Renee Mac Rae - Disappearance

Disappearance

MacRae lived in Inverness and was married to Gordon MacRae, though the couple were separated. She had two sons, 9-year-old Gordon and 3-year-old Andrew. On Friday November 12, 1976, MacRae left her home in Cradlehall with both her sons. She dropped her elder son Gordon at her estranged husband's house and turned south on to the A9 in the direction of Perth to visit her sister. Neither MacRae nor her son Andrew have ever been seen again. Later the same night, 12 miles away, a train driver spotted MacRae's burning BMW car in an isolated lay-by. When the police reached the vehicle, it was charred and empty, apart from a rug stained with blood matching MacRae's blood type.

One of the most intensive searches ever mounted in Scotland failed to find a trace of them. It was concluded that they had been murdered, that the murderer had made careful plans and had disposed of the bodies without leaving any clues. Witnesses on the A9 reported seeing a man dragging something they thought was a dead sheep not far from the car, while others saw a man with a pushchair near the quarry. MacRae was reported to have been wearing a sheepskin coat when she disappeared.

As police investigated it became apparent that MacRae's personal life was not straightforward. Circa 1971, unbeknownst to her husband, MacRae began to have an affair with Bill McDowell, who was married with two children and worked for Gordon MacRae as an accountant and company secretary. Nobody knew about the affair except Valerie Steventon, MacRae's best friend. She revealed that MacRae was not visiting her sister that night, but was going to Perthshire to visit MacDowell, who happened to be Andrew's biological father. MacRae told her friend about her affair in the spring of 1973 when she was pregnant with Andrew. According to Steventon, "Renee was completely besotted by Bill", and he had told her that he had a job with Texaco in the Shetlands and had found a house where they could live. Though, according to Steventon, these details "turned out to be a pack of lies." MacDowell admitted their affair but has not spoken about the case again except to deny any involvement.