We just want to bring
Young mum Mary Duncan went missing more than 40 find her – and they believe their sex-abuser stepdad
Marion was devastated when the allegations against her stepfather came to light. She’s now appealing for any information that could help uncover what happened to Mary. Manipulative Duncan married the girls’ mother Ruby in the late ’60s. It is believed Duncan, jailed this month for a series of historical child sex offences, may have been one of the last to see Mary before she vanished. giving a statement against the man she considered a father was so daunting, it was more than a decade before she plucked up the courage to do so.
The sad irony is that when Duncan came into the family’s life in the 1960s, their mum Ruby believed it would improve things for everyone. Ruby, of Vale of Leven, was a single parent and Debbie and Mandy admit times were tough.
“It was 40 years ago. She was a single parent, with six kids. We lived in a twobedroom, tenement building with no indoor bath,” recalls Mandy. “Someone prepared to take her and her six kids on must have seemed a godsend.”
But that was not the case. Duncan was cunning. The sisters claim he had an extension built in the attic for Debbie and Mandy’s brothers, so they were unaware of the abuse taking place.
For the sisters living with Mary’s disappearance, it has been incredibly painful.
“She never took any money, she literally left with the clothes on her back. There’s no way she would have left home without Debbie had buried memories of the abuse she suffered. Only years later were they triggered by a simple song playing on the radio. Laura. She was devoted to her,” Mandy, 52, says.
Debbie, a charity worker from Annan, agrees. “There’s been no trace of her. She has never claimed benefits, paid tax or National Insurance. Nowadays you could argue that people can change their identity. But a naive 17- yearold in 1976? No way.”
The sisters reminisce about Mary. Debbie, 54, remembers: “She was quiet. She loved sewing and she’d make clothes for her and Laura. She was petite.”
“And she l oved The Osmonds. We weren’t just family – we were pals,” Mandy adds. “We spent a lot of our time together.”
The sisters believe on the day of Mary’s disappearance, she had a doctor’s appointment in which a second pregnancy was confirmed. That same day, Mandy didn’t just see Mary as a sister – they were great friends too. Her mysterious disappearance still haunts Mandy to this day.
Debbie and Mandy are desperate to know what happened to their sister Mary.