The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Man taken to trial in 2007 walked free after jury was unconvinced
The murder of Elizabeth McCabe came just 11 months after that of Carol Lannen, whose body was found just yards from the same spot in Templeton Woods.
What followed was the biggest criminal investigation in the history of Tayside Police as scores of officers scoured woodland and carried out doorto-door inquiries.
More than 7,000 people were interviewed over the course of the investigation and police visited every hotel, bed and breakfast and boarding house in the city.
Sixteen years after nursery nurse Miss McCabe’s murder, Tayside Police instructed a review of both deaths following the reopening of the Bible John case in Glasgow.
The murders were also included in a secret investigation into possible Yorkshire Ripper attacks by then West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Keith Hellawell.
A second review was undertaken in 1998 and the case was officially reopened in 2004. It was then items of evidence were sent for DNA analysis at a Yorkshire laboratory.
An independent review of both cases by Professor Anthony Busuttil a year later concluded there were “marked differences” in the manner of deaths.
In July 2005 Tayside Police officers detained and cautioned Vincent Simpson at his home in Camberley, Surrey. Days later he appeared at Dundee Sheriff Court for the first time in connection with the death but the High Court trial did not begin at Edinburgh until October 2007.
Mr Simpson was set free after a sevenweek trial when the jury returned a majority not guilty verdict.
Police said after the verdict they were not looking at any other suspects in the case, while Mr Simpson said in 2009 he was considering taking legal action against the force.
Miss McCabe’s murder was the subject of a new review of the unsolved murder in 2012 in light of changes to the double jeopardy law.