MYSTERY OF EX SOLDIER KILLED BY JIU JITSU STRANGLE
Why did dependable, quiet son Sandy quit his job and empty his bank account days before he was discovered on a remote track .. strangled to slow & painful death?
SANDY Drummond was a devoted son. A former soldier, he lived in a sleepy Fife hamlet in a picturesque cottage and worked in a local paper mill.
Sandy seemed to live an ordinary, if somewhat solitary, life. He liked to ride his motorbike, or go for longdistance runs in the countryside.
Quiet, steady, dependable and conscientious is how family and workmates described him.
But there was a sudden change in his manner in the days leading up to his death on June 24 1991.
He quit his job without notice and withdrew his life savings. Then he disappeared.
The residents of Boarhill were left shocked and fearful when 33-yearold Sandy’s body was found on a farm track near his house.
At first, police believed the Black Watch veteran had committed suicide because there were no physical marks on his neck. But the examination by the pathologist suggested otherwise.
Sandy had been strangled, possibly using a jiu jitsu hold where key arteries and jugular veins are constricted, cutting off blood flow to the brain. It’s a painful, slow death, described as worse than torture.
His death devastated his mum, Effie, who spent the rest of her life haunted by the murder.
The last time Effie saw her son was the night before he died.
He’d been to visit her and his dad, who had dementia, and was due to return the next night for dinner.
Detectives had a puzzle on their hands. Sandy had no known enemies, he wasn’t known to police and they could find nothing in his life that suggested he was in danger.
The strange events in his life, and his out-of-character behaviour, had them stumped.
Why had he suddenly resigned from his position as a labourer with Guardbridge Paper Mill? What was he planning to do?
He hadn’t told his brother, Jimmy, who he lived with, what he was doing. He hadn’t mentioned it to anyone.
Then he was captured on CCTV at building societies withdrawing hundreds of pounds from his savings and stuffing the cash into a holdall. The money was all found at his home, so police ruled out robbery as a motive.
An unfamiliar car was spotted outside Sandy’s cottage in the days leading up to his death.
Another witness told the inquiry team Sandy was seen running across
Mum was still looking for answers until the day she died
a nearby field holding a blue sports bag. It has never been found.
And what of the mystery man with a bloodstained bandaged hand who was seen catching a bus near the cottage at 2.30pm on the day of the murder?
He’s never come forward and police have been unable to trace him.
Sandy’s family were baffled. None of the events made any sense to them at all. Everything Sandy did in those few days before he died seemed out of character.
Heartbroken but determined to get answers, Effie campaigned ferociously on her son’s behalf.
She managed to secure a fatal accident inquiry. It took place in Cupar in 1992 but there was still no explanation for her son’s death and the probe only threw up more questions than answers.
At the time, Effie said: “My life now is agony. The strain makes me feel 1000 years old.”
Effie died in 1996. She had been crushed by her son’s death and passed away not knowing what had happened to him.
In 1998, his brother Jimmy said: “From the day Sandy died, it ran my mother’s life. It probably killed her in the end.
“He was found on a Monday. She always hated them afterwards. She didn’t sleep well anyway but when it came to Sunday nights, she would lie awake.”
“It was the lack of answers that really frustrated her. Mum was still looking for answers until the day she died.”
In 2016, Police Scotland said a case review was under way and that they hoped advances in forensic science could help solve the murder.
But the trail appears to have gone cold again. A reconstruction of Sandy’s movements and murder on national television also failed to yield any further developments.
Reports several years ago suggested police had identified a suspect, but that he too was dead.
With no new leads or information, the murder of the young bachelor has faded into obscurity.
The 29th anniversary of Sandy Drummond’s death is approaching but the case lies dormant and justice remains undone.