time in the Army. Upon leaving the Army, after three years, Sandy went to stay with his parents, before moving into a cottage nearby in Boarhills with his brother James. Sandy had decided to stay in the area to be close to his mum and dad, Sandy’s dad had Alzheimer’s and Sandy would regularly stay at his parents home to help his mum and give her a break, he even paid for his mum to go on a wee holiday while he stayed and looked after his dad. That’s really nice. Yeah, that’s what everybody said, he was quiet but kind. So, having decided to stay in the Boarhills area, Sandy went about finding himself a job. He ended up finding work at Guardbridge Paper Mill located about 3.7 miles or 6 kilometres north west of St Andrews. St Andrews, known as the home of golf, is a town in Fife located on the east coast of Scotland, about 30 miles or 48 kilometres north east of Edinburgh. The small hamlet of Boarhills is also in Fife and located 4.6 miles or 7.4 kilometres south east of St Andrews. The Boarhills hamlet is completely surrounded by farmland, with only one single track road running through the hamlet. Back in 1991, it was thought to have about 80 residents living there. Sandy seemed to enjoy his job at the mill and he was known as a good worker. He generally seemed to be quite happy in life, enjoying going for rides on his motorbike or going for runs in the countryside. But then in about March 1991, when Sandy was 33, things started to change, Sandy started to change. Sandy’s mum said that he’d always been a carefree kind of man not letting things get him down, but she said he started to become troubled, worrying about something, and it all began around the time he was transferred to a new department at work. Sandy’s mum would ask him what the matter was, but he refused to tell her. Sandy’s mum was sure his change in behaviour was due to something at work. something had happened, going as far as saying she thought he might have been getting bullied or even blackmailed. Sandy was then transferred to another department where he was labouring, but Sandy’s change in behaviour continued for another couple of months, until finally on Thursday the 20th of June 1991 Sandy abruptly quit his job, walking out immediately and refusing to give notice. This decision surprised his employers as Sandy had always been reliable and a hard worker. Sandy didn’t tell his family that he had quit his job and walked out and appeared to carry on as if nothing had happened. He went to his parents home for Sunday lunch as normal that weekend and seemed quite happy. His family did notice a change in Sandy but this time for the better, with him apparently appearing to be back to his old self again. After lunch on Sunday with his parents, Sandy told his mum he would be back for his tea the following night before staying bye, giving her a big smile and waving to her as he left on his motorbike heading for St Andrews. Apparently, it was that night that Sandy told his brother James that he’d quit his job and that he planned to go traveling. James was surprised by what Sandy was telling him saying that it was definitely out of character for Sandy, who was described as being steadfast and dependable. James was obviously concerned but probably thought that he’d let Sandy sleep on it and speak to him the following evening and try to find out what was going on. James left for work on the Monday morning saying bye to Sandy and that he would see him later. Neither his mum nor brother realised that they wouldn’t be seeing Sandy alive again. At 8pm on Monday the 24th of June 1991, the body of Alexander Sandy Drummond was found by an elderly walker, lying face down with his arms underneath him and his legs straight out on an overgrown track about 200 yards from his cottage in Boarhills. The senior police officer from Fife constabulary who was first on the scene was initially suspicious due to the positioning of the body, and upon the doctor being called and also looking over the scene and checking Sandy’s body he too was also suspicious of its positioning, he also found superficial marks on Sandy’s forehead and elbows. Both men at this point thought it was a suspicious death and that possibly Sandy had collapsed holding his stomach, which explained why his arms were under his body. Due to this being determined by the police at an early stage as a suspicious death, only a rudimentary perusal of the scene would have taken place, recording the position and appearance of the body and perhaps taking some pictures. There would have been no need for a forensic team to attend the scene and search for any evidence, and Sandy’s body was taken from the scene pretty quickly for a post-mortem to be carried out, where it was discovered that there were additional bruises on his back and neck and the pathologist determined that Sandy had actually died from asphyxiation and may have been strangled to death. It later turned out that Sandy had been killed by a stranglehold. What? Yeah. So, when the police checked Sandy’s body at the scene they found no ligature marks and there was nothing to suggest that someone had applied pressure to his neck, and there was no obvious hand or fingerprints, which is why they initially thought it was just a suspicious death. Upon finding out that Sandy had actually been murdered you’d think the police would spring into action and start a murder inquiry, cordon off the crime scene in the hope of finding any evidence, you know, the usual stuff, but no. The police initially wouldn’t even admit that it was a murder!
Cole:
What?!
Dawn:
Yeah, they actually told newspapers and Sandy’s family for months that his death was simply suspicious. Why would they do that? Well, because the general consensus had been that Sandy had fallen whilst clutching his stomach and that he died from natural causes and they weren’t deviating from that. Despite Sandy’s mum Effie being told three days after Sandy’s death that he had been strangled to death, it would take the police four months after Sandy’s body was found to finally announce to his family that they would be treating Sandy’s death as murder, despite the early findings from the pathologist. It would take a further four months after that before the public was made aware of this fact, as well as the strange circumstances leading up to Sandy’s death, when a reconstruction was carried out on TV, which resulted in a few calls but unfortunately no leads. So, as you can imagine, Sandy’s family were pretty frustrated about this, but even more detrimental was the fact that while this tug of war was going on with the police taking the stance that Sandy’s death had only been suspicious, any vital forensic evidence that might have been at the scene had been destroyed by the weather and the passage of time. Also, due to the police’s reluctance to not admit this was a murder, the media was not used to appeal for information or witnesses immediately after his death. As this was a tourist area, by the time the police did appeal for witnesses, eight months later, some people might not have been in the area anymore or may have forgotten a vital piece of information. As Sandy’s death had only been treated as suspicious, the police carried out a basic investigation, but they did interview some local witnesses and what they found out through the investigation might just have finally led to them admitting that Sandy had been murdered, although I feel there was more than enough evidence given by the pathologist from the post-mortem to indicate this earlier. So, I’ll start with the day of Sandy’s death. It’s quite interesting in itself. So, you remember his brother James said bye to Sandy on Monday the 24th of June 1991 in the morning before going to work?
Cole:
Yes, a year before my birthday.
Dawn:
Exactly. So, from then it looked like Sandy had quite a busy day. Someone resembling Sandy was seen at 7:25am by two witnesses; one was driving in Boarhills who saw a man resembling Sandy leaving his cottage carrying a blue holdall bag under his arm, run across the road and jump over a hedge into a field, where he disappeared. Oh. A neighbour also said they saw someone who looked like Sandy leave his house with a blue holdall bag and go to the field across the road, and then return without the holdall bag, presumably leaving it in the field somewhere. But this blue holdall bag has never been found.
Cole:
That’s odd.
Dawn:
Oh it gets odder. Apparently, there was also a sighting of someone who was identified as Sandy by two witnesses at the same time on a motorcycle heading for St Andrews.
Cole:
So, were any of the sightings actually confirmed, because last time I checked you can’t be in two places at once.
Dawn:
That is true. It’s hard to say, I couldn’t find anything in my research. However, Sandy was seen in St Andrews on CCTV at 11am withdrawing his savings, which amounted to about £1,800 which is about $2,500 in today’s money, and putting it in a bag.
Cole:
Well that’s more money than I currently have.
Dawn:
It’s not a fortune but it’s probably enough for him to have gone traveling on his bike, if that’s what he wanted to do, which is what he told his brother the night before.
Cole:
So, do we think that the money was in the holdall that someone saw him taking into the field?
Dawn:
It’s a good thought but no, because he was seen going into the field at 7:30am, but Sandy didn’t actually withdraw the money from the bank until 11am, so he didn’t have the money at that time.
Cole:
Okay. So, maybe someone saw him withdraw the money and followed him and killed him for the money?
Dawn:
That’s a good thought actually, but no because the money was found in his house when the police searched it, so a robbery motive was ruled out.
Cole:
Okay, I’m out of ideas then.
Dawn:
Me too. So, it appears that Sandy then spent the next few hours in St Andrews, but it’s not clear what he was doing. The next time Sandy may have been sighted was by a witness at 2pm at a caravan holiday park, which is a five minute drive outside of St Andrews and located on the same road Sandy would have taken to go back to his cottage in Boarhills, which was another eight minute drive from the holiday park.
Cole:
What was he doing there?
Dawn:
Honestly, I don’t know. I couldn’t find this out at all. Maybe meeting somebody.
Cole:
Well do you know how long he was there for?
Dawn:
Again, I don’t know, I couldn’t find anything. However, a witness did place him there definitely at 2pm, and he wasn’t seen again until about 4pm.
Cole:
Alright. So, no more than a couple of hours?
Dawn:
Exactly. However, in the meantime, at about 2:30pm, a man was seen getting on a bus on the main road not far from Sandy’s cottage and getting off in St Andrews, and he was holding a blood-stained handkerchief. Now, police did ask for this man to come forward to be eliminated from their inquiries, once of course the police finally notified the public, but the fact that Sandy had been seen alive at 4pm and that there was no blood at the crime scene, the police weren’t even sure if this man had any connection to the murder or not. Either way, this man was never traced. The next time someone resembling Sandy was seen was at 4pm when they were witnessed “jogging along the road.”
Cole:
Which road?
Dawn:
It’s not clear exactly, it could be the road leading from the holiday park where he was seen at 2pm. But why would he leave his motorbike there?
Cole:
I guess it could have broken down.
Dawn:
Maybe, but there’s no mention of that. Or it could mean he was jogging along the road near his cottage in Boarhills. It’s very sketchy to be honest. Then he was seen again by a witness, this time definitely in Boarhills about 7pm.
Cole:
Okay. And his body was found at 8pm?
Dawn:
Correct.
Cole:
So, whatever happened to him must have happened within that hour.
Dawn:
Exactly. When Sandy’s neighbours were questioned by the police around if they saw anything suspicious that day, something of interest was revealed. Apparently about 5pm, an hour after Sandy was seen jogging along the road, an orange or red car was seen parked outside Sandy’s bungalow and two men were seen in his living room. From witness statements, it was identified that the same orange or red car had been spotted outside Sandy’s cottage on numerous occasions on the days before his death. Another witness reported seeing a red car reversing near where Sandy lived at 7:15pm on the day of his death, but then another witness reported that also at 7:15pm they saw two men get out of a silver Renault or Vauxhall car and run in the direction of where Sandy was found.
Cole:
And Sandy’s body was found 45 minutes later?
Dawn:
Yeah. So, the red or orange car seen outside Sandy’s cottage was later identified as being a red or orange Morris Marina. We’ll put a picture of it on our website. Again, despite appeals for information about the owner of this car or the owner of the silver car seen in the vicinity, just like the man on the bus with a bloodied handkerchief, nobody ever came forward to say they owned either car or had visited Sandy that day or on the days leading up to his death. Although, of course, again, this appeal wouldn’t be made until much later.
Cole:
The man with the bloodied handkerchief not coming forward I kind of understand, maybe he just didn’t want to be involved in the whole thing, but this distinct orange car parked outside Sandy’s house on numerous occasions and the owner had most likely been inside his cottage, so they must know that the police were looking for them, and why would they not just come forward and say, “yeah, that was me”, unless you had something to hide.
Dawn:
Yeah, I totally agree. And the other thing that’s strange to me is the fact that Sandy appeared to enjoy his own company and have a few close friends, who were the two men sitting in his living room in the day of his murder. As well as obviously the same car being seen numerous times outside his house before the day of his murder, who were these men? Were they friends or foe? What were they there for? It couldn’t have been blackmail because they had the opportunity to take the money he had withdrawn from the bank, but they didn’t. What were they doing there? To me it seemed suspicious.
Cole:
Yeah, I agree.
Dawn:
So, the police, even though they wouldn’t admit for some strange reason that Sandy had in fact been murdered, did actually carry out interviews with his work colleagues.
Cole:
Oh that’s interesting. Maybe we’ll find out why he changed departments twice and maybe why his mum thought he was worried about something.
Dawn:
Well, from interviewing every one of his work colleagues they found out exactly nothing.
Cole:
Oh! What?!
Dawn:
Yeah. Apparently, all his former colleagues at the paper mill said Sandy was a quiet man, a hard worker and he appeared to be well liked by everybody.
Cole:
So, why did he have to change departments then?
Dawn:
No idea. It’s not detailed anywhere. It’s just another question that’s not answered.
Cole:
So did any of his work colleagues have an orange or red… what did you say it was? Morris Marina?
Dawn:
Yeah. That would have been my first question too, but again it’s not reported anywhere. But I have to guess that they didn’t as the car was never traced. However, as the police were still adamant at this time that it was simply a suspicious death, maybe they didn’t ask the right questions, didn’t put two and two together, didn’t dig deep enough, as maybe it was just being treated as a cursory inquiry at this time. Had they treated it as it should have been treated, as a murder inquiry, than perhaps any evidence, such as the orange Morris Marina, could have been found quickly instead of giving the killer or Killers time to dispose of this, which police later stated they felt the car was likely to have been disposed of. Now, Sandy’s army colleagues were also interviewed too, but again nothing of note came from this, and nobody had a bad word to say about Sandy. Sandy was, as far as could be made out, a likable, kind, caring, quiet guy who appeared to have no enemies.
Cole:
I feel as if it’s something to do with his work, because everything seemed to be fine in his life until he moved departments and then his behaviour changed.
Dawn:
I think that’s what the police thought too as he had been at the paper mill for seven years and his behaviour only started to change a few months before his death. It had to be connected somehow.
Cole:
Yeah. And he quit his job a few days before his murder.
Dawn:
Exactly! The timing fits. Anyway, following the police interviewing everyone and making their appeals and getting absolutely nowhere, they were able to determine that there was definitely something strange going on in Sandy’s life, what with quitting his job and withdrawing all his savings, but they just didn’t know what, and their investigation turned up nothing. The police did state later that they felt that Sandy may have been getting blackmailed or bullied, but that was as much as the investigation could tell them, other than that they were baffled.
Cole:
So, that’s where it ended?
Dawn:
No! Sandy’s mum, Effie, wouldn’t accept that her son’s killer couldn’t be found, she was determined to get answers. She campaigned relentlessly until she finally succeeded in getting a Fatal Accident Inquiry into her son’s death.
Cole:
Is that the Scottish term for inquest?
Dawn:
Yeah, it is. And it was held in September 1992, but Effie didn’t get the outcome she wanted. There was still no explanation for her son’s murder, and she now had more questions than answers.
Cole:
How so?
Dawn:
Well, for example, in an article by the Mirror Newspaper it was noted that not only had Sandy’s last few months been made a misery by certain men at his work at the paper mill, but that apparently the night before he was murdered he had actually written down these men’s names.
Cole:
Okay. That’s new. I feel like you wouldn’t murder someone you’d been bullying in your workplace.
Dawn:
Yeah, that seems pretty drastic.
Cole:
Yeah.
Dawn:
And especially now that he’d left as well. I mean, maybe they thought Sandy was going to tell on them do something. I don’t know, had to get rid of him. So, while Effie’s suspicions that her son was being bullied at work, which had affected his behaviour, had been right, but why was she only being told this now, at the inquiry? And why was it reported that nobody at Sandy’s work had a bad word to say about him if in fact they had been bullying him? Surely somebody had been aware of it. If the police had this information that he’d written down these men’s names, what had they done about it? Had they investigated these men? What was he actually being bullied for? Were they trying to blackmail him? It just leads to more questions and no answers.
Cole:
Yeah. I can see that. What else?
Dawn:
Well, also during the inquiry a second pathologist criticised the police for not realising that Sandy had been murdered and therefore treating the crime scene appropriately. This was countered by the police who said that due to the fact Sandy’s body had been found outside, they weren’t able to control the environment, limiting any evidence that could be found.
Cole:
That’s rubbish! So, they’re just saying that everybody that’s found outside it’s just kind of tough and they’re not going to find out who the murderer was? I know it’s not a controlled environment, but there’s tents that can be placed over the body and the surrounding area can be looked at for further evidence.
Dawn:
I know. The pathologist also said that had an experienced doctor dealing with murders been there, they would have discovered tiny haemorrhages in Sandy’s eyes that are caused by increased blood pressure that rupture capillaries and are caused by strangulation or suffocation. The police also stated that because Sandy was a loner and effectively had no friends, this made it really difficult for them to establish any leads.
Cole:
Was he a loner with no friends?
Dawn:
Well, the police tried to imply this, but Sandy’s family say that he just chose his friends carefully, so they may have been few and far between.
Cole:
Wow! That really does sound like victim blaming.
Dawn:
Yeah. Remember, always have plenty friends. it’s important.
Cole:
But I don’t like people.
Dawn:
That’s a problem.
Cole:
I like to be inside my house at all times.
Dawn:
You’re a bit of a recluse aren’t you? Let’s face it.
Cole:
I just need to get some cats now.
Dawn:
Oh no, crazy cat lady.
Cole:
Yay!
Dawn:
The police were also criticised for the delay in announcing Sandy’s death as murder, however, Sheriff Smith, presiding over the inquiry, blocked any further discussion about this saying that the police’s handling of the investigation was not within the remit of the inquiry. So, the only, and I’m reluctant to say it, good thing that came from the inquiry, was that Sandy’s case would be reviewed again, but this time by different officers within Fife police. However, despite the fresh eyes working on Sandy’s case, they still were no further forward in finding Sandy’s killer. Shortly after the inquiry, Sandy’s mum Effie said “My life is now in agony. The strain makes me feel a thousand years old. Sandy was the best son a mother could have.” She was also quoted as saying “I was afraid for his life when he went to Northern Ireland with the Army, but I never imagined that he would be in danger at home.” She was devastated by Sandy’s death and was constantly haunted by the knowledge that her son had been murdered and that the murderer had not been caught. Effie passed away at the age of 67 in 1996. So, despite 16,000 hours worked on the case and about 600 statements being taken, many appeals made over the years, as well as a reconstruction of the events leading up to Sandy’s death being shown on TV in February 1992 where finally the public were made aware of the events leading up to his death, as well as that it was a murder and not a suspicious death, Sandy’s killer wasn’t identified, and the case remained Fife’s only unsolved case. In 2016 Sandy’s murder was back in the spotlight again. In February 2016, Police Scotland released an appeal due to the 25th anniversary of Sandy’s murder approaching. In this appeal, Detective Chief Inspector Maxine Martin stated that Sandy’s murder is periodically reviewed to determine if any advances in forensic techniques could lead to further lines of inquiry.
Cole:
Isn’t it crazy how fast the science can change? I mean we think that we’re pretty advanced at the moment in time, wouldn’t you say?
Dawn:
Yeah.
Cole:
But think about how far we’ve come in the last 20 or 30 years. Like, what’s the world going to look like in 20 or 30 more years time?
Dawn:
Yeah. I wonder what technology we haven’t discovered yet, that’s more interesting.
Cole:
Maybe you could scan the body and get an image of the human.
Dawn:
You’re getting very technical now.
Cole:
Do you know that they can take your hair from your body off your head, wherever, and they can find out where you came from based on the like the minerals that are left in your hair?
Dawn:
Hmm.
Cole:
Did you know that?
Dawn:
No, I didn’t know that. That’s interesting.
Cole:
Yeah. So, people can find out where you lived.
Dawn:
That’s really cool. Isn’t it?
Cole:
Yeah.
Dawn:
She went on to see that the passage of time is no barrier to providing answers for the families of murder victims in Scotland and she hoped that Sandy’s killer could be brought to justice, before she appealed for anyone with new information that could assist in the investigation into Sandy’s murder to contact the police. This appeal was quite successful as in an article in The Courier Newspaper in March 2016, the police thanked the public for new information that was provided in relation to Sandy’s murder. Detective Chief Inspector Maxine Martin said that the new evidence was being reviewed, but she believed that the answers to Sandy’s death lie in the local community. However, since this time no new developments, if any, have been reported. We can only hope this doesn’t mean the case has gone cold again. Then three months later in June 2016, exactly 25 years after Sandy was killed, an article appeared in the Courier Newspaper saying the investigative journalist Mr Mulford had apparently laid eyes on paperwork suggesting that police had identified Sandy’s killer.
Cole:
Okay. So, was this on the back of the information the police had received following their appeal in February 2016?
Dawn:
Well, I don’t think it was. From what I’ve read it appears that this may have been from several years prior.
Cole:
They had identified Sandy’s killer a few years prior to the appeal but nobody had ever been arrested?
Dawn:
Well, that’s what it looked like. The investigative journalist told The Courier Newspaper in 2016 he had unearthed evidence that the police had identified a serious suspect following a previous cold case review years earlier, but then when police had gone to question the suspect it turned out they were already dead.
Cole:
Oh
Dawn:
I’ve actually read some reports that the suspect may have been murdered himself.
Cole:
So, the police have identified a suspect and that suspect’s dead, but the case is still open?
Dawn:
Yes. Apparently, Mr Mulford believes the case has been kept open and is still being reviewed by the cold case team as there may have been others involved. Remember that there were two men seen in Sandy’s living room on the day he was murdered, maybe they suspect the dead man carried out the murder but there may have been others around or others who knew what had happened. Maybe they were behind Sandy’s change in behaviour, or that the dead suspect didn’t actually murder Sandy but was involved somehow, and maybe he was killed to shut him up. There’s just so many questions about this case, so much speculation about what is going on, and what did go on back in 1991.
Cole:
So, did the police ever say anything about what the investigative journalist said or has there ever been any new leads?
Dawn:
Well, at the time of the newspaper report coming out from the investigative journalist, Police Scotland were pretty tight lipped. They refused to discuss if what Mr Mulford said about them having a suspect in the murder dead or otherwise was correct or not. All Police Scotland would say, and all they have said since, is that the case remains open and is undergoing constant review.
Cole:
This is such a frustrating case, so many unanswered questions. And the fact that it was ruled initially as a suspicious death, it just doesn’t seem right.
Dawn:
I agree. It’s just really frustrating this case. If you have any information on the murder of Sandy Drummond, please contact 101 or Crime Stoppers on 0800 555111 if you live in the UK.
So, my story was from 1991, surely in the intervening years lessons would have been learnt and assumptions wouldn’t have been made so hastily, am I right with your story Cole?
Cole:
Wrong!
Dawn:
Oh no. Go on then.
Cole:
In April 2005 Nicholas Randall, who preferred to be called Nick, was 30 years old. He had been suffering with mental health issues and had recently been signed off work sick. Nick had moved to the north east of Scotland to Aberdeen from Edinburgh, where he had a job as a town planner. Nick had suffered with depression on and off for years, but in early 2005 he had been signed off work due to stress-related depression and he had decided to go and stay with his parents, who lived a few miles west of Edinburgh. Nick had been diagnosed with a form of dyslexia, affecting in the left side of his brain governing comprehension. Nick was apparently happy with this diagnosis as it helped explain some of the causes for him feeling low. At this time he was said to be in good spirits, so much so that he had attended a wedding with his parents where he had appeared brighter and engaged with others better than his parents had expected. However, just a few days later on the 25th of April 2005 something apparently changed, as just after breakfast Nick left his parents home, drove to Edinburgh City Centre in his silver Audi A2, where he bought a sleeping bag and withdrew £500 or just under $700, before simply vanishing. This was the last time his bank account had been touched. Meanwhile, back at his parents house, his mum had thought it was a good sign that Nick had gone out, thinking that he’d probably head for the city centre for a bit of shopping, which he did of course. She wasn’t to know that she had seen her son for the last time. So, Nick’s parents weren’t initially concerned when Nick didn’t appear back for tea, but as the night grew dark they started to fear the worst. They began to ring round all his friends asking if they had heard from him, but no one had. One of Nick friends, Liz, said that she was completely surprised by his disappearance, saying he was a really nice guy with everything going for him. Time passed without any sighting or word from Nick. His 31st birthday came and went in May and still there was no word about his whereabouts. It wouldn’t be until July, three months after Nick vanished, that finally there was a breakthrough. Nick’s silver Audi car was found in a car park near the town of Fort William, which is located on the eastern shore of Loch Linnhe in the Scottish Highlands, this is also about a three-hour drive north west of Edinburgh. Fort William is best known for hill walking and climbing due to it being close to the mountains of Glencoe and Aonach Mor, as well as Ben Nevis, which is the highest of the famous Munro mountains. It just so happened that Nick had been a member of a hill walking group and was experienced in climbing and hiking, he had in fact climbed many of the Munro mountains. When his car was found in July, the police concluded that Nick had been living off rough in the hills of the surrounding area. Also, over the summer of 2005 there were other sporadic sightings of Nick in this area, as well as being spotted in an area two hours away from where his car was found. A worker at caravan park advised that Nick had asked if he could pitch a tent. It was thought that he was just walking and climbing and roaming about aimlessly, living rough. However, then the sightings just stopped and his family and friends started to fear the worst.
Dawn:
Was there any reason why Nick had just left his parents so abruptly and headed to the highlands?
Cole:
Well, remember he did have depression and having depression can sometimes make you unpredictable, so that could be a reason.
Dawn:
Yeah, that is true.
Cole:
His friend, Martin, also gave a wee insight into what Nick might have been thinking. He said that Nick hated being on his own, but because of his depression he also felt he was a burden to everyone, especially his parents.
Dawn:
Oh, that’s sad, but that might have explained why he disappeared, he might have thought that him disappearing might make life easier for his parents.
Cole:
It was a theory, yeah.
Dawn:
Obviously that wasn’t the case.
Cole:
Of course not, his parents were heartbroken by his disappearance. In April 2006, a year after Nick left his parents home for the last time, his parents made an appeal for any information about Nick’s whereabouts. His dad, Bill, said “My worst fear is that he turned his back on life, not eating, and his body went downhill, and he might be lying somewhere in a wood.” He went on to say that he would love to see Nick again, to hug and to kiss him. His parents both remembered Nick as being a happy person, smiling and had a sensitive nature. Nick’s mum, Esme, did insist that Nick wasn’t suicidal when he left. The appeal generated no new information, no more sightings of Nick were reported, and the case went cold. Bill and Esme would have to wait a further two years of not knowing what happened to their son before their worst fears would finally be realised. On the 14th of March 2008, badly decomposed remains of a body were said to have been found in a pitched tent by forestry workers near Bridge of Orchy, about 43 miles or 69 kilometres from where Nick’s car had been found. It would be confirmed on the 26th of March, after forensic tests were carried out, that the remains were in fact that of Nicholas Randall. There is a famous walk called the West Highland Way that runs from Fort William to Milngavie, which is just north of Glasgow, and Bridge of Orchy is on this walking route. It is thought that Nick had been walking along this route, but had deviated off into a nearby forest in order to set up his tent. When the remains were found the area was cordoned off, a forensics team was called in and evidence was collected and photographs of the scene were taken. Upon Nick’s remains being found, it was quickly assumed by investigators that Nick had probably died of hypothermia. This assumption wasn’t deviated from following the post-mortem being carried out as, due to the advanced stage of decomposition, the cause of death could only be determined as unascertained. Due to this belief, after six days of Nick’s remains being found, the police ruled that there were no suspicious circumstances in the death, making an official statement on the 26th of March confirming these details and stating the case would now be closed. The statement was followed by one from the family which read; “We would like to thank the missing persons unit of Lothian and Borders police for all their assistance and kind support over the last three years. We also thank the press for publicising our son’s disappearance. Now that his body has been found and recovered, we ask that the media leave us to grieve in peace.” Okay. So, yes, there were still assumptions being made at the beginning, but at least the police treated the scene as if it were a crime scene and collected evidence and photographs were taken, so lessons had been learnt. They were, but the story doesn’t end there unfortunately. In March 2008, Mr and Mrs Randall finally had some closure, although sadly their son Nick had died they found out what had become of him, knowing that he had died from natural causes and could finally grieve for their son. That was until July 2017, almost nine years after they found out their son had died, when their new life without Nick was shattered.
Dawn:
Oh my God, what happened?
Cole:
Okay. Back in 2008, PC Kenny McKechnie had been a police officer since 1993 and he was working as a family liaison officer, however, due to local detectives being under pressure to investigate a baby food contamination scare that was happening at the time, he found himself at the scene where Nicholas Randall’s remains were found and had been briefly involved in the investigation, and he was telling a very different story to the official one. Kenny was present when Nick’s remains were found, and when the police photographer turned up to take the photographs of the scene. The photographer initially refused to go into the tent as it was a crime scene. Kenny was there when two young detective constables eventually showed up who took a cursory look around the scene, but left pretty quickly when it was ruled by their bosses that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Nick, something Kenny was extremely surprised about at the time due to what he had seen in and around the tent, which had also been captured by the photographer. Let’s go through what was found in the tent by Kenny and a colleague that led to the police ruling that there was no suspicious circumstances surrounding Nick’s death. Okay. Firstly, there were two sleeping bags, a holdall, different sized boots, two sets of clothes in the rucksack, one set of high quality outdoor wear and the other one looked like hiking clothes of someone less experienced, a black handled kitchen knife and a used condom found in Nick’s sleeping bag.
Dawn:
So, that suggests to me straight away that there were two people staying in that tent.
Cole:
Yes, that’s what it says to me too. Also, apparently a shallow grave was found a year before by an off-duty police officer near to where Nick’s tent was pitched.
Dawn:
Oh, was anybody found in there?
Cole:
No, and it might not have even been anything to do with Nick, it’s just another strange thing surrounding the case. Due to the decomposition of the body, it was impossible for the date of death to be determined, so Nick could have been there when the shallow grave was dug, but equally it could have had absolutely nothing to do with him, but it is still strange. The fact that these items were found in the tent and yet Nick’s death was ruled as not suspicious and the case was closed is mystifying to me.
Dawn:
Well, yeah. There clearly was somebody else in the tent with Nick. Did they have something to do with Nick’s death? Where had they gone? And why hadn’t they taken all their things with them?
Cole:
There were just so many unanswered questions at this stage. I can’t understand what police were thinking. How could they possibly think that Nick would have random sizes and types of clothes and boots with him? It makes no sense. Plus, he’d not have been able to carry all the equipment, shoes and clothes that were inside the tent by himself, as well as the tent itself by himself from where his car had been found 43 miles or 69 kilometres away. Surely the rationale was that he had met someone and that they’d been walking together and decided to pitch the tent and stay together there too?
Dawn:
Yeah, that sounds logical to me.
Cole:
Anyway, having found these items, Kenny and his colleagues became very conscious that they might contaminate a crime scene and so they left the tent. He did say that an email had been sent to a senior police officer about them finding the condom, but he never heard any more about it as a senior detective took over the case at this time and Kenny went back to his usual job. While he did have questions about the scene and what was found, he assumed that the detectives would look into things and come up with satisfactory answers, it just wasn’t in his best interest to step on their toes. So, he carried on with his job thinking nothing more of it. Kenny then changed jobs a few years later and became a police recruit trainer, and this is when Nick’s case and all of the questions he had at the time came back to his mind again. Kenny remembered this case and thought it would be an ideal case to use for training purposes of the right way to carry out an investigation. He went to collect the photographs and any additional investigation paperwork into the case, only to be shocked by what he actually discovered. None of the loose ends that he thought needed answering back in 2008 had been investigated. He also found that the items that had been discovered in the tent and what was captured in the photographs taken didn’t actually tie up with what had been logged; two sleeping bags were clearly seen in the photographs taken by the police photographer, however only one sleeping bag was apparently recorded as evidence. While it had been recorded that the rucksacks did have different sizes and styles of clothing in them, it had not been recorded that there had been different sizes of boots in the tent too. Worse was yet to be discovered by Kenny. Shortly after the case had been deemed as not suspicious in any way, despite the findings in the tent, the decision had been made to incinerate the evidence, deciding it was no longer needed, the case had been solved and closed in the police’s opinion. So, now there would be no way, even if the investigation could be reopened, to test any of the clothing, boots, knife or sleeping bag for DNA to try and find out who might have been the last person in the tent with Nick or who may have killed him, if he had indeed been murdered. All the evidence was gone. Apparently the condom had been logged separately so there might be a chance that it was still being kept in an evidence room somewhere, but let’s face it, it’s doubtful. Kenny could not believe what he’d stumbled upon. Why on earth had there not been an investigation into Nicks’s death? How could this have been deemed non-suspicious if there had not been an investigation or testing for DNA? He was dumbfounded and angry, didn’t this man deserve to have his death investigated? Didn’t he deserve justice if he had been murdered? And, how could this be justified? Having served as a respected police officer for 21 years, in 2014 Kenny McKechnie left the police force as he’d become disillusioned by it. Finding out how Nick’s death had been investigated, or not fully investigated as the case may be, was just one in a long line of things that led to Kenny leaving the police, a bit acrimoniously it might be said. It would be a further three years before Kenny finally went public and made the allegations into the standard of policing in the case of Nicholas Randall’s death and called for an investigation to be carried out. He also stated that he felt Nick’s death had been deemed not suspicious as there was not enough money or resources to launch a murder investigation. Following the allegations by Kenny, Detective Superintendent Callum Young made a statement saying that “A thorough investigation was carried out by a team led by a detective inspector and included forensic specialists and a post-mortem examination.” He went on to say that “There was no information at the time to suggest the death was suspicious. Should anyone have any information about the death, I would ask them to call the police at Dumbarton on 101 and it will be followed up.” It was stated that the evidence found in the tent did not suggest a suspicious death. The police’s internal professional standards department were asked to look into how the officers back in 2008 dealt with the findings inside the tent, however, upon the conclusion of the investigation the findings were that they agreed with the detectives from 2008 and their conclusion was that there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding Nick’s death.
Dawn:
What?! Well that is so frustrating.
Cole:
Yeah. Kenny felt the same when he found out. However, Kenny wasn’t alone in his thinking by this time. A member of the Scottish Parliament, Liam Kerr, said that he too felt the death seemed highly suspicious, agreeing that the findings after the new internal investigation were startling. His thoughts seemed to be with the Randall family who continued to be at the centre of this and who only ever wanted to know the truth about what happened to their son. So much so that in 2018 Liam Kerr had asked Lord Advocate James Wolfe QC to review the case notes in relation to Nicholas Randall’s case, as he felt strongly that most people reading reports on this case would agree that there appears to be more to it. According to Wikipedia the Lord Advocate is the chief legal officer of the Scottish government and the Crown in Scotland for both civil and criminal matters.
Dawn:
Okay, so one of the top guys?
Cole:
Yeah, definitely. Unfortunately though, that was in 2018 and there’s been no further information about the outcome or the progress of the investigation, but if anything is found out we will update you.
Dawn:
Okay. Well, at least we know it’s being looked into and that it’s not just been brushed under the carpet again.
Cole:
Yeah, that’s true. Although Kenny did leave the force under a cloud and clearly there had been some bad blood, but he said his feelings towards the police had nothing to do with him coming forward now and telling his side of the story. He said he did it because he thinks Nick’s parents deserve to know the truth. Regardless of Kenny’s motivations, it is clear from the photos taken by the police photographer that there is more to this story than was initially told. Mr and Mrs Randall had no idea of the circumstances Nick was found in, no idea that there was ever a suggestion that there might have been a companion in the tent with him, possibly involved in his death, and had no idea that his death was anything other than not suspicious. Upon Kenny McKechnie opening up about the findings in the tent and the supposed subsequent lack of investigation into Nick’s death, Mr and Mrs Randall met with the police and were apparently told that the allegations would be looked into thoroughly. Since then there has been nothing from Mr and Mrs Randall either and I cannot imagine what they are going through. It must be absolute torture having to have this all dragged back up again. So, did Kenny do the right thing? I mean obviously if the investigation wasn’t done correctly or at all and Nick’s death was suspicious then of course it should have been brought up and investigated. Kenny is right that Mr and Mrs Randall do deserve to know the truth, but after nine years of having had time to grieve and try to come to terms with what had happened, is it fair to have opened up a wound again? I don’t know what I would prefer, not knowing or having to relive all the pain again.
Dawn:
Personally, I would want to know and I think Kenny did do the right thing, I just wish it’d all come to light a bit sooner.
Cole:
So, why don’t you contact us on social media and tell us what your thoughts are, as well as what your take is on what happened, what version are you leaning towards? Was Nick murdered by a person he met while walking on the West Highland Way and it wasn’t investigated properly by the police, or did he die tragically, non-suspiciously, from natural causes and the police knew something or had a vital piece of information that proved this? I hope we can bring you a definitive answer to this one day, but with all the evidence and the DNA now having been incinerated, it’s pretty doubtful.
Dawn:
So, two truly awful stories today, and we might never fully know what happened to Sandy and Nick, but hopefully these stories help in highlighting lessons that could and should be learned, especially when it comes to making assumptions when somebody is found dead.
And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them, don’t keep it to yourself.
Cole:
Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com, as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.
Dawn:
So, that’s it for this week. Come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.
Dawn and Cole:
Join us there! Bye!
Granny Robertson:
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn
Hosted by Dawn and Cole
Researched and Written by Dawn Young
Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull
Production Company Name by Granny Robertson
Music:
Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
The Cheese Wire Killer: A Taxi Driver's Last Fare
The Cheese Wire Killer:
A Taxi Driver's Last Fare
Episode Summary
Dawn and Cole recount the tragic story of George Murdoch, a kind-hearted taxi driver from Aberdeen, who was brutally murdered on the night of 29 September 1983. Known affectionately as “Dodd,” George was attacked with a cheese wire by a passenger, leading to a fatal struggle. Despite extensive police investigations and appeals over the years, his killer remains at large. The episode explores the impact of George’s murder on his wife, Jessie, and their family, highlighting the ongoing quest for justice. Tune in for a poignant examination of a case that has haunted Aberdeen for decades.
Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.
Listen on:
UPDATE October 2022:
The murder of Aberdeen Taxi Driver George Murdoch took place on 29thof September 1983, with the 39th anniversary having just passed. While George Murdoch’s murderer has still not been brought to justice, there have been a number of developments in the case.
Reward Increase:
The reward for information on who killed George has now been further increased and now stands at £50,000.
New Information Received:
Following information being received through social media, DI James Callander, the lead detective working on George Murdoch’s murder case, released fresh and potentially significant information to the papers and media. He was for anyone who knows of a male, likely now in his 60s, or 70s, who is small and of stocky build, with a local accent, who frequented Wilson’s Sports Bar, on Market St, Aberdeen in 2015, perhaps still does, and is known to wear or have worn an Iron Maiden T Shirt, to please contact Police on 101, or send a private message on the FB page Appeal for Information Aberdeen Taxi Driver Murder 1983 – George Murdoch. Alternatively, an email can be sent to jdhallfield@mail.co.uk
Also, on the 11th October, the lead detective on George’s murder case, lead, DI James Callander, appeared again on the programme CrimeWatch to give an update on George’s case.
If you know of an individual, in his 60s or 70s, matching this description, who has been known to wear such a T-Shirt, George Murdoch’s family and the police urge you to come forward if you can help at all.
UPDATE 19.08.2022:
UPDATE:
It was recently the 38th anniversary of George Murdoch’s murder and his family have renewed their appeal for information regarding the murder. There is a reward which has been recently doubled and now stands at £20,000. So, if you were in the Aberdeen area in 1983 or knew anyone who was in the area during this time who might remember something about this horrific murder, then the family would really like to hear from you with any information you may have, however small or insignificant you think it might be, as anything you might know could really help this investigation. One particular detail is regarding cheese wire usage in the area at the time. Uses for cheesewire may have been dehorning cattle, cutting large blocks of ice in the fishing industry, cutting clay in sculpting or cutting cores in the offshore industry. But do you know of any other uses or professions that haven’t been mentioned, and if so, this would also be valuable information that the police and George Murdoch’s family would love to know about.
Please, if you know anything at all, contact either the Police on 101 in the UK or contact the family directly on their Facebook page at Appeal for Information Aberdeen Taxi Driver Murder 1983 – George Murdoch
If there is anything you or anyone you know remembers from September 1983 in Aberdeen, then this could be invaluable in finding out who murdered George Murdoch, and finally give his family the closure they have been waiting for.
The Last Fare eBook: McKay, Robina S.: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
World Population Review – Aberdeen Population
Who was Scotland’s cheese wire killer? The brutal murder of an Aberdeen taxi driver – Daily Record
George Murdoch murder: Dozens of calls about 1983 Aberdeen killing – BBC News
George Murdoch murder: Police remain optimistic about finding 1983 killer – BBC News
George Murdoch – True Crime Library
Family of ‘Cheese Wire Killer’ victim still seek justice 35 years on | Press and Journal
Renewed bid to find Aberdeen cheese wire killer 35 years on – BBC News
Reward for information about murdered Aberdeen taxi driver extended | Press and Journal
Family of murdered taxi driver George Murdoch publishes book about unsolved case | Press and Journal
‘Police chiefs to blame for “cheese wire killer” getting away’ | Press and Journal
Blood and Granite: True crime from Aberdeen eBook: Adams, Norman: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store
10,000 reward to catch murderer who killed taxi driver 31 years ago – Evening Express
If you have any information relating to this case, contact;
101 (UK).
Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 (UK),
Email dedicated inbox at SCDHOLMESAberdeen@scotland.pnn.police.uk.
The Last Fare
by Robina S McKay
Synopsis
Thursday 29th Sept 1983. It had been a miserable, dreich day in Aberdeen and rain was still falling, as taxi driver, George Murdoch, made his way along Queens Rd. Up ahead, he spotted a young guy attempting to flag down a cab. Pulling in for him, he stopped and his passenger climbed into the seat behind him. As he indicated to pull out, George glanced at the clock dial. This would be his last fare of the night. Soon, he’d be heading home to his wife and the warm meal she’d have waiting for him. But George would not make it home that night, nor any other.
His nightmare was only just beginning…………
Our Review
Dawn:
A taxi driver working in Aberdeen on the night of the 29th of September 1983 picked up a seemingly harmless fare, but a few minutes into the journey things took a deadly turn.
Dawn and Cole:
Hi wee ones. I’m Dawn and I’m Cole, and this is Scottish Murders.
Dawn:
George Murdoch, known to his friends and family as Dod, was made redundant in his mid-50s.It was a bit difficult for George to secure another job at this time due to his age and job prospects at the time, but he was determined to find employment. Eventually he decided to give taxi driving a go, it was a good easy way of making some money to pay the bills and take care of himself and his wife Jesse. He and Jesse had been happily married for 37 years, having married when George was 21 years old. George and Jesse sadly never had any children of their own, but they had lots of nieces and nephews who they doted on. They also had become best friends with their neighbours who also had children and they saw them as their grandchildren. George and Jesse had so much love to give. George and Jesse also loved animals and had a dog named Patch, who they adored and spoilt rotten. George also tried his hand at keeping pigeons, but unfortunately his pigeons just weren’t that keen on returning home. This was all well known and often caused a laugh or two. George was described by everyone he knew as being a kind, gentle and friendly man who always had a smile on his face, and himself and Jesse liked nothing more than spending a weekly night out at a local pub with friends and family, laughing and playing bingo. They had a quiet, simple life, but they were very content and happy with each other and looked forward to growing old together. Now when George decided he would start taxi driving, Jesse wasn’t too pleased about this as she was worried for his safety. George however, always the optimist, assured her that it would be okay and that he would never resist a robber, it just wasn’t worth it. George started taxi driving around 1980. He would often be seen in his sky blue Ford Cortina happily driving the locals around, sharing a story or two with them on their journey, and George was very well liked and respected in the local community. On Thursday the 29th of September 1983, George’s taxi shift would have gone as normal, ferrying locals to and from Aberdeen. Aberdeen is a city in the northeast of Scotland and is the third largest city in Scotland, with a population of over 241,000. It is known for its strong ties with the north sea boasting notable fishing and shipping industries, as well as being known as the offshore oil capital of Europe since the 1970s. Aberdeen is also known as the Granite City due to many of the buildings in the city being made from the local grey granite, which sparkles like silver in the sunlight. Thursdays in Aberdeen were late night shopping so it would have been busy. This particular Thursday was cold and the rain was falling heavily. George had been busy all evening and he was at last nearing the end of his shift. About 8.25pm as George was driving along Queens Road, up ahead he would have seen a young man standing on the pavement waving him down. The young man got into the taxi behind George and George pulled away. At 8.28 pm, George radioed the control room and said that he had picked up a fare for Peterculter, which was about six miles or about nine kilometres away. Then, for some reason, about two miles or about three kilometres into the journey, George turned his taxi into Pitfodels Station Road, which was about four miles or six kilometres short of the supposed destination. This street is about four miles west of Aberdeen city centre, it is quiet and dimly lit and runs all the way down to Garthdee Road, starting on a steep slope and going downwards as you turn into it. It would have been at this point that his passenger, who had been quietly sitting behind George, placed a steel cheese wire around his neck. It cut deeply into George’s neck and he would have panicked and probably initially froze in shock. However, this didn’t last long and he started fighting for his life, somehow managing to get the cheese wire away from his neck and get out of the taxi. However, the attacker was on top of him straight away and was stronger than him, younger than him, and before George could do anything else the attacker’s hands were around his neck and squeezing… hard. George would have fought hard but inevitably there was nothing he could do. With George slowly slipping into unconsciousness, the attacker grabbed his wallet and what little money George had in his taxi and fled the scene, leaving George fatally wounded and dying. God that’s awful. He must have been terrified. The first officers on the scene were dog handler PC Alan Hendry and a young officer who had been doing dog training exercises nearby that night, and so arrived on the scene quickly. George was lying in a pool of blood with severe injuries to his head, face and neck, and was barely alive when the first police officers arrived. After calling for backup PC Hendry stayed with George until the paramedics arrived, who then lifted George into the ambulance. Even though the paramedics did their best to save George, he died at the scene shortly after their arrival. He was 58 years old.
Cole:
He really didn’t deserve that.
Dawn:
Nobody would have deserved that. Following the murder the street was quickly cordoned off by the police and a murder investigation was launched. Over the next week or so extensive searches of the area were carried out, as well as police visiting 10,000 homes and 8,000 statements being taken, however, after all of this the only thing found connected to the murder and murderer was a cheese wire or a garrotte wire, which had been found near the scene. Now, there had been witnesses to the attack on George, two teenage cyclists were on their way home and were cycling up the slope and spotted George’s taxi facing down the hill with the lights on. As they’d passed they had seen George being pinned down by the murderer on the ground outside of his taxi and being strangled.
Cole:
Did they not do anything?
Dawn:
Well they were just teenagers so they were probably terrified, but they did cycle immediately to the nearest phone box and they called the police. The police had received this call just after 9pm and had radioed for a police officer to attend, with PC Alan Hendry being the nearest and showing attending. The two boys told the police that the attacker was thin built, in his late 20s to early 30s, with very dark hair. A couple out for a walk that evening in the area also reported to the police that they had seen a man running 200 yards from the scene. Apparently this was just moments after the teenagers had witnessed the fight. They gave a description of the man as being a thin man, roughly five foot seven inches, aged late twenties to early thirties, with short, dark, well-groomed hair that sat over his ears. Another witness had apparently seen a man matching this description running towards Aberdeen about five minutes later. Now about three weeks after the murder the staff in a chip shop in Great Western Road in Mannofield, which was about a mile and just under two kilometres from the murder scene, came forward and said that about 15 minutes after the murder a man matching the description came into the chip shop and ordered a fish supper.
Cole:
Did you say it took them three weeks to come forward?
Dawn:
Yeah, I did. Apparently, at the time, they had not connected the murder that had happened just along the road from them to this man being in their chip shop.
Cole:
You would think that they would be able to connect the two a little bit quicker as it was a local murder.
Dawn:
Yeah, exactly. They also said that this man had blood dripping from a hand injury and scratches on his cheek and nose, and a bruise was developing on one of his eyes, and that he spoke with a local accent.
Cole:
If I owned a chip shop and a man came in with blood dripping from his hands, scratches on his cheek and nose and a bruise on his face, I think I’d call the police regardless.
Dawn:
Apparently, as well there was actually six customers in the chip shop that night, but only one man was ever traced.
Cole:
Six people and only one person came forward? That’s crazy.
Dawn:
Yeah, exactly. And it was a popular theory by the locals that this man was the actual killer, but the police didn’t believe that.
Cole:
Yeah, I guess I can understand that. I mean, I doubt that you’re committing a horrible murder and then going to pick up a bag of chips.
Dawn:
I think the staff in the chip shop had probably just thought that this man had been in a fight or that had been drinking and had fallen over and he was just getting his fish supper and then heading home.
Cole:
Yeah. I mean, I can understand that, but it is a bit of a coincidence isn’t it?
Dawn:
It is a bit, and I do wish that they’d come forwards a bit sooner. However, the man in the chip shop has never been found and the theory’s just been ruled out. Shortly after the murder, the police also carried out a high-profile inquiry where they attended Pittodrie Stadium in Aberdeen when Aberdeen was playing Celtic, where they checked the hands of every male aged between 16 and 30 for damage, which would indicate this may be the killer. Apparently they saw this as an ideal opportunity where they could check a large number of males hands for any wounds. If the killer was going to a game and saw the police wouldn’t he just turn around and go home? Well, no, because the large police presence was only obvious once the supporters reached the turnstiles, by which time it would be too late to turn around and leave for fear of drawing attention to yourself. The police reported that everyone attending the game was extremely cooperative, however, the police had not anticipated that so many people would attend the game with cuts on their hands. After checking out all the people that had cuts on their hands and their stories, unfortunately no further leads were generated. Now, the cheese wire found at the scene was a potential clue to the identity of the killer, due to being able to narrow down the search possibly depending on the work a person did, however, cheese wire was used for a variety of things at the time, such as obviously cutting cheese, it was also used by oil workers for cutting core samples, by pottery makers, those in the fish industry, also used for removing windscreens from vehicles, and even apparently used for cutting through the horns on cattle, so there were quite a few uses for cheese wire. So, do you know anyone back in September 1983 working in any of these industries who perhaps had cuts and bruises on their face and hands? Or were you expecting anyone to come to your home that night that worked in any of these industries that didn’t turn up? Over the years the police have carried on following different lines of inquiry and there have been appeals from the family, but there just hasn’t been enough information or leads to track down this evil killer. Now, while it has never been determined exactly why George was killed, his wallet and money were stolen, the murderer could have been someone addicted to drink or drugs looking for easy money. If this was a robbery gone seriously wrong it is poignant to note that if the killer had just asked then George would have handed over the money no questions, as he always told his wife Jesse that he would do this. However, this was an extreme and excessively violent attack just to have been a robbery gone terribly wrong. Why was this man carrying a cheese wire with him in the first place? Did he use this for work? George was a very mild-mannered, gentle man who most certainly would not have antagonised the killer in any way for him to have attacked George so savagely. Did this man have anger problems? Or did this man simply decide that this was the night when he would cruelly take an innocent taxi driver’s life, and it didn’t matter who it was. This evil man would be approaching his seventies now and has enjoyed a life, which has been denied to George and his family. Now, when someone is murdered so horrifically you sometimes focus on the awful murder and forget about the family left behind having to find a way through. One person left behind after George’s murder was his wife Jesse. Jesse never recovered from the horrific murder of her beloved husband, her world had been turned upside down on the evening the police had come to her home to tell her the news about George’s murder. She loved George, they had plans for when George retired, but more than that they just looked forward to spending more time together. It was not just George’s life that had been taken that night. Jesse was a slight figure and after the murder she lost weight leading to her becoming frail. Over the years Jesse suffered many strokes and her legs started to get weak, which led to weakness and frailty. So much so that she eventually wasn’t able to go out on her own. Jesse did have huge support from her sisters, brother, nieces and nephews and the wonderful neighbours who lived next door, who she and George had become so close with. Jesse lived for another 21 years, dying in 2004 at the age of 76. In early 2015, George’s family issued another appeal and this time offered a £10,000, just under $14,000,
reward for any information that could lead to the conviction of George’s murderer. Again, some information was given to the police, but still not the lead or information that they would need to find the killer that had thus far evaded justice. Now, the investigation so far sounded like the police had been doing everything they could to try and find George’s killer via appeals, inquiries, witness statements etc, however, on the 17th of April 2017, 33 years after the murder, former police officer and the first police officer on the horrific scene in 1983 Alan Hendry, who went on to become an Aberdeenshire councillor, came forward to claim that he felt his superiors missed the opportunity to catch the killer quickly, close the case and give the family closure. The former police officer has always questioned just how well the searches were conducted at the time. He felt that he had been sent on a wild goose chase at the time while the killer was nearby watching the investigation unfold. He explains that after his superiors arrived he was told to take his German Shepherd to Peterculter, which is approximately 10 miles or 16 kilometres away, and to walk back along the old railway line, through the pouring rain back towards the scene of the killing. However, PC Hendry believed that the killer was actually hiding in a nearby field watching what was unfolding. By going through this field it would eventually take you out at the railway line. PC Henry believed if he had been allowed to do his job and search the immediate area he would have found the killer that night. PC Hendry was so convinced of the failings of the officer in charge on that night that the next day, once it had stopped raining, he took his German Shepherd back to the crime scene and let him loose in the field. Apparently, the dog indicated an area of ground in the field behind an embankment right on the edge of the Pidfodels Station road where somebody had been lying.
Cole:
Yeah, but that could have just been someone having a nosy at what was going on, unrelated to the attack at all.
Dawn:
Exactly. But as it’s been quite a number of years ago now we’ll never know for sure. Police Scotland didn’t comment specifically on these allegations, but they did say that they remain committed to solving unsolved murders, they are regularly reviewed and any forensic techniques are used to assist in this. On the 27th of September 2018, which would have been the 35th anniversary of George’s death, Detective Inspector Gary Winter from the Major Investigation Team organised a major media appeal in the hope that it might reach someone that had information about this case that hadn’t come forward yet. He advised that the team would be reviewing the case, reinterviewing the witnesses who saw the assault, and that the most advanced forensic techniques available would be used. He informed that the killer would be approaching his late 60s or early 70s by now. Detective Inspector Winter also stated that the cheese wire found at the scene had been used in the attack and a photograph of an identical cheese wire was also released at this time. Also at this appeal, a photograph was released that showed George and Jesse at their nephew’s wedding in 1977, and I have put both of these photos on the website. George’s nephew, Alex 61, who was 26 years old when his uncle was murdered, also spoke on behalf of the family at this appeal. Alex reiterated that the £10,000 or just under $14,000 reward was still being made available by the family for any information that resulted in the arrest of the person responsible. He spoke of memories he had of George, talked about George’s wife Jesse, and asked that people think back to 1983 and come forward with any information they might remember to the police. And what followed from the public was incredible, the police received over 100 calls and emails, and they were still being contacted by individuals in the following months. It just goes to show that despite the passage of time people still remember the tragic night George was murdered and desperately want to help give the family the closure they deserve. However promising it is that the police have received such a response to the appeal in 2018 and the advanced techniques that can be used, George’s murderer has still not been identified. Following this appeal, Alex, George and Jesse’s nephew, continued to speak out about the couple in the hopes of raising awareness and triggering a memory in somebody that could possibly lead to the arrest of George’s killer. Alex still remembers receiving the call from his mother at 11pm on the night of George’s murder breaking the news to him. He was badly shaken, and recalls that for many weeks after the murder the whole family was in turmoil and shock over the horrific senseless killing of their kind, gentle, always smiling Dod. He went on to say that Jesse had the kindest soul and she was deeply affected by the murder. She was scared being in her own home as the murderer had taken George’s wallet and she was afraid that this evil man would know her address and come to her home. She had thought about moving maybe to somewhere smaller, but this thought quickly was dismissed as she had so many memories of George in the house, there was no way she could leave. Alex said that apparently Jesse never really talked about what happened that night, possibly she was trying to protect her family from the horror and pain but they all felt it nonetheless. In April 2020, it was revealed that Robina McKay, who is the wife of George and Jesse’s nephew Alex, was in the process of writing a book as she wanted to tell Jesse’s story following the murder to hopefully strike a chord in people and allow insight into exactly what this heinous crime had done to George’s wife. This book is called The Last Fare and can be bought on paperback or Kindle from Amazon. I’ve actually read this book and it was told beautifully, it really made Jesse and George into real people and told of their time together, giving an insight into their thoughts. You were able to see them as a loving couple and not just victims of something absolutely horrendous. I’d really recommend this book. Alex has said that now all of George’s closest relatives have passed away, it is really down to Alex and his family to try to keep George’s story in the limelight and catch George’s killer, before Alex passes too. Hopefully one day soon someone will come forward with that one missing piece of information, who killed George Murdoch. As of this episode being released, there have still been no further developments, despite the many appeals for information over the years. If you’re listening to this episode and you think you might have information about this case that you haven’t shared with the police, no matter how small, please contact 101 or call Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111. Or alternatively you can email a dedicated inbox at SCDHOLMESAberdeen@scotland.pnn.police.uk. And hopefully George Murdoch’s killer can finally be brought to justice. All of these contact details will be put on our website.
And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them, don’t keep it to yourself.
Cole:
Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com, as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.
Dawn:
So that’s it for this week, come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.
Dawn and Cole:
Join us there, Bye!
Granny Robertson:
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn
Hosted by Dawn and Cole
Researched and Written by Dawn Young
Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull
Production Company Name by Granny Robertson
Music:
Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
The Tragic Case of Karen Buckley: A Night Out Turned Nightmare
The Tragic Case of
Karen Buckley:
A Night Out Turned Nightmare
Karen Buckley:
A Night Out Turned Nightmare
Episode Summary
Hosts Dawn and Cole talk about the tragic case of Karen Buckley, a 24-year-old Irish nurse who moved to Glasgow in 2015 to study occupational therapy. After a night out Karen was last seen on CCTV walking with Alexander Pacteau, a troubled young man with a history of violent behaviour. The episode meticulously recounts the investigation that followed Karen’s disappearance, revealing Pacteau’s sinister actions and the extensive police work that led to his arrest. Dawn and Cole provide a detailed narrative of the events, from the initial search to the discovery of Karen’s body and Pacteau’s eventual conviction.
Please Be Advised – This episode may contain content that some may find distressing. As always, we advise listener discretion. This episode it not suitable for anyone under the age of 13.
Listen on:
Karen Buckley: Man arrested over student’s death – BBC News
Karen Buckley murder: Alexander Pacteau jailed for life – BBC News
Karen Buckley murder: Watch killer reveal moment he first laid eyes on student nurse – Mirror Online
Karen Buckley crime scene pictures – Daily Record
Karen Buckley murder – Mirror Online
Timeline: The Karen Buckley murder case (rte.ie)
Karen Buckley murder cops make CCTV appeal – The Sun
Twisted killer jailed for life for ‘motiveless’ murder of student Karen Buckley – Daily Star
Alexander Pacteau admits brutal murder of student Karen Buckley | ITV News
AEG Facilities Extends Partnership Agreement with The SSE Hydro, Glasgow Arena | AEG Worldwide
Glasgow Tourism and Visitor Plan
Judge calls Karen Buckley’s murder a ‘brutal, motiveless attack on a defenceless young woman’
Timeline Of Karen Buckley’s Murder | News – Clyde 2
Karen Buckley: Man arrested over student’s death – BBC News
Karen Buckley death: Man, 21, charged with murder of trainee nurse – Daily Star
Karen Buckley murder: Alexander Pacteau jailed for life – BBC News
Karen Buckley murder: Watch killer reveal moment he first laid eyes on student nurse – Mirror Online
Karen Buckley murder: Alexander Pacteau jailed for at least 23 years | UK news | The Guardian
Karen Buckley murder – Mirror Online
Karen Buckley murder: Timeline of events | The Scotsman
Karen Buckley: Timeline of disappearance and death
Timeline: The Karen Buckley murder case
Karen Buckley murder: Man admits ‘evil’ killing of Irish student in Glasgow – BBC News
Family of murdered Karen Buckley thank ‘˜very many people’ for support | Belfast News Letter
Police fear Karen Buckley’s evil murderer Pacteau had ‘stalked other women’ – Herald.ie
Karen Buckley murderer Pacteau gets life, with a minimum sentence of 23 years
Memorial mass to mark one year since murder of Karen Buckley – STV News
Twisted killer jailed for life for ‘motiveless’ murder of student Karen Buckley – Daily Star
Karen Buckley murder: what we know now – Independent.ie
Man pleads guilty to Karen Buckley murder | UK news | The Guardian
Alexander Pacteau admits brutal murder of student Karen Buckley | ITV News
Man Admits Murder Of Karen Buckley – Heart Scotland
Karen was ‘our little angel’ – BBC News
Karen Buckley: How Alexander Pacteau killed her and tried to destroy her body
Alex Pacteau: The making of the evil monster who murdered Karen Buckley – Irish Mirror Online
‘My son is innocent’, says mother whose son was seen talking to Karen on CCTV
Karen Buckley funeral: Hundreds mourn “utterly inappropriate” death | UK | News | Express.co.uk
Monster killer Alexander Pacteau moved jail after riot over drug checks
Cork nurse murderer Alexander Pacteau moved to new jail for being ringleader in prison riot
24 year old Irish nurse Karen Buckley had moved to Glasgow in February 2015 to study occupational therapy. She had been on a night out in Glasgow with her friends, but was later seen on CCTV walking along the street with a man. Karen’s body was found four days later.
Hi Wee Ones! I’m Cole, and I’m Dawn, and this is Scottish Murders.
Cole: There are a few French names coming up, I’ve tried to look at how to pronounce them, but if I do get them wrong I do apologise. Alexander Benjamin Pacteau was born in 1994 to well off parents, Noreen and Guillaume Pacteau. His French father owned a successful courier business, while his Scottish mother stayed at home and raised Pacteau and his young sister and two younger brothers. From as early as four or five, a family friend revealed that Pacteau came across as a troubled child. He was very obnoxious, threw tantrums and constantly sought attention with his non-stop bad behaviour. He was apparently often referred to as trouble. The family were said to have lived in a plush house in the wealthy Bearsden area, which is 5.7 miles and about 9 kilometres northwest of Glasgow. Pacteau initially attended Balljaffray primary school located north of Bearsden, before later attending Kelvinside Academy, which is a private school in the west end of Glasgow. He attended this school as a teenager. The fees at this school were up to £12,000 a year, which is about $16,500. It was said that this move to a private school was in a bid to keep Pacteau on the straight and narrow. Unfortunately, before he could finish his schooling at Kelvinside Academy, his father’s business went bust and Pacteau ended up attending Bearsden Academy, which was a state school. Due to his private schooling his teachers expected him to be a bright student, however, he was described as an unremarkable student. He apparently had only a small circle of friends, was socially awkward and unpopular with girls. Despite his good start in life and his private education in 2011, he ended up dropping out of school when he was 17 years old so he could start his own courier firm. He attended a business course in Anniesland College, but within months he had dropped out of this too. It was shortly after he had dropped out of college that Pacteau began to show signs of what was lurking beneath. In November 2011, Pacteau was accused of attacking a 24 year old woman. After a night out in Glasgow, he allegedly approached a woman outside of a nightclub and gained her trust into sharing a taxi with him. As the two started walking to try and get a taxi, he had allegedly pushed her into an alley, forced her to the ground, put his hand over her mouth and carried out a sexual act on her, before trying to get her to carry out a sexual act on him. It was alleged at this point when he took his hand away from her mouth that she was able to scream, which alerted two men nearby who were on a balcony, and they rushed to her aid. Pacteau denied the charges of attempted rape and sexual assault, and at Paisley Court in 2013 he was cleared by a majority verdict. While the woman was devastated that he had been found not guilty, she felt strongly that she would be hearing his name again. Also in 2013, Pacteau’s parents split up and Pacteau went to live with his mother in Drymen, which is about 12 miles or 19 kilometres from where Pacteau grew up. Unfortunately, this didn’t work out and he eventually went to live with his father and his father’s new partner. Apparently he didn’t get on with his father’s new partner and there was some tension, so much so that his father grew tired of it and kicked Pacteau out. Pacteau then found himself a flat share in the Drumchapel area of Glasgow, which is about two miles, which is about three kilometres, away from where he grew up in Bearsden, with two other women. During this time he stopped socialising and fell into a pit of despair at his failure to get a girlfriend. He would frequently talk about sex in front of his female flatmates and talk about having heard them having sex. It got to a point where they didn’t want to be in the flat alone with him. He also struggled to find work, and when he did he rarely lasted long in the job. However, he frequently stated that he was going to be a millionaire, and in 2014 he had clearly been giving it a good go when he was charged with forging around £6,000, which is about $8,000, in fake banknotes. The fake notes were seized and in May 2014 he was sentenced to carry out 225 hours of community service. Pacteau had been relieved to have dodged a prison sentence and was determined to turn his life around, and so went on a crash diet and joined a gym in a bid to get in shape, lose weight and change his fortunes. In February 2015 he found himself a new flat share in the Kelvinside area of Glasgow, again with a woman, and in April, a mere three months later, his life did take a dramatic turn, but not in the way anyone would have expected. Karen Buckley lived in Mourneabbey, Country Cork, Ireland, which has a population of approximately 1,000 people. Karen lived on a farm with her dad John, her mum Marian and her three older brothers; Brendan, Damian and Kieran. On finishing her final year of secondary school, Karen then attended University of Limerick, where she graduated with a nursing degree. As much as Karen loved her parish and missed her family and friends terribly, Karen felt that there were more opportunities for her over the water in the United Kingdom, and so following graduating, Karen secured a nursing placement at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Essex where she worked for a couple of years. However, as much as Karen loved her nursing job and worked hard, she also thoroughly enjoyed life and wanted to travel the world. Karen was fortunate enough to have visited both Thailand and South Africa and she loved the experience. She had the travel bug and had decided that she wanted to see more of the world. Like any mum and dad, her parents were concerned about Karen being abroad as a single woman, but they knew she was such a sensible girl and knew how to keep herself safe. Karen was so outgoing and fun-loving and everybody wanted to be around her, she made plenty of friends wherever she went. As well as traveling, Karen also loved to learn and develop new skills, so in February 2015 Karen moved to Glasgow where she was a first-year student studying occupational therapy at Glasgow Caledonia University. A few of Karen’s friends had student flats in Garnethill Street in Glasgow, which was about a 14-minute walk from the university she was attending, and so Karen also acquired a flat in Garnethill Street to be close to her friends. Karen loved Glasgow and was welcomed there as one of their own. Glasgow is situated in Scotland’s western lowlands and, according to Glasgow Tourism and Visitor Plan website, it is one of the world’s top five cities for hosting sporting events, the world’s leading festival and event destination and Scotland’s cultural and sporting centre, home to the largest annual cultural offering and largest sporting infrastructure outside of London. The people of Glasgow are well known for being extremely friendly, kind, warm, welcoming and having a great sense of humour. This might have been one of the many reasons Karen decided to attend Glasgow Caledonia University to continue her studies. Karen had a pretty uneventful couple of months after starting at university; attending lectures and enjoying spending her down time with her friends, that was until a chance meeting on a night out with friends in April.
Dawn: It was Saturday the 11th of April 2015 and in Garnethill Street 24 year old Karen and three friends, who also lived in flats in Garnethill Street, were in Karen’s flat listening to music, having a few drinks and getting ready to head to the Sanctuary Nightclub in Dumbarton Road, Glasgow. A taxi arrived at Garnethill Street to take the girls to the nightclub at about 11:30pm that evening, and Karen and her friends were seen arriving at the nightclub about 11:45pm, queuing for 20 minutes outside before finally getting let in. They then headed to the bar to get drinks and continue enjoying their night. Also getting ready for a night out at the popular Sanctuary Nightclub that night were 21 year old Pacteau and seven of his friends. Pacteau and his friends had arranged to meet at Pacteau’s flat in Dorchester Avenue for some drinks, before heading out. Two taxis were booked to take Pacteau and his friends to the Sanctuary, however only one turned up. Therefore Pacteau decided to drive himself and two of his friends to the nightclub in his Ford Focus and he parked it about 100 meters away, which is roughly 300 feet, from the nightclub. CCTV shows that Pacteau and his friends enter the Sanctuary Nightclub at 11:38pm, and head to a booth that the party had booked. This was six minutes before Karen would arrive with her friends. Karen and Pacteau didn’t know each other, they’d never met, were not acquaintances, were not friends online and didn’t have any mutual friends. They were complete strangers. It is also believed that neither Karen or Pacteau came into contact with each other at all while inside the Sanctuary. They both just separately seemed to be enjoying their nights out. However, about an hour later that would all change as their fates were intertwined. Karen had been having a good night, but just before 1am she said to her friends that she was going to head home and that she’d see them later that day for a catch-up. The friends were a bit concerned about Karen walking home alone, but she told them she would be fine, she’d get a taxi and for them not to worry. Karen had had a few drinks but she was by no means drunk, so they agreed for her to make her way home alone. She then said bye and headed for the exit of the Sanctuary Nightclub. A few minutes earlier, Pacteau was seen on CCTV leaving the nightclub briefly, before going back inside for a few minutes. And then just before 1am he left the nightclub again and this time crossed the road and was seen on CCTV walking up and down the pavement opposite the nightclub. Then at 1am, Karen is seen on CCTV leaving the nightclub, crossing the road and walking straight into Pacteau’s path, where he is still walking up and down on the opposite side of the road. Karen and Pacteau are seen on CCTV having a brief conversation, before the pair walk off in the direction of where Pacteau’s car is parked not far away. It is thought that perhaps he had offered her a lift home. This was the last time Karen was seen alive. Karen’s flatmates had had a good time while at the nightclub and were probably a bit worse for ware, and so it wasn’t until between 12noon and 1pm on the Sunday afternoon, after they had tried repeatedly to get an answer at Karen’s flat as her mobile phone was either switched off or had run out of charge, that they finally raised the alarm and contacted Police Scotland to report Karen missing, as they had a feeling by this time that something was terribly wrong. Karen was usually so reliable and would never just disappear without a word, if she had been going anywhere she would have either called or text to let her friends know where she was. Upon Police Scotland receiving the phone call reporting Karen Buckley missing, detectives immediately treated her disappearance as a high-risk missing person inquiry. Following speaking with her friends, who told them Karen had left the Sanctuary Nightclub alone, detectives were quick to request CCTV footage from the nightclub from the night before and early hours of the morning, to see if it could provide any insight into Karen’s movements. And they were quick to learn that it very well could. The CCTV footage showed Karen and her friends arriving at the Sanctuary Nightclub and then Karen leaving the club at about 1am, and having an interaction with a man she then walked off with. Unfortunately, there was no footage of where the two had gone, but the CCTV footage was clear enough so this was a good start. Police Scotland made an appeal asking for anyone who had seen Karen in the early hours of Sunday morning to come forward, asking for information on who the man with Karen was from the footage, as well as any information on a grey Ford Focus car that had been seen traveling in the Milngavie or Drymen areas between 11am and 3pm on Monday the 13th of April. Detectives described Karen at this time as being white, between five foot to five foot two inches, with dark hair and brown eyes. She had been wearing an all-in-one black jumpsuit with red high heels, and a black handbag, and she spoke in an Irish accent. By Monday, while there had been information on sightings of Karen, detectives had a name to go with the face of the man Karen was seen last talking to, Alexander Pacteau. Detectives also established that Pacteau was the owner of a grey Ford Focus. Detectives visited Pacteau’s flat in Dorchester Avenue to attempt to speak to him, but on their first visit there was no one at home. However, upon calling at his flat again about 6pm, he opened the door and said “I was just coming to see you.”
Cole: Oh I wonder what he was going to say.
Dawn: Well, he invites the detectives into his flat, where a strong smell of bleach is immediately noticed.
Cole: Oh that’s not a good sign.
Dawn: The detectives take a look through the flat and notice a few other odd things in his bedroom, such as a toolbox, a roll of parcel tape, nail brushes, and also that the mattress doesn’t fit his bed.
Cole: I maybe could understand a toolbox, the parcel tape, maybe nail brushes, are these things odd to have in your flat? He shares his flat, right?
Dawn: Yeah, he does share a flat.
Cole: So, he could be just worried about things going missing. But the mattress doesn’t fit his bed? That’s just really odd, isn’t it?
Dawn: Yeah, that is a bit strange.
Cole: How often do you see someone with a bed that they’ve got the wrong sized mattress?
Cole: Yeah, I agree it is a bit strange, and I guess the detectives thought that as well. Anyway. So, the detectives asked Pacteau about his movements the night before and the early hours of the morning, and this is when he tells them what he was coming to see them about. He says that, yes, he had met Karen outside the Sanctuary Nightclub, purely by chance, and they had come back to his flat, but that she’d left around 4am. The detectives then asked Pacteau if he would come to the station to give them a statement, which he agreed to do. Once at the police station Pacteau’s earlier statement to detectives began to change, and not for the last time. He stated again how, yes, Karen had returned to his flat, that they had had a couple of drinks and had consensual sex, however, this time he states that Karen had hit her head on the bed frame, before leaving his flat at 4am. He said that he hadn’t realised she was bleeding until he saw the blood on the bedsheets earlier in the morning, after she had gone. Pacteau continues by saying that once he saw the missing person appeal for information about Karen’s whereabouts, and saw he was the man that was shown on the CCTV outside the Sanctuary Nightclub talking to Karen, he said he panicked because he knew he was probably the last person to have seen her alive, and so he had taken the blood stained mattress and some of his clothes to High Craigton Farm and burned them, and he purchased a new ill-fitting mattress. As you do. Yeah. So, you were right, there was something wrong, there was something sinister about the mattress being the wrong size. If I walk into a gentleman’s home and the mattress doesn’t fit the bed, I’m walking straight back out. (laughs) Anyway, while Pacteau was at the police station he agreed to have his clothes searched, and what the police found in his trouser pocket made the detectives even more suspicious of Pacteau. He had a receipt for drain unblocker and sodium hydroxide.
Cole: Sodium hydroxide, that is also known as lye, isn’t it? Or caustic soda? It breaks down proteins at room temperature and it can cause severe burns, is that right?
Dawn: Yeah, that’s right. You wouldn’t want that spilt on you that’s for sure.
Cole: Definitely not.
Dawn: So, following Pacteau’s statement being taken, and given what was found in his trouser pockets, the police were deeply suspicious of his version of events, and so they cordoned his flat off and began to forensically search and examine it. Pacteau was free to go at this time but, due to his flat now being forensically searched, he advised detectives that he would be spending the night at a Holiday Inn hotel in Glasgow. Forensic teams worked through the night and about 4aam Pacteau’s grey Ford Focus was removed from outside his flat and taken to be forensically searched also. When Karen was first reported missing, Police Scotland had contacted her parents in County Cork to advise them that Karen was missing, and her parents made the decision to fly to Glasgow to try and find out what had happened to their daughter. Back in Ireland, Karen’s former classmates at Limerick University set up a fundraising page to help support the family with their travel and expenses while in Glasgow, as well as to help support the upkeep of their farm in Cork. The page was only open for 24 hours and in that time they had raised £50,000, which is about $69,000.
Cole: That’s amazing!
Dawn: That’s a lot of money. Some people called for it to be reopened again as they too wanted to donate.
Cole: A press conference was held at the police station on Tuesday the 14th of April at about 2pm. Karen’s parents, John and Marian, made an appeal asking for any information on their daughter’s whereabouts saying that they were desperate for her to come home safely. During this appeal police revealed that they had traced the man seen talking to Karen on CCTV and he was helping them with their inquiries, but Detective Superintendent Jim Kerr stressed that he was not a suspect. They also revealed that Karen’s handbag had been discovered in Dawsholm Park, which is around a three minute drive from Pacteau’s flat at Dorchester Avenue. Apparently Karen’s handbag had been found at 7am on Sunday the 12th of April by a member of the public, but they had not actually handed the bag into the police until 1:40pm on Tuesday, after hearing the appeal for information on Karen’s whereabouts. That took them a long time, no rush. I don’t actually know why it took so long, but it was probably just a case that they hadn’t had a chance to take it to the police station yet, but they did it as soon as they heard about the appeal. Karen’s handbag had been found near a rubbish bin in Dawsholm Park. along with her mobile phone and a passport. Following this discovery being reported, a huge police search was mounted at the park, which included search helicopters and sniffer dogs. The search in Dawsholm Park and at Pacteau’s flat continued until Wednesday. The location where Karen’s handbag had been found further raised suspicion about Pacteau’s story of Karen leaving his flat at 4am. If Karen was heading back to her own flat in Garnethill Street, she would have walked in the opposite direction of Dawsholm Park. So another thing that detectives had to think about. And then on Wednesday the 15th of April, police released a statement saying that through the evidence that they had been able to collect, a 21 year old man had been detained for questioning in connection with Karen’s disappearance, and that man was Alexander Pacteau. Apparently the police had found Pacteau at a Starbucks at 1:55pm in Glasgow City Centre and had brought him to Helen Street police station for questioning. This came after swabs taken from Pacteau’s flat confirmed traces of Karen’s blood within the property and police feeling confident that they had enough evidence to treat Pacteau as a suspect. When Pacteau was searched in the police station this time police found a handwritten note on Holiday Inn notepaper which outlined what he’d said to the police when he had made a witness statement on the 13th of April. Clearly he was trying to remember what he had originally said. Following the police releasing the statement that Pacteau had been detained in connection with Karen’s disappearance, just over an hour later, a former colleague of Pacteau’s rang the police station and reported that Pacteau had previously used storage units at High Craigton Farm, which is just outside Milngavie, and that he also drove a grey car, which the police had previously put out an appeal for any information about, but at this point they already knew about the car. This information was gold for the detectives working on the case and they immediately headed to High Craigton Farm, arriving there about 3:30pm, within 30 minutes of receiving the tip. So, remembering that they had found a receipt in Pacteau’s trouser pocket showing that he’d bought padlocks recently, the officers began by searching sheds or units that had new padlocks on them, until they finally found the right one.
Dawn: While police continued to treat Karen as a missing person, they did have deep suspicions that there was foul play, especially after they had finally spoken to Pacteau and taken his initial witness statement, things just weren’t adding up. So, they had begun the huge task of tracking Pacteau’s movements from the point when he walked out of the CCTV footage with Karen still very much alive. They collected and analysed a massive amount of CCTV footage, and finally a clear picture started to emerge. The police also requested records of his mobile phone usage as well as his bank records, and following viewing these records their suspicions were further aroused, because it showed that on Sunday morning not only did Pacteau search on his phone to find out the chemical properties of sodium hydroxide but he also made some rather odd purchases, such as buying over six litres of caustic soda from different shops, drain unblocker, a mask and gloves. And then on Monday he bought a lighter, lighter fluid, white spirits and two padlocks. Further to this, also on Monday the 13th of April at 8:34am, Pacteau rang a storage equipment supplier and ordered a 220 litre blue barrel, which he promptly collected.
Cole: Back at High Craigtonn Farm on Wednesday the 15th of April, armed with all of this information, when police opened a storage unit and find a blue barrel hidden under a sheet, a paper shredder and a bicycle wheel, they stopped dead in their tracks. Could Karen be inside the barrel? As they knew that Pacteau had bought sodium hydroxide, they had waited for a fire service to deem the barrel safe to be examined. Finally, at 8pm on Wednesday the 15th of April, the police were able to open the barrel, and sadly need not search any further. They had found Karen’s body, naked and partially submerged in sodium hydroxide. The barrel with Karen’s body inside was removed and taken to Southern General Hospital in Glasgow, where a post-mortem examination was carried out. It was revealed that Karen had suffered a number of soft tissue injuries to her neck and had received a series of heavy blows to her head, later revealed to have been about 12 or 13, which had fractured her skull and led to a subdural haemorrhage. She also had defensive wounds on her arms and hands. At 3:40am on Thursday the 16th of April 2015, just over four days after Karen was last seen, Alexander Pacteau was arrested by police for the murder of Karen Buckley. With evidence mounting against Pacteau, and Karen’s body now having been found, when police questioned him, his story changed yet again. Of course it did. He now said that they had gone back to his flat and during consensual sex she had hit her head on the bed frame. She had then became angry and had slapped him, and so he had reached for the nearest item to hand, which had been a spanner, and began hitting her over the head. How, who, how many people are keeping spanners in their bedroom do you think?
Dawn: (laughs)
Cole: Do you want to know something though?
Dawn: What?
Cole: I’ve got a high heel under my bed.
Dawn: (laughs) Aye, of course you have Cole. (laughs) That’s almost worse than a spanner.
Cole: Well, it’s not actually. Do you want to know why?
Dawn: (laughs) Uh-huh.
Cole: Because if someone was to attack you in your own home, and you hit them with something like a spanner, that’s going to be seen as, um, premeditated, cause you’ve put that spanner under your bed to attack someone if they’ve come to your home. Whereas if you have a high heel under your bed, something that could be in your bedroom…
Dawn: Only you would think like that Cole.
Cole: It’s not just me, loads of people think it. Where do you think I got the idea from?
Dawn (laughs) Anyway. (laughs)
Cole: Yes?
Dawn: Anyway. As the police continue to question Pacteau to try and get the truth out of him, a press conference is held where Detective Superintendent Jim Kerr confirmed that the body of Karen Buckley had been found and that her family had been made aware of the discovery. He confirmed that they had arrested a 21 year old man in connection with Karen’s murder, and that the man would be appearing in court the following day. A statement was also read out by Detective Superintendent Kerr from John Buckley on behalf of Karen’s family, and it read “Marian and I, together with our sons Brendan Kieran and Damian, are absolutely heartbroken. Karen was our only daughter, cherished by her family and loved by her friends. She was an outgoing girl who travelled the world, where she met lots of people and thoroughly enjoyed her life. We will miss her terribly.” That’s so sad. On Friday the 17th of April at 3pm, Pacteau appeared at a private hearing at Glasgow Sheriff Court where he was formally charged with Karen’s murder, as well as attempting to defeat the ends of justice. He made no plea or declaration and was remanded in custody.
Cole: Just two hours later in George Square in Glasgow, hundreds of people, including Karen’s mum and dad, attended a vigil that had been organised, where a piper played and people sang both Scottish and Irish songs while mourners laid flowers, before a minute silence was carried out. Karen’s parents, John and Marian, then headed home to Cork with their daughter’s body to undertake the devastating task of arranging her funeral.
Dawn: Regardless of the stack of evidence Police Scotland had against Pacteau, they did not rest on their laurels, they continued with their investigation. Having obtained and checked CCTV footage from a variety of commercial premises in the northwest of Glasgow, detectives were able to ultimately map out Pacteau’s movements over the following couple of days after he and Karen walked out of the CCTV footage outside of the Sanctuary Nightclub on Sunday the 12th of April 2015. Although there is no footage of Karen and Pacteau going to his car or getting into his car, it is assumed that she was not under any duress and that she had been grateful that Pacteau had offered to give her a lift home. Pacteau did initially start to drive in the direction of Karen’s flat in Garnethill Street, however, he then drove to Kelvin Way, which is a three minute drive from the Sanctuary Nightclub. Pacteau’s car was seen on CCTV parked in Kelvin Way, which at that time of night was dark and quiet. His car was seen there from 1:06am where it stayed for 12 minutes and 46 seconds, before it then left Kelvin Way at 1:18am and turned round and travelled back along the same way it had just come. Police believe that during the 12 minutes his car was parked in Kelvin Way is when he had first attempted to strangle Karen, before hitting her repeatedly on the head with an adjustable spanner. She fought hard for her life as Karen had defensive wounds on her arms and hands, and Pacteau had cuts on his arms. Following murdering Karen, Pacteau drove around for about half an hour before driving to Dawsholm Park and dumping her handbag near a rubbish bin. Hethen returned to his first floor flat at Dorchester Avenue, a three-minute drive from the park, at 2am. He then wrapped Karen’s body in a sheet he had retrieved from his flat and carried her body into his bedroom, where he placed her body in a suitcase. Whatever he did in the next few hours is anybody’s guess, but he used his mobile phone again at 8am to look for the sodium hydroxide. After buying six litres of sodium hydroxide from B&Q, he returned to his flat, took Karen’s clothes off and submerged her body in a bath filled with the caustic soda. Oh God. He also apparently found the time to text his flatmate to find out what time they would be returning, to be told it would be about 8pm. Pacteau was not satisfied with just submerging Karen’s body in the caustic soda, he went on to make an incision from Karen’s sternum down to her abdomen, which allowed the solution to enter her body and destroy the internal organs, speeding up the process. So bad. That is just grim. Pacteau spent quite a number of hours in the bathroom with Karen’s body, until about 5pm when he drained the bath and took her body back into his bedroom. He then began to tidy up the bathroom and hallway before his flatmate arrived at 8pm.
Cole: Pacteau must realise that he has a very busy day ahead of himself trying to cover up the horrific crime he has just committed, and so he is first seen at 4:52am on CCTV on Monday the 13th of April going to the Forth and Clyde Canal near his flat, where he dumps the spanner. He then goes to a local supermarket to try and find cleaning products to remove bloodstains from his mattress, going as far as actually asking a member of staff for her recommendations. He then goes on and buys white spirit and a lighter, before making his first trip of the day to High Craigton Farm, about 6 miles or 10 kilometres northwest of Glasgow, a place he knew well and had previously paid for storage there. He proceeded to burn Karen’s bloodstained clothes as well as the other bloodstained items from his flat, including some of his clothes and sponges. He picked up the blue barrel sometime between 8:30 and 9:30am. He goes to buy yet more sodium hydroxide from a completely different store before returning once again to his flat, where he took the barrel up to his flat and wrapped an extension cable around Karen’s body. He put brown parcel tape around her head then leaves the flat again without her body. Now clearly his cleaning products didn’t work on the bloodstains on the mattress as he was seen loading his mattress into his car. as well as a suitcase that Karen’s body had been in, and his duvet and other items. He was then seen on CCTV footage in a supermarket car park, which showed his car and a mattress in the back, where he bought another lighter and lighter fluid, before headed yet again to High Craigton Farm where he burns the mattress, duvet, clothes and suitcase. God he was busy going backwards and forwards wasn’t he? He really was. Pacteau returns to his flat again at 11:19am and this time he fills the barrel with the drain unblocker liquid and the sodium hydroxide. He puts Karen’s body into the barrel and seals it. He is then seen at about 2pm by a neighbour struggling to take the barrel from his first floor flat to his car. Once he has the barrel in his car he goes to a supermarket to buy padlocks. He is seen again on CCTV driving towards the farm at 2:35pm, and a barrel could be seen in the back of his car. As he nears the farm he meets the local farmer and asks about renting a unit from him, and they agreed a price of £10 pound, or about $13, for the week. He drives to the storage unit he had rented and puts the barrel inside. He puts over the barrel a sheet, a paper shredder and a bike wheel, placed the padlock on the outside of the unit and left. He is then seen at a car wash having his car valeted at 4:16pm, and while he is waiting for the car to be cleaned he uses his phone to create an advert to sell the car, before heading home. The next time he is seen is when the police come to his door at 6pm and he says to them “I was just coming to see you.”
Dawn: Police Scotland had done an amazing job in not only catching Pacteau and charging him for Karen’s murder, but in collecting as much evidence as they possibly could to ensure that there was no way this monster of a man could get away with anything that he had done, not only to Karen but to her family and friends. There were more than 500 police officers involved in the investigation, and Assistant Chief Constable Malcolm Graham said that “The full resources of Police Scotland were directed towards understanding what had happened to Karen and tracing the person responsible for her murder.” Due to this diligent piece of policing detectives now knew where Pacteau had gotten rid of the murder weapon, and so on Tuesday the 21st of April, police divers went into the canal and they located the spanner used to kill Karen. But the evidence to prove Pacteau’s guilt didn’t stop there, it just kept mounting. Obviously the police had continued searching High Craigton Farm and the surrounding area after finding Karen’s body, and on Monday the 27th of April they found a partially burned mattress. After being forensically tested, it showed that the mattress contained samples of Karen’s blood. Also, through the use of cadaver dogs, it was confirmed that a body had been in Pacteau’s car, and it was established that it had been Karen’s body, due to forensic tests having found traces of Karen’s blood on the passenger side of the car. This was despite the fact that Pacteau had had his car valeted on Monday afternoon, following having taken Karen’s body to High Craigton Farm. Pacteau’s fingerprints were also found inside the blue barrel. He probably thought that they would have been destroyed by the sodium hydroxide, but he would have been wrong. Soil samples taken from the tyres on Pacteau’s car were compared to soil samples taken from High Craigton Farm and Dawsholm Park, and they matched also. While the police were continuing to collect evidence and build a case against Pacteau, Karen’s funeral was arranged for the 28th of April at her local parish church in Mourneabbey, County Cork. The church only holds 300 people and it just wasn’t big enough for all the mourners that attended her funeral to bid her a final farewell. A loudspeaker had to be put up outside for those that gathered. Karen had apparently loved fashion and her favourite dress had been placed beside her coffin to mark her love of fashion. Karen’s funeral was marked by many contributions from family and friends to remember her, including her cousin who read a poem entitled Karen, recalling her journey from green country fields to international studies; “A nurse with plans, a woman full of dreams. A smile to lift a thousand frowns; brown eyes shining big and round, a country girl, big hopes, big plans, big heart, big smile and caring hands.” While Karen was driven to her final resting place, her former University of Limerick nursing classmates walked alongside the hearse wearing their full nursing uniforms and carrying a single red rose, to form a special guard of honour. That’s really nice. Only four months after burying their daughter, John and Marian Buckley, and their three sons, were back in Glasgow again on Tuesday the 11th of August for a hearing at the High Court, where they were subjected to listening to the moments leading up to their daughter’s horrific murder, and what Pacteau did to her body after the murder. Pacteau pleaded guilty to the murder of Karen Buckley. Through his defence counsel, he accepted full responsibility for his actions, but could offer no rational explanation for what he had done. During the hearing, footage was also shown of Pacteau being interviewed by the police, where he was speaking about the moment he first saw Karen outside the Sanctuary Nightclub. This footage is on our website. He also disclosed that he apparently had little recollection of the events on 12th April claiming he was so drunk, and blamed the fatal attack on a trivial comment passed by Karen in his car. A trivial comment? That’s all it took? Yep. That was all it took. Outside the High Court, following the hearing, Karen’s father, John, thanked the police and the people of Glasgow for all their help in finding Karen. He said, “What a waste of a young life. It all seemed unreal. No words of ours can do justice to our feelings towards him. He is truly evil and we hope he spends the rest of his life behind bars. Our hearts are broken at the thought of Karen’s final moments in this world. The thought of her being alone, frightened and struggling for her life haunts us. We miss her terribly. Karen is our little angel and she is at peace now.” Then finally the day everyone involved in the case, and Karen’s family, had been waiting for, Pacteau’s sentencing. On the 8th of September 2015, everyone attended the High Court in Glasgow again. Pacteau’s sentencing was actually recorded and broadcast, and if you’d like to listen to the full summing up and sentencing by Judge Lady Rae, I’ve put a link to it on our website. Judge Lady Rae, residing over Pacteau’s sentencing, said that she found it extremely difficult to find words to describe the dreadful crime that he had pleaded guilty to. She said, “This crime is a very shocking and disturbing case. You killed a young woman who was a stranger to you in what appears to be a motiveless, senseless, brutal attack.” She went on to say “You claimed to be remorseful, but you only expressed remorse for the first time when you pleaded guilty.” She went on to say that Karen had been much loved and that he had carried out a “brutal, motiveless attack on a defenceless young woman.” Lady Rae stated that she felt that her hands had been somewhat tied in relation to Pacteau’s sentencing, as not only had the Crown decided not to seek a conviction for Pacteau attempting to defeat the ends of justice, but the defence had also argued that she not take into account anything that had happened after the actual murder. She said that she found this “extraordinary”. She continued, “What you did after her killing, including telling the police a tissue of lies, some of which went into the public domain which would, I have no doubt caused the family increased stress. All of this displays the actions of a man who is callous and calculated.” In the end she decided that she could not in fact ignore Pacteau’s actions after the killing and sentenced him to spend a minimum of 23 years in jail for murdering Karen Buckley, before he could apply for parole. It will be at least 2038 before he is up for release, he will be 44 years old. Following the sentencing Pacteau was led away in silence. Karen’s dad gave a statement after the sentencing saying, “Today’s life sentence will not bring our beautiful Karen back. Our little angel has been taken from us forever in the cruellest of ways. We mourn for her every day. It will, however, ensure that women are safe from harm from the truly evil coward who took our beautiful Karen’s precious life. I hope that he is never released and spends every day in prison haunted by what he did.” Karen’s dad went on to say that himself, his wife Marian and their three sons, would try their best to rebuild their lives.
Cole: Two weeks after his sentencing, the family were again drawn into the spotlight as Pacteau had lodged an appeal to shorten his sentence. While the family had been warned that this might happen, I can’t imagine how they must have felt. Pacteau’s mum, Noreen, had been visiting her son regularly in prison and somehow she managed to convince Pacteau to withdraw the appeal, out of respect for Karen’s family, which he did in December, two days before the court appearance was due to take place. His mother, Noreen, was devastated by what he had done when she first found out. He had apparently visited her house for a meal the night before he murdered Karen. She said that she was absolutely “heartbroken for Karen’s family, distraught and dismayed by the whole thing.” She was asked if she would be apologising to the Buckley family on behalf of her son, but she said “I don’t think an apology would suffice. If this was my daughter it simply wouldn’t suffice.”
Dawn: Yeah, I totally agree with that. I think that would have been the wrong thing to do.
Cole: Yeah. As far as I can see she stayed away from Karen’s family.
Dawn: That’s good. So, after the absolute horror of losing their beloved daughter, the ordeal of the hearing, the sentencing, the appeal, I think by this point Karen’s family and friends probably just needed a bit of time to themselves to process everything, and grieve and heal. However, a year on from Karen Buckley’s life tragically and brutally being taken, she was not forgotten, far from it. Memorial services had been arranged and took place on both sides of the Irish Sea. On the 12th of April 2016 at Glasgow Caledonia University, Karen’s friends, classmates and staff at the University, came together for quiet, personal reflection to remember Karen and her family. And then at around 7:30pm on Friday the 15th of April in Cork in Ireland, Karen’s family and friends came together at the Church of Saint Michael the Archangel in Analeentha, Mourneabby for tributes and prayers. This was the same church where Karen had received her communion, her confirmation, and where her funeral was held. The prayers were led by local priest Father Joe O’Keefe, who had been a “rock of support and a true friend”, and who had supported the family since the murder. And then on the 17th of April 2016, the family released a statement saying, “We wish to express our sincere gratitude to the very many people who went out of their way to help and support us at the time of Karen’s death and ever since. It was and continues to be very much appreciated by all of us and our extended family. We are indebted to the professionalism and great courtesy of the Scottish police and our own Garda Siochana for all the help we received in coping with a terrible tragedy; to the Scottish people who held a vigil for Karen in Glasgow and prayed with us, to everybody who has shared our terrible loss please accept this acknowledgement of our profound gratitude.”
Cole: It’s not often that in these cases families get the support or closure that they need, so it was a nice way to end it.
Dawn: Yeah, it was. And that’s the end. If you’ve enjoyed this episode and know just the person who’d also like it, please share it with them don’t keep it to yourself.
Cole: Please also get in touch on social media if you have any questions, comments or suggestions, and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can. All social media and contact details are on our website scottishmurders.com as well as all the source material and photos related to this episode.
Dawn: So that’s it for this week, come back next time for another episode of Scottish Murders.
Both: Join us there! Bye!
Granny Robertson: Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn.
Scottish Murders is a production of Cluarantonn
Hosted by Dawn and Cole
Researched and Written by Dawn Young
Produced and Edited by Dawn Young and Peter Bull
Production Company Name by Granny Robertson
Music:
Dawn of the Fairies by Derek & Brandon Fiechter
Gothic Wedding by Derek & Brandon Fiechter