YOUR TIME’S UP
Detective’s warning to killer as they begin work to drain quarry in hunt for Renee and Andrew MacRae
DETECTIVES yesterday urged the killer of a mother and her toddler son to give themselves up as forensic teams prepared to drain a disused quarry.
Police are ‘confident’ this will reveal vital clues about the disappearance of Renee MacRae, 36, and her threeyear-old son Andrew 43 years ago.
Fresh information has led investigators to believe that the 100ft deep flooded pit near Inverness holds the key to solving the mystery.
Detective Inspector Brian Geddes said he believed the search of Leanach Quarry would uncover fresh evidence or even the remains of the missing mother and son. He urged the killer to come forward, and said: ‘It is a major undertaking but the determination remains within Police Scotland to solve this case and bring closure to Renee and Andrew’s family and friends after all these years.
‘We intend to do everything we can to ensure any key pieces of evidence which we believe are in there are recovered. Anyone with information should come forward.’
Work began yesterday to create access through undergrowth around the quarry with diggers and other machinery brought in.
Nearly 2.9million gallons of water will be pumped into a nearby field before the challenging task of excavating hundreds of tons of silt from the quarry will begin.
The operation is expected to take several weeks.
A team of 16 officers will work alongside forensic anthropologists from Dundee University at the site between Daviot and Balloch, near Culloden battlefield.
Mrs MacRae’s best friend, Val Steventon, said: ‘I pray that Andrew and Renee will be found. Never a week goes by without me thinking of them, and wondering if anyone will ever be brought to justice.
‘It has been 43 years, and although I don’t grudge the money spent on searching for Madeleine McCann or Ben Needham, I have always felt not enough effort was made to find wee Andrew.
‘Leanach Quarry has been the last place with a strong connection to the case which had never been investigated properly.’
Mrs MacRae and her son disappeared on November 12, 1976, and her burnt out BMW car was found in a lay-by at Dalmagarry, ten miles south of Inverness.
She had been heading for Perth to spend a weekend with her secret lover, Bill MacDowell, but he claimed they never arrived.
Mr MacDowell, who worked as an accountant at the building firm owned by Mrs MacRae’s estranged husband Gordon, later admitted he was Andrew’s father.
Navy divers searched Leanach Quarry in the months following the pair’s disappearance after an underwater camera picked out an image of what looked like a human head in a bag, but they only found bags of garden waste.
Mr Geddes said the operation to drain the quarry could be the last chance to solve the mystery as there were no other sites to investigate, and the 1977 search ‘had never been concluded’.
He added: ‘The quarry has previously been deemed too dangerous to search using divers, which is why the decision has been made to pump the water completely from the site.’