Body of missing isle girl, 6, found
THE body of a six-year-old girl was found on the site of an abandoned hotel on a Scottish island yesterday, just hours after she was reported missing.
Alesha MacPhail had disappeared from her bed at her grandparents’ flat on the Scottish Isle of Bute.
A search was launched at 6.25am, with neighbours checking their sheds and garages.
Alesha’s father, islander Robert MacPhail, 25, was seen with officers during the morning search, asking if anybody had seen his daughter.
Neighbours said he was ‘white as a sheet’ and calling her name.
Her mother, Georgina Lochrane, was not with her at the time she went missing. It is thought Alesha lived in Lanarkshire and was spending part of the holidays on the isle.
Her body was found by a member of the public at around 9am in woodland close to the former Kyles of Bute Hydropathic Hotel in Port Bannatyne.
Police said the death was unexplained and launched a major investigation.
Alesha’s grandparents’ flat in Ardbeg, near Rothesay – the island’s main town – was cordoned off. The Isle of Bute, in the Firth of Clyde, is home to around 6,500 people.