UK UK - Ellen 'Evelyn' Ruffle, 34, Motherwell, Scotland, 1969

Police search garden for missing mother.

Thirty-four-year-old Ellen Elizabeth Ruffle, a teacher, disappeared in 1969 and hasn't been seen since.

The mother of two had just visited her mother's house in Motherwell before she went missing.

Police are now examining the garden of a property in Annan Glade, Motherwell, which Ms Ruffle shared with her husband and two children before her disappearance. When she went missing, her children were aged four and 18 months.

Ms Ruffle was known to friends as Evelyn. She was born in Motherwell and, having trained in teaching at Craiglockhart College in Edinburgh, took up a number of teaching posts in Singapore, Bournemouth and schools in North Lanarkshire. When she went missing, she had been working at Cathedral Primary School in North Lanarkshire.

http://news.sky.com/story/952817/police-search-garden-for-missing-mother

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Superintendent Andy McKay from Strathclyde Police said: "It is now over 40 years since Elizabeth went missing and I urge anyone with information, no matter how small, to come forward and hopefully we can provide some resolution to her family. I have no doubt that someone has information which can help us to find out what happened to Elizabeth.

http://www.scotsman.com/news/police-search-for-disappeared-woman-1-2376581

Wasn't there a serial killer in Scotland or Northern England in the 1960s-1970s? I thought I had seen something about a serial killer in the UK during this time period.

marie-chantal said:

Wasn't there a serial killer in Scotland or Northern England in the 1960s-1970s? I thought I had seen something about a serial killer in the UK during this time period.

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We had the 'Bible John' murders in Glasgow- unsolved (Peter Tobin is a good candidate for these)

Robert Black - child killer - caught
Peter Tobin - still looking for more victims- caught
Hindley/ Brady - caught
Peter Sutcliffe - Caught

Funily enough the above had Scottish connections.

Search for woman who went missing 43 years ago widened after police draw blank in garden

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/s...r-police-draw-blank-in-garden-86908-23901589/

Edited to add further reading

Husband: I've nothing to hide
Mrs Ruffle's husband, Norman, 71, blamed his son Graham, now 44, for pushing for a new investigation and refusing to let the matter lie.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobil...59?_=fdb7f854de59f19c5870f3bb72ed7f42dcc3769c

Bumping and wondering if there was any chance that Mrs Ruffle somehow ended up in the US?
speculation.
May 2016
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/family-plea-solve-mystery-young-8059334

26 June 2012

She last seen at her home address in Motherwell on 14 November 1969. Her two young children were aged 4 and 18 months.

Shortly after her disappearance her husband took the family to live in South Africa.

It is understood her husband now lives in the Borders and her son lives somewhere in the UK, but not in Scotland. Her daughter remains in South Africa.

Garden searched for missing woman

6 JUL 2017
Missing persons cases from 50 years ago still being investigated



The Cathedral Primary teacher would now be 81 years old and every year, on the anniversary of the date Evelyn went missing, the case is reviewed.

Pro-active police officers had a new line of inquiry back in 2013 as they dug up the back garden of her former home after a tip-off that she was buried there.

However, the excavation failed to find anything but Evelyn’s son, Graham, vowed to continue the search.

Missing persons cases from 50 years ago still being investigated

Jun 28, 2012
My son is behind new probe into missing wife, says OAP

Norman Ruffle, 71, criticised a police hunt for Ellen’s remains and blamed his son Graham for refusing to let the matter lie.
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Officers from Strathclyde Police and Home Office experts yesterday finished a search of the house after digging up the garden over fears the teacher may have been killed and buried there.

Although detectives said they had found “an area of interest” after a search with ground-penetrating radar, the search proved negative and the property was last night handed back to the householder. The force said further searches will be conducted in the “immediate area”.
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He lives with his second wife Senga, 60, whom he married in 1975, six years after Ellen’s disappearance.

He took son Graham and daughter Rosemary to live in South Africa shortly after Ellen vanished, aged 34. The pensioner claims Graham, now 44, has a vendetta against him and his new wife.

He added: “I know Graham pushed for the investigation. I have a court case involving him coming up so I don’t want to discuss him.”

Graham, who now lives in London, recently made an official complaint about allegations of physical abuse at the hands of Senga and Norman. He claims Senga only told him she was not his mother after giving him a beating for coming home from school late on his 13th birthday.

Graham was 18 months old and Rosemary was four when Ellen vanished. The teacher, whose maiden name was McNally, married in Singapore in 1961 and taught the children of British Army personnel there.
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Graham has no children, but Rosemary, who still lives in South Africa, has two daughters and a son. She and Graham had a sister, Wendy, who died in 1965 aged 13 months.

My son is behind new probe into missing wife, says OAP

12 FEB 2018
'Find my missing mum's body before I die' Terminally ill man begs for help so he can rest in peace

A man with weeks to live has pleaded for help in finding his mother who vanished nearly 50 years ago when he was a baby.

Graham Ruffle’s mum Ellen, a teacher, was last seen on November 14, 1969, after dropping him and his two-year-old big sister at their gran’s home.

Ellen’s body has never been found although police carried out extensive searches at the home she shared with her husband Norman.
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Graham revealed his ailing health has made his search for answers even more urgent.

Last night, he said: “All I want is answers. I just want to know what happened to my mum before I die.
“I believe my mum to be dead. I just want to know what happened to her.”
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Speaking from her home in Johannesburg, South Africa, Graham’s sister Rosemary, 52, said the family had heard nothing from police and the public.

She says she is desperate to find out what happened to the mum she last saw as a two-year-old, adding: “There has been no further information on my mum.
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“We were really hoping that when the story was reported in the Press in 2012 that someone would come forward with information. “I have not heard from the police at all.”
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Ellen’s husband Norman was granted a divorce in 1975.

Norman, now 77, lives with his second wife Senga in Melrose in the Borders. They married in December in 1975.
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Ellen was born in Motherwell in 1935 and trained as a teacher at Craiglockhart College in Edinburgh after leaving school. She married husband Norman in Singapore eight years before her disappearance.

Ellen taught in Singapore, Bournemouth and schools in Lanarkshire. She was working at Cathedral Primary School in Motherwell at the time of her disappearance, when she was 34.

In 1976, along with Senga, Norman took Rosemary and Graham to live in South Africa.
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During a previous plea for help in 2016, Graham, now 50, said he feared something “sinister” had happened to his mum. He added: “I wouldn’t like to hear mum was murdered and dumped in a field or something. She deserves a proper burial if she hasn’t already had one.
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Graham grew up believing Senga was his real mum. He has previously told the Record that Rosemary could remember her mum but, when she asked about the disappearance, she was told to drop the subject.

Graham, who lives in London, began probing his mum’s disappearance after he returned from South Africa in 1989.
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When contacted at home by the Record, Senga Ruffle told our reporter that Norman was not taking calls.

When informed that Graham had made a renewed appeal for information on his mum’s disappearance and asked if either of them would like to comment, she replied: “Definitely not” and ended the call.

Terminally ill man's plea to find missing mum's body so he can rest in peace

Just adding link to quite similar case of another woman/mother who disappeared from the the same city of Motherwell few years after Ellen.

Link to case of Margaret Moody - UK - UK - Margaret Moody, 31, Motherwell, Scotland, 1977

Robin Hood said:

Search for woman who went missing 43 years ago widened after police draw blank in garden

Search for woman who went missing 43 years ago widened after police draw blank in garden

Edited to add further reading

Husband: I've nothing to hide
Mrs Ruffle's husband, Norman, 71, blamed his son Graham, now 44, for pushing for a new investigation and refusing to let the matter lie.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobil...59?_=fdb7f854de59f19c5870f3bb72ed7f42dcc3769c

Click to expand...

Blamed his son ????? Let matter lie ?????? Sounds really off to me .
If I was Graham I'd stop at nothing till I found out the truth , he's not longer controlled by his father and deserves to know the truth. As a local I wish Ellen's children the answers they need

Bump

Norman didn't report Ellen as missing - it was Graham when he became amb adult. Imo that's a major red flag. All Graham wanted to do was find his mum.
And Senga sounds like a piece of work too...IMO

May Graham RIP and if, as I suspect, Ellen is deceased, he is reunited with her now.

Bluebear15 said:

May Graham RIP and if, as I suspect, Ellen is deceased, he is reunited with her now.

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Graham (the son) has passed away?!?

annpats said:

Graham (the son) has passed away?!?

Click to expand...

Sadly yes

Scots women pleads for help in 50-year missing mum hunt after brother's death

Bump… and also flagging up a similar 1997 case in Harrogate, North Yorkshire: devoted mum vanishes after dropping off her children (school in this case), husband doesn’t report her missing etc.
UK - UK - Marsha Wray, 38, Harrogate, 24 Jan 1997