Top doctor’s son obsessed by heavy metal and The Lord of the Rings
DAVID Yates was an amateur actor who unsuccessfully tried to launch a music career in a heavy metal band.
The 36-year-old was a fanatic of fantasy author JRR Tolkien who regularly talked about his mental health struggles.
He very publicly admitted he had suffered from ‘periods of anxiety and depression’.
He had been in a relationship with Marelle Sturrock for more than a decade after they met in September 2011.
The couple got engaged three years later on Christmas Day 2014, with a photo on social media showing a smiling Ms Sturrock pointing to the ring on her finger as they embraced in front of the Christmas tree.
During their time together they lived in Baillieston and Kelvindale before moving to their home in the Craigton area of the city.
Neighbours said the couple enjoyed taking their dog Sam for walks in Mugdock Country Park.
It is this same park where suspected killer Yates was found last night after his Seat Ateca car was discovered there.
His father, the late Dr Robin Yates, was a leading obstetrician and gynaecologist who specialised in IVF treatment. He died last year.
On Wednesday, Yates’s mother Lynda was being supported by family at her home in Bearsden, Dunbartonshire, and was said to be too upset to comment.
Yates frequently posted about theatrical productions he was taking part in.
He also sang in a heavy metal band called Nocturne Wulf but left the group in September 2020, saying that he wanted ‘a puppy’ and ‘a family’ more than he wanted to be in a band.
In a three-minute video saying goodbye to fans he revealed that he had been furloughed ‘for a long time’ during the pandemic, although did not give any details of what this job was.
Fascinated by the work of Tolk
‘Periods of anxiety and depression’
ien, he even created a related podcast called ‘Tol Tales’, which he set up during lockdown to raise money for charity. He frequently referred to the couple’s dog Sam as ‘Samwise’ after one of the Hobbit characters in the Lord of the Rings. Ms Sturrock was also drafted in to his podcasts, with him describing her ‘elvish singing’ as ‘even more beautiful than you can imagine’. In some posts he referred to her as his ‘very own Luthien’ – a reference to an elf character from the Tolkien mythology who fell in love with a mortal man.