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

Unsolved: Family left heartbroken by sudden disappearance of wife and mum 32 years ago renew appeal for information – Daily Record

MUM MURDER ARREST; Cops hold man 22 years after Marion killing. – Free Online Library

Unsolved: Family left heartbroken by sudden disappearance of wife and mum 32 years ago renew appeal for information – Daily Record

Lockerbie – Wikipedia

Gala days: researching a Scottish tradition | National Museums Scotland Blog

Unsolved Scotland: Missing Lockerbie woman Marion Hodge would NEVER vanish on son’s birthday, according to anguished brother (thescottishsun.co.uk)

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)

The dead Dundee bride whose ‘visit’ prompted a landmark murder appeal which made Scottish criminal history – The Courier

Longforgan – Wikipedia

Dundee – Wikipedia

The Law Killers: New Updated Edition eBook: McGregor, Alexander: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store

Tay Bridge – Wikipedia

Refuge – 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline 0808 2000 247 (UK) or nationaldahelpline.org.uk

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.