60 years on, will this icy canal yield girl’s body?
POLICE began searching a canal yesterday in the hunt for the remains of schoolgirl Moira Anderson – 60 years after she disappeared.
Detectives said there would never be a better opportunity to recover the body of the 11-year-old.
She is believed to have been murdered by paedophile Alexander Gartshore on February 23, 1957.
Over the next two weeks, a team of forensics experts and divers will use specialist equipment to scan a 185-yard stretch of Monkland Canal in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire.
Detective Superintendent Pat Campbell, who took over the inquiry in 2013, said the search could potentially uncover human skeletal remains as well as remnants of clothes worn by Moira when she went missing.
The canal is one of six new sites in the area identified by police as potential dumping grounds for Moira’s body following re-analysis of a historical witness statement.
Two adults said they saw a man matching the description of former bus driver Gartshore carrying a heavy sack towards the canal on the day after Moira’s disappearance.
Mr Campbell said: ‘The end result of this is to recover the remains of Moira and bring closure to her family.’
He added that though the statement linking Gartshore – who died in 2006 aged 85 – to the canal was made at the time of the initial inquiry, it is only now in light of new evidence that the site’s significance has been realised.
‘This location wasn’t as relevant in the 50s and only came apparent after a witness statement in 2014 that placed Moira in the area on the day,’ said Mr Campbell. ‘I have worked on this investigation for the last four years and I don’t think we’ll have a better opportunity to recover her remains.’
A witness statement this week suggested Moira – previously thought to have been snatched by Gartshore while on his bus – had managed to escape in the Carnbroe area of the town and walk down the street before being dragged into a field near the canal.
Moira’s sister Janet Hart, 72, who lives in Australia, has welcomed the new search, saying: ‘It’s the most hopeful I’ve ever been in 60 years.’
She added: ‘If we find Moira’s remains then at least we’ll be able to have the proper Christian funeral that she so deserves.’