Moira search hope as new ‘witnesses’ come forward
NEW witnesses have reportedly come forward in the hunt for schoolgirl Moira Anderson, 60 years on from her disappearance.
It is now widely suspected that the 11-year-old who vanished after leaving her grandmother’s house in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, was murdered by bus driver Alexander Gartshore in 1957.
At the time witnesses reported seeing Moira boarding a bus driven by Gartshore, then on bail for child sex offences. Police were criticised for failing to follow the lead and the crime went unsolved for decades.
But Gartshore’s estranged daughter Sandra Brown became suspicious of him when he fed her a half-confession of the killing years later. Police re-interviewed Gartshore in 1992, giving them information that lent further credibility to claims he was the killer.
The evidence was not enough for an arrest, but in 2013 more witnesses came forward, providing police with enough evidence to have secured a murder charge on Gartshore – who had died seven years earlier.
Four years ago, a grave in the Old Monkland Cemetery in Coatbridge was opened but there was no sign of Moira’s body. Now Mrs Brown says: ‘Following the unsuccessful exhumation we had a steady stream of witnesses emerging and, strangely, even in the past fortnight that has happened again.’
A new police search this week will focus on six sites including the Monkland Canal.
‘It is of interest, that place, for a number of reasons, including the fact a bus route is extremely close by,’ Mrs Brown told the Sunday Herald.
A Police Scotland spokesman confirmed that a list of search locations would be announced this week.