Renee MacRae
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Renee MacRae (born Christina Catherine MacDonald, February 1940) was a Scottish woman who disappeared on 12 November 1976, together with her 3-year-old son Andrew. Their case was the United Kingdom's longest-running missing persons case, and within Scotland is as notorious as
Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...
's
Bible John Bible John is the moniker given to an unidentified serial killer who is believed to have murdered three young women between 1968 and 1969 in Glasgow, Scotland. The victims of Bible John were all brunettes between the ages of 25 and 32, all of ...
murders. In September 2022, William (Bill) MacDowell was found guilty of the murder of MacRae and her son. Their bodies have never been found.


Disappearance

Renee MacRae lived in
Inverness Inverness (; ; from the , meaning "Mouth of the River Ness") is a city in the Scottish Highlands, having been granted city status in 2000. It is the administrative centre for The Highland Council and is regarded as the capital of the Highland ...
and was married to Gordon MacRae, though the couple were separated. She had two sons, 9-year-old Gordon and 3-year-old Andrew. On Friday 12 November 1976 MacRae left her home in
Cradlehall Cradlehall was originally the name given to the hall built by Major William Caulfeild, later known as Cradlehall Farmhouse. The name "Cradle" supposedly comes from a pulley-operated lift (called a cradle) that was used to hoist drunken guests u ...
with both her sons. She dropped elder son Gordon at her estranged husband's house and turned south on to the A9, in the direction of
Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...
, apparently to visit her sister in
Kilmarnock Kilmarnock ( ; ; , ), meaning "the church of Mernóc", is a town and former burgh in East Ayrshire situated in southwest Scotland. The town has served as the administrative centre of East Ayrshire Council since 1996 and is the region's main ...
. Neither MacRae nor Andrew have ever been seen again. Later the same night, twelve miles away, a train driver spotted MacRae's burning
BMW Bayerische Motoren Werke AG, trading as BMW Group (commonly abbreviated to BMW (), sometimes anglicised as Bavarian Motor Works), is a German multinational manufacturer of vehicles and motorcycles headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. Th ...
in an isolated
lay-by A rest area is a public facility located next to a large thoroughfare such as a motorway, expressway, or highway, at which drivers and passengers can rest, eat, or refuel without exiting onto secondary roads. Other names include motorway ser ...
on the A9. When the police reached the vehicle, it was charred and empty apart from a rug stained with blood matching MacRae's
blood type A blood type (also known as a blood group) is based on the presence and absence of antibody, antibodies and Heredity, inherited antigenic substances on the surface of red blood cells (RBCs). These antigens may be proteins, carbohydrates, glycop ...
. Despite an extensive search, no further trace of Renee and Andrew MacRae was found, and it was concluded that they had been murdered and their bodies hidden. Witnesses on the A9 reported seeing a man dragging something they thought was a dead sheep not far from the car. MacRae was reported to have been wearing a sheepskin coat when she disappeared. Reports also placed a man with a pushchair near Dalmagarry
quarry A quarry is a type of open-pit mining, open-pit mine in which dimension stone, rock (geology), rock, construction aggregate, riprap, sand, gravel, or slate is excavated from the ground. The operation of quarries is regulated in some juri ...
. As police investigated, it became apparent that MacRae's personal life was not straightforward. Around 1971, unbeknownst to her husband, MacRae began to have an affair with William (Bill) MacDowell, who was married with two children and worked for Gordon MacRae as an accountant and company secretary. Nobody knew about the affair except Valerie Steventon, MacRae's best friend. Steventon revealed that MacRae had not been planning to visit her sister that night, but had intended to travel to
Perthshire Perthshire (Scottish English, locally: ; ), officially the County of Perth, is a Shires of Scotland, historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore, Angus and Perth & Kinross, Strathmore ...
to visit MacDowell, Andrew's biological father. MacRae had first confided to her friend about her conducting an affair in the spring of 1973, when she had been pregnant with Andrew. According to Steventon, "Renee was completely besotted by Bill", and he had told her that he had a job with
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in
Shetland Shetland (until 1975 spelled Zetland), also called the Shetland Islands, is an archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands, and Norway, marking the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the ...
and had found a house where they could live. According to Steventon, however, these details "turned out to be a pack of lies." MacDowell admitted their affair but denied any involvement in their disappearance. Eight days following, he was interviewed by journalist Stuart Lindsay and claimed that MacRae had called him twice since she went missing. When asked why he had not told the police this, he replied that it had "slipped his mind".


Investigation

The revelation of MacRae's four-year affair with MacDowell led senior officers to admit that the case was "mired in a sea of deceit and untruthfulness from its start."
Detective Sergeant Sergeant (Sgt) is a rank in use by the armed forces of many countries. It is also a police rank in some police services. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and in other units that draw their heritage from the Brit ...
John Cathcart coordinated the search and after eight months he had a breakthrough. While excavating Dalmagarry quarry he was hit by a stench after removing a layer of
topsoil Topsoil is the upper layer of soil. It has the highest concentration of organic matter and microorganisms and is where most of the Earth's biological soil activity occurs. Description Topsoil is composed of mineral particles and organic mat ...
. Convinced it was a sign of corpses, Cathcart continued digging, but was told by a superior officer to stop as the
bulldozer A bulldozer or dozer (also called a crawler) is a large tractor equipped with a metal #Blade, blade at the front for pushing material (soil, sand, snow, rubble, or rock) during construction work. It travels most commonly on continuous tracks, ...
they were using had to go back to the contractors due to short funds. The inquiry was wound down two years later. However, a 2004
Grampian Television Grampian Television was the original name of the Channel 3 service for the north of Scotland founded in 1961 and which, decades later, was merged with the Central Belt channel STV. The northern region's coverage area includes the Northern Isle ...
documentary, '' Unsolved'', screened throughout Scotland, renewed interest in the case and the investigation was reopened. In 2004, Chief Constable Ian Latimer launched a
cold case ''Cold Case'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series. It ran on CBS from September 28, 2003, to May 2, 2010. The series revolved around a fictionalized Philadelphia Police Department division that specializes in invest ...
review, which led to £122,000 being spent on an excavation of Dalmagarry quarry in August. Over the course of three weeks, 20,000 tons of earth from the quarry had been excavated and 2,000 trees were removed. All that was found were two crisp packets, some men's clothing and rabbit bones. , £250,000 has been spent re-investigating the case. In recent years speculation has focused on the bodies having been buried under the A9, which was in the middle of a major programme of upgrading at the time of the disappearance. However, a spokeswoman for
Northern Constabulary The Northern Constabulary () was the territorial police force responsible for Northern Scotland, covering the Highland council area along with the Western Isles, the Orkney Islands and the Shetland Islands, which make up most of the Highlands a ...
said that after studying aerial photographs taken by the
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during the construction of the A9, they were satisfied the bodies were not buried under the road. On 2 October 2018 it was reported that Leanach quarry, near to
Culloden Battlefield The Battle of Culloden took place on 16 April 1746, near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. A Jacobite Army (1745), Jacobite army under Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a Kingdom of Great Britain, British government force comma ...
, was being searched by
Police Scotland Police Scotland (), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist services of the Scottis ...
in relation to the case. During the investigation, police investigated a total of 123 possible sightings of Renee or Andrew, including a similar woman and child seen with a man with a handlebar moustache. All of these were followed up on and eliminated.


Suspect

Northern Constabulary named a suspect in a report to the
Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service () is the independent public prosecution service for Scotland, and is a Ministerial Department of the Scottish Government. The department is headed by His Majesty's Lord Advocate, who under t ...
in October 2006, but the Crown Office declared there was insufficient evidence to go to court. MacDowell had always been reluctant to speak to the media in the decades since the disappearance, but broke his silence in a 2004 interview and insisted that he did not kill MacRae. A week after the disappearance, MacDowell walked into Inverness police headquarters to make a voluntary statement, but his wife dragged him out of the building and nothing was said ever again. More than forty years after the disappearance, further details emerged of a suspect who had fled to the US the day after being interviewed by police. James Taylor claimed that his late friend Sandy Thompson, a senior officer who worked closely with MacRae's contacts and had carried out fieldwork investigating the case, had been sure MacRae was murdered and buried on the A9 near a flyover. Taylor reported his concerns to Police Scotland following an appeal for information to mark the 40th anniversary of the case, claiming that Thompson spoke to a foreman in the roads department who had said someone had dug up a section of the road on the day Renee disappeared. There was one man he spoke to about the road and he showed him the evidence they had gathered. Taylor recalled: "Sandy said he knew right away when the man looked at it that the woman was dead, that was where she was buried and this man knew far more about it than he was telling." The man fled to the US the next day before returning to Scotland after the case had gone cold. In September 2019, William MacDowell was charged with the murders of Renee and Andrew MacRae and of attempting to pervert the course of justice. Statements were read from witnesses in the case who had since died, including a man named Dennis Tyronney, who had told police that MacDowell had offered him £500 to kill Renee and Andrew MacRae in an acid attack. The trial also heard that MacDowell had removed and burnt the boot floor from his Volvo two days after the disappearance. In September 2022 he was found guilty of both murders and was sentenced to a minimum of 30 years in prison. However, he died on 15 February 2023, less than six months into his sentence, without ever admitting to the murders. Fixed cameras in the court had recorded the proceedings, and a BBC documentary film in two parts, totalling 2 hours, was broadcast on BBC Scotland and then on BBC2 in the last weeks of August and the early weeks of September 2023.Radio Times 26 Aug-1 Sept 2023


See also

* List of solved missing person cases: pre-2000 * Murder of George Murdoch – high-profile unsolved Scottish murder that like the McRae case was featured on the STV programme '' Unsolved'' in 2004 * Murder of Francis Jegou – high-profile UK unsolved murder also in 1976


References


Further reading

* *


External links


A 2004 ''The Scotsman'' article on the case, including a picture of Renee MacRae's charred BMWA 2004 ''The Sunday Herald'' on the case
* ttp://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/3593550.stm Quarry May Hold Key To Renee Mystery: a ''BBC News'' article on the reopening of the case {{DEFAULTSORT:Macrae, Renee 1970s missing person cases 1976 in Scotland 20th century in Inverness Alex Prentice Missing person cases in Scotland Missing Scottish children Murder convictions without a body Murder in Scotland November 1976 in the United Kingdom