UK UK - Renee, 36, & Andrew MacRae, 3, Inverness Scotland, 12 Nov 1976 *arrest in 2019, killer died*

Richard

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It has been 30 years since their disappearance, but police believe they have a solid lead...
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Renee MacRae
Missing since November 12, 1976 from near Inverness, Scotland, United Kingdom
Classification: Endangerd Missing

Vital Statistics
Distinguishing Characteristics: White female.

Circumstances of Disappearance

MacRae's BMW was found ablaze in a lay-by on the A9, 12 miles south of Inverness, Scotland on November 12, 1976.

Mrs MacRae had left Inverness, having arranged to see her lover, Bill McDowell, who was her sons' father, although the rendezvous never took place.

Renee and her 3-year old son and Andrew MacRae had vanished. Their bodies have never been recovered.

In November of 2004, the quarry at Dalmagarry was dug up after a retired detective repeated claims that he could smell rotting human flesh while searching the area in 1976 around the time of their disappearance. The last few metres of Dalmagarry Quarry was excavated at the end of a fruitless search for the bodies Renee MacRae and her son Andrew.

A prime suspect in the case has consistently denied any involvement in the disappearances.

August 2006 Detectives believe they are closing in on the killer.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:
Northern Constabulary
01463 715 555
Email: mail@northern.pnn.police.uk

Source Information:
Grampian TV
Scottish TV - 8/23/04
Scottish TV - 9/15/04
Scotsman.com - 8/24/04
Scotsman.com - 8/26/06
The Doe Network: Case File 1873DFUK

LINK:
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1873dfuk.html
 
Doesn't mention a husband, but it mentions a lover who was the father of her son - makes me think she was a married woman having a long-term affair? Maybe the husband??Seems odd that they could smell rotting flesh in 76 but not find the bodies.
 
http://www.thescottishsun.co.uk/scotsol/homepage/news/3933047/Torment-over-slain-mum-Renee.html

Torment over ‘slain’ mum Renee

By DAVID LOVE and STEPHEN HOUSTON

THE sister of a mum who vanished with her toddler son 35 years ago has finally admitted: "She will NEVER be found — and her killer is still out there."

Morag Govans, 73, spoke out on the anniversary of the last time housewife Renee MacRae, 36, and Andrew, three, were seen alive.

The pair are feared to have been murdered — but despite a recent £250,000 cold case review and searches of two suspect quarries, no trace of their bodies was found.

And last night Morag, talking exclusively to The Scottish Sun, said: "It will take a miracle now to find them. And I don't really believe in miracles.

"My hopes have been dashed so many times."

Renee, of Inverness, and Andrew disappeared on November 12, 1976.

....
 
This is local to me. without going into too much detail, i found this:

http://www.missingpersons.police.uk/en/case/06-023693/CDF444F

Do you think it could be her? She was deceased 1 year or more when they found her in 1981 (could have been 5 years?), she'd given birth to two children we know of, the hair is similar, race and age and physical build match, and the recon drawing is like her, but i can't find any info on if Renee had false upper teeth or her height. I know the distance is a long way (in UK distance standards), but perhaps she was moved?

So, I'm asking for your opinion on if this could be her?
 
An interesting documentary about the Macrae case:

http://youtu.be/ymtB0zGVFC0

The blazing car on fire has always intrigued me. My belief is that the car was torched to destroy any incriminating evidence to show that the Macraes were killed in the car.
If I was torching a car, I would have driven it way off main roads before setting fire to it. If the fire was started when the car was sitting on the lay-by, then the person starting the fire was taking a chance that they might be discovered.
 
The quarry is being opened again primarily to work on the motorway but maybe something will be found....

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/quarry-searched-in-cold-case-murder-inquiry-to-be-reopened.122321226

Quarry searched in cold case murder inquiry to be reopened

Thursday 2 April 2015

A QUARRY which was searched twice in the hunt for a missing mother and son is to be reopened.

Dalmagarry Quarry, situated off the A9 just south of Inverness, became the focus of the investigation into the disappearance of Renee MacRae and her three-year-old son Andrew almost 40 years ago.

Officers believed the bodies of the pair could have been buried there as the site was not far from where Mrs MacRae's burning BMW car was found....
 
An interesting documentary about the Macrae case:

http://youtu.be/ymtB0zGVFC0


Unfortunately that link no longer works.

The blazing car on fire has always intrigued me. My belief is that the car was torched to destroy any incriminating evidence to show that the Macraes were killed in the car.
If I was torching a car, I would have driven it way off main roads before setting fire to it. If the fire was started when the car was sitting on the lay-by, then the person starting the fire was taking a chance that they might be discovered.

Agreed. I wonder how much traffic would have been on the A9 at night in the mid 1970s. What time was the burning car reported?

There seems to be some confusion as to who reported the blazing car. Wikipedia says a train driver (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renee_MacRae) while an article in the Scottish Herald says it was a bus driver (http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/a-burned-out-car-a-missing-mum-1040736). I'm inclined to believe it was the train driver since the railway line runs parallel and very close to the A9 at Dalmagarry; also because I wonder if the mention of the bus driver was confusion on the journalist's part with the murder of Evelyn Foster at Otterburn in 1931, where Evelyn's burning car was found by the driver of one of her own family's buses as he was returning to the bus garage at Otterburn.

Although Renee told her husband she was going to Kilmarnock (190 miles away, or 3 hours and 40 minutes travel time in today's traffic conditions) a close female friend knew she was going to visit her lover in Perthshire. That was still 110 miles and around 2 hours and 20 minutes, mostly along a very isolated road. Yet she seems to have got barely 14 miles down the road. Either this really was a very random abduction and murder or someone knew exactly where she would be and when.
 
Google Streetview is a wondrous thing in cases like this. I've just looked at the A9 for several miles either side of Dalmagarry, following the route Mrs MacRae took on the night she disappeared.

What is clear is that although there are a few stretches of the road where a train driver could indeed have seen a burning car on the road, there are more stretches where he could not. This is partly because the road is lined with a belt of trees for some of the stretch and partly because there is a bank between the road and the railway line in other places. From what I can make out, a train driver would only be able to see the road for about 25% - 33% of the stretch of road either side of Dalmagarry. For this reason, I'm rather more inclined than I was to think the report could indeed have been made by a bus driver.

Tracing the route on the ground, I noticed that there are a handful of bus shelters along the road which essentially mean that passengers are picked up and put down in very dark and isolated places such as unlit laybys on unlit stretches of road several hundred yards from the settlements they serve. These two, for instance (you can just make out the one serving the southbound carriageway in the layby on the right):

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@57.3...4!1s_GJU2vmviN8r3Rb9uZ2MRg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

It is really, really striking just how lonely and isolated the A9 is. I confess I would feel rather uneasy driving this road in the dark.
 
Psychics call on police to dig up forest to solve Renee MacRae murder mystery


Archibald Lawrie and Frances Ryan are pleading with Police Scotland to listen to their theory as detectives prepare a fresh appeal to mark the 40th anniversary of one of Britain's most notorious cold cases.

Renee and four-year-old Andrew vanished in November 1976 after the car they were travelling in was found in flames in a layby off the A9, 12 miles south of Inverness.

Ten years ago, Northern Constabulary sent a report to the Crown Office naming a prime suspect but prosecutors said there was insufficient evidence to bring charges.

Now Mr Lawrie, who is President of the Edinburgh Society for Psychical Research, and Ms Ryan, one of Scotland's best-known mediums, are calling for officers to carry out an exploratory dig at the site they have identified.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/711764/Psychics-police-forest-Renee-MacRae-murder-mystery
 
From yesterday's Daily Express:

Murdered mum and toddler son's killer must be brought to justice

The sister of a woman at the centre of one of Scotland's most intriguing murder mysteries has criticised prosecutors and police for failing bringing the killer to justice.

Mrs MacRae's sister, Morag Govans, 76, yesterday urged the Crown Office to take the un-named prime suspect to court and let a jury decide his guilt or innocence.

She said: "I still find it incredible that no-one has ever been taken to court. There have been files gone to the Crown Office which contain a lot of evidence, not that the police have kept me informed over the years.

"I don't think they have anything to lose by taking someone to court now. I am disappointed they haven't.

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/729401/Murdered-mum-toddler-son-killer-brought-justice
 
Robin Warder of The Trail Went Cold will be discussing this case on November 23rd.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
A9 roadworks may uncover last resting place of murdered mother and son

COLD case detectives working to solve one of Scotland's most intriguing double-murder mysteries hope a major roadworks project could finally lead them to the bodies after 40 years.

..... yesterday the senior officer in charge of the investigation confirmed that a ten-year-old Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) probe of the northbound carriageway close to Dalmagarry Quarry - which was searched for the missing pair - is now the focus of their inquiries.

The GPR - which revealed at least two "anomalies" beneath the A9 - was commissioned privately by a local farmer who is determined to crack the case.

A massive project to dual A9 is already underway and the stretch containing the anomalies is set to be dug-up in 2018, police confirmed.

Detective Superintendent Jim Smith: "Enquiries have established that the area where the GPR report has indicated an anomaly in the road surface, was not under construction at the time of the disappearance of Renee and Andrew, and it was a considerable period of time before that construction work actually commenced."

Mr Smith said his team will work with the A9 project bosses "to establish what the anomaly could be as indicated within the GPR report".

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/73...last-resting-place-of-murdered-mother-and-son
 
It's the 40th anniversary of their disappearance..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-37936116

The family of an Inverness mother and her young son have said they are heartbroken that their disappearance remains unexplained 40 years on.
Renee and Andrew MacRae, who was three, vanished on 12 November 1976.
Mrs MacRae's burned-out BMW was discovered that night in a lay-by on the A9 south of Inverness.
In statement, the family said it was "collectively heartbroken" the pair remained missing 40 years on but were still hopeful of finding answers.
 
Does anyone have any crime scene photos I've heard they used to have some of them displayed out at Bogbain Farm, i doubt that would be the case still what with the farms family friendly make over. I may check in the end if nothing comes up here.
 

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