New probe into 1978 murder of scientist who led a double life
DETECTIVES are to reopen an investigation into the unsolved murder of a Scottish scientist – nearly 40 years after she died.
Dr Brenda Page, 32, worked at Aberdeen University and was found murdered at her home in the city on July 14, 1978.
Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland instructed Police Scotland to begin a ‘cold case’ probe of the killing, and the move was announced during a visit to Aberdeen yesterday.
It follows a review of case papers and an assessment of forensic science ‘possibilities’, which experts hope could lead to a breakthrough.
Advances in DNA techniques have led to successes in other cold cases, most recently in the conviction of Angus Sinclair f or the World’s End pub murders.
Genetic scientist Dr Page divorced her husband Dr Christopher ‘ Kit’ Harrisson and had been supplementing her i ncome by escorting wealthy businessmen on dinner dates when her battered body was found in the bedroom of her flat.
The discovery was made after she failed to turn up for work at the research laboratory she ran at Aberdeen University.
The previous night she had been with two businessmen
‘New forensic techniques’
at the Tree Tops hotel until 2.30am, but both of them were eliminated from the murder inquiry.
Dr Page married Dr Harrisson, who worked in the biochemistry department at the university, in 1972.
It was a stormy relationship and she eventually left their home in Mile End Place and bought a flat in Allan Street.
The couple divorced in October 1977, but Dr Page had to apply for a court order to keep Dr Harrisson away from her.
The interim interdict stated that Dr Harrisson had been violent, aggressive and threatening to her during their marriage, and on or around the day of their divorce he had gone to her flat and hurled abuse at her and threatened her life.
In 2004, Dr Page’s sister Rita Ling said: ‘She didn’t want him to know where she’d moved to, but he did find out.’
Police believed a suspect had driven to Stonehaven, Kincardineshire, on the morning after the murder, left the car there and took a train to Edinburgh.
They were anxious to find a green duffel bag that they thought might contain the murderer’s bloodstained clothing and a murder weapon.
But extensive searches yielded no results.
Dr Harrisson, who would have been 37 at the time of the murder, later moved to Holland. A TV crew travelled there 11 years ago, but he refused to answer any questions about the death of his f ormer wife. Police said they were approaching the case with an ‘ open mind’. Detective Superintendent Malcolm Stewart, leading the investigation, said: ‘One of the things we will be considering is whether the items seized at the time can be subjected to new forensic techniques which may point us in a particular direction.’
Mr Mulholland s ai d: ‘ We wouldn’t be doing this unless we had a hope of reasonable possibilities of success here.
‘I’m reasonably confident that, if the answers are in forensic science, forensic scientists in Scotland will find them.’