Renee Mac Rae - Investigation

Investigation

The police investigation, carried out by the Northern Constabulary, was considered flawed. Detective Sergeant John Cathcart coordinated the search and after eight months he had a breakthrough. While excavating Dalmagarry quarry he was hit by a stench after removing a layer of topsoil. Convinced it was a sign of corpses, he continued digging, but was told by a superior officer to stop as the bulldozer they were using had to go back to the contractors due to short funds.

The inquiry was wound down two years later. However, a 2004 Grampian Television documentary, Unsolved, screened throughout Scotland, renewed interest in the case and the investigation was reopened. In 2004, Chief constable Ian Latimer launched a cold case review, which led to £122,000 being spent on an excavation of Dalmagarry quarry in August. Over the course of three weeks, 20,000 tons of earth from the quarry had been excavated and 2,000 trees were removed. All that was found were two crisp packets, some men's clothing and rabbit bones. As of August 2006, £250,000 has been spent reinvestigating the case.

Northern Constabulary named a suspect in a report to the procurator fiscal in October 2006, but the Crown Office declared there was insufficient evidence to go to court.

In recent years speculation has focused on the bodies having been buried under the A9, which was in the middle of a major programme of upgrading at the time of the disappearance. An 80 year old farmer with supposed divining skills took his divining rods to Dalmagarry and declared the bodies to be under a track, 12ft down. He now thinks the bodies are under the A9, at a spot he has marked with a yellow circle. In 2010, the Scottish Government announced that a £2.6 million contract had been awarded for an overtaking lane at the location, which renewed interest from the farmer, who claims to have discovered anomalies in a radar survey of the area. However, a spokeswoman for Northern Constabulary said that after studying aerial photographs taken by the RAF during the construction of the A9, they were satisfied the bodies were not buried under the road.