Ep. 134 | The MYSTERIOUS Disappearance of Renee and Andrew MacRae

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At Harmony Bank, we believe that better happens together. We're a locally owned bank, built on relationships and personally committed to your success. Our community bankers are ready to make quick decisions. No big bank bureaucracy, just a custom approach to help you thrive. From business loans to mortgages and everyday banking needs, Harmony Bank provides a secure, modern experience with a touch of Texas hospitality. We're Harmony Bank. Where better happens together. On a Monday afternoon in November 1976, a young boy in Inverness was supposed to be picked up from school by his mother. She had promised she'd be back for him, but she never came. She'd left the Friday before with his little brother, saying she was going to her sister's for the weekend. And what happened to them would remain a mystery for decades, becoming one of the longest running cases in Scotland. This is the story of Renee. And Andrew McCrae. Crime, conspiracy, cults, serial killers, and murder. All things that I love to consume. And I know you do too, you sick, twisted, beautiful, intellectually minded freak. And today we are talking about an extremely infamous case in Scotland. I had actually never heard of it, but some of you guys suggested it. So, without further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go mock fight down the highway, slam on the brakes, and bust through the windshield into this case together. Let's take a quick pause to talk about something I'm obsessed with, okay? And that is just, just, just food, basically. I love dipping french fries and insulted caramel milkshakes and eating french toast with maple syrup. But those aren't the best things for you, you know, but I love them. But it has made me really appreciate and become obsessed with cachava. Especially. Especially cachava's new salted caramel flavor. Because it tastes like dessert, but two scoops gives you protein, fiber, greens, and so much more in one simple shake. And there's no artificial flavors, colors, or sweeteners, and no preservatives. It's become my go-to on days I'm just sitting at my desk researching all day. Especially when I forget to eat lunch or something, and my energy feels steadier all afternoon when I drink them. They taste so delicious. I love a good shake, especially because it's still hot out here. Intense. What the hell? What's with that, by the way? So a nice protein shake has been my go-to. So embrace your salty side and go to cachava.com and use code CCCM for 15% off your first order. That's cachava, K-A-C-H-A-V-A.com, using code CCCM. Thank you so much to Cachava for sponsoring the video and supporting the channel. And let's get back to it. Christina Catherine McDonald was born at Ragmore Hospital in Ivedes, Scotland, on February 10th, 1940. But almost nobody called her Christina. She instead went by Renee. And home was a council house in the village of Bewley. And she and her sister, Marag Govans, went through the local school together. And Renee was top of her class, and Marag described her sister as clever. Now, outside school, the sisters went together to the Highland Games, which were festivals held across Scotland in celebration of the nation's heritage. Quote, Renee was very loving and kind. And she was a Highland dancer. We went to Highland Games. And she had won quite a lot of medals, unquote, her sister would say. And university was initially the plan for Renee. Her friends weren't going, though, so she didn't end up going either. And her sister was saddened about that for her, saying, quote, I wish her life had taken that path, unquote. And her best friend was Valerie Steventon from the same village. And Valerie said, quote, She was part of the family. We grew up together. We were all in Bewley. And there wasn't a lot to do then in the village, unquote. And Valerie described her. As one of the best, a very gentle person. And Renee went to work behind the counter at Boots, the chemist on Evanesce High Street. And a young man named Gordon McRae would come up to Bewley and stand on the corner, talking with Renee and her friends. Valerie noted, quote, I think they fancied each other from the very start. And Renee used to be shy about it. But things just went on and on, unquote. So Gordon was a joint owner of his family's business firm in Evanesce. And the family firm was in Bewley, the same village. Renee grew up in. And it was called Hugh McRae and Son. And it did carpentry and building. So Gordon's business partner was named Charles Ian Ross McRae. And Renee and Gordon would get married on May 17th, 1963, when she was in her early 20s and he was in his mid-20s. So the couple continued living in Bewley. And Valerie spoke of their relationship, saying, quote, They had a nice life, a comfortable life, and they got on quite well, unquote. So in 1969, the business partnership was dissolved. And the business carried on as Hugh McRae and Company Limited. Now, the new company registered its business as the construction of commercial buildings running out of Harbor Road in Evanesce. And Charles was the company chairman and managing director. And Gordon was one of its directors. So the firm was long established, turning over $30 million a year. So Gordon was effectively a millionaire. Not to mention he played football for Ross County and ended up as a director of the club as well. And Renee would have home help in the house. A woman named Margaret Ross, who also worked in the canteen at the firm. Now, Margaret remembered Renee as very kind, considerate, and a fair employer, a bit shy, sentimental. So in time, Renee and Gordon started having children. And Marag said of Renee's relationship with her kids, quote, Renee was a devoted mom to her two boys. She adored her boys. That's what she lived for, unquote. So Renee and Gordon's father, Gordon, first son, was born in 1968. They named him Gordon after his father. So the boy became Gordon Jr. And Andrew came along in October of 1973. And Valerie described him, quote, He was a lovely little boy, full of devilment. He was up to mischief all the time. He was gorgeous, as most babies are, but he was lovely. He was a super wee boy, unquote. Margaret, the home help, described a boy who was full of life and ran about all day. And said, quote, You just couldn't take your eyes off him. He was always happy, and he loved to get a record on. He loved to dance. He used to dance to Scotch on the Rocks, unquote. Now, Scotch on the Rocks was a single by Band of the Black Watch. That was in the UK charts in the autumn of 1975. But unfortunately, this nice, comfortable life didn't last. Quote, Obviously, over the years, things didn't work out. The marriage broke up with Gordon, unquote. Valerie would say. And Renee and Gordon were no longer together in 1975. And Gordon said he and Renee were always amicable, but it was not an intimate relationship. So in July of 1976, Renee moved out to the edge of the city to number four Cradle Hall Park, and both boys went with her. Now, the house was Gordon's gift, a detached bungalow, and so was the blue BMW she drove. Now, Renee and Gordon's separation had them headed for divorce, naturally. But they stayed on good terms with each other. And friends at the time said he still thought of Renee as a good friend and a wonderful person. And by November 1976, Gordon had moved in with his secretary and married her later on. Moved on pretty quickly. Now, Marag was down in Kilmarnock by then, and she and Renee spoke on the phone every Sunday. So Friday, November 12th, 1976, was a cold and rainy night in Iverness. And Renee left the Cradle Hall house with both boys in the car, and she dropped Gordon Jr. off, with his father for the weekend. And Gordon was working late that night at the firm's office on Harbor Road. And she had told them she was driving down to Kilmarnock to spend the weekend at Marag's. So Gordon tried to buy a train ticket for her to take instead, but she turned it down. And she said she'd be back to pick Gordon Jr. up from school on Monday afternoon. So at 5 p.m., she buckled Andrew into the blue BMW and headed south on the A9. And Andrew's stroller was in the back, along with an overnight bag and a brown antler. at about p.m., the car was gone. And that's the last time that Renee and Andrew were ever seen alive. And they would never make it to Merog's place. So shortly after 10 p.m. that same night, a bus driver named Malcolm Vaughn was driving back to Warda's home in Boat and Garden. And beside the A9 at Del McGarry, 12 miles down the road from Evanesce, he saw flames going up off an embankment. So Vaughn pulled over to look. Quote, I drove up as the flames reached inside. It appeared completely bare, unquote. And the lay-by there was across from Del McGarry Farm, hidden from the road by the embankment on one side and wide open to a moor on the other. And the burning car was a blue BMW 1602. And there seemed to be nobody anywhere near it. So Vaughn called the fire brigade. And Donald McCastle saw it burning. as well while on his way back to the hotel by taxi at about 10:00 PM. And police and firefighters reached the lay-by later that night. And when the fire was out, there was blood in the trunk. So the next day, detectives traced the BMW to Gordon McRae, who told them his estranged wife had been using it. But nobody treated them as missing until Monday, when Renee didn't turn up to pick up Gordon Jr. from school. Now, Gordon called Murog and Killamernock to ask where his wife was, but she had no clue. And then he called the police, and Murog said, quote, "I was very worried. I knew something dreadful had happened to Renee and Andrew," unquote. So under the carpet in the trunk, forensic work turned up what was described as a heavy deposit of blood, roughly three centimeters in diameter. And there was no trace of Renee or Andrew anywhere, though. Gone with them were the stroller, the overnight bag, and the brown antler suitcase. And the sheepskin coat Renee had on. Police were brought in from all over the country. And soldiers and local people turned out in the hundreds to search the open country. And by the Tuesday after she vanished, there were over 100 officers working the search, plus army reserves and even more locals. And in the second week, the Royal Air Force put up a Canberra recon craft to photograph a huge stretch of country in infrared, hunting for ground that had been disturbed. And specialized water units went into the rivers, the locks, and the flooded quarries with underwater cameras. And 10 days in, Gordon McRae put up a $1,000 reward for information. And a teacher named Jean Wallace had been in her husband's car that night on the road home to Beaulieu from Dundee. Now, near the Del Magari lay-by, she saw a man on his own with a stroller, quote, unquote, "bending over it" with one arm steadying something piled on top. And Wallace said, quote, "I didn't do it. I got the impression something brown was involved. Whatever was on the pushchair was covered by clothing and overhanging the side of the pushchair," unquote. Quote, "The man turned. He looked directly towards me. His eyes were wide and staring. And I thought then this was not a natural stare and was caused by fear or panic," unquote. And something smelled like burning rubber to her, causing her to ask her husband whether their car was all right. And other people reported a man hauled her car, and a man hauling what looked like a sheep from the lay-by toward the quarry. And at the farm across from the lay-by, Eva McQueen heard something between 7:30 and 8:00 p.m. McQueen told police, quote, "I heard a distinct screech coming from the east side. Hens roost in this area, but I couldn't associate it with hens. I saw nothing that would arouse my suspicions," unquote. And on the single track Shanakie Road close by, John Bassett and a work colleague, Pat Coyne, passed a car with people behind it who seemed to be hiding. And Bassett said, quote, "One thing that did strike us at the time was it was a very smart car for poachers to be using. It looked fairly new and in good condition, not what you'd expect poachers to be using," unquote. So Chief Constable Donald Henderson offered up a few potential explanations for the mystery at hand. One, that Renee had gone off deliberately, that she and Andrew had come to an accident, or that she had killed herself, or that the two of them had been murdered. Though he did say there were, quote, unquote, "good reasons to think it was murder." Quote, "As to what happened, where it happened, and how it happened, we have not a clue," unquote. So police had put roadblocks on the A9, trying to gather as many witnesses as they possibly could. And after getting in touch with Gordon, they asked if they could search his house. And he said later that he never felt they suspected him. Now, the man they wanted had a Zabata mustache, the kind that drops past the corners of your mouth. And every man in Ibanez with hair under his nose came under suspicion and was looked at. Now, tip-offs came in, leading to a fair number of innocent men questioned by detectives to account for their night. Now, Bill McAllister, a Highland columnist, covered the case over the years. And the story ran on the front pages every day for weeks. Quote, "Newspapers sold out on any mention of the case, and international journalists flew into Ibanez, which, apart from the odd Nessie story, was then entirely unused to being in the spotlight," unquote. And when police put an underwater camera down into Linac Quarry in the summer of 1977, it came back with an imaging of something round and white, featuring darker marks resembling a mouth and eyes. And the Daily Record ran the picture across its front page, saying, quote, unquote, "Is this the face of Renee McRae?" Extremely poor taste, oh, my God. Now, Navy divers went down after it. And by the following morning, it turned out the face was nothing more than a bag of garbage. And McAllister said, quote, "Every fact, statement, and opinion surrounding the case, however trivial, was pored over locally and nationally. In Ibanez, it was all they talked about. The media circus was phenomenal," unquote. So, Gordon had given police an account of where he was the night in question and over the weekend. And after looking into his activities during that period, they found that his story did hold up. But another name soon became of interest, after Renee's best friend, Valerie, came to speak to the police. And she mentioned a man named Bill McDowell, who was a 35-year-old accountant who worked for Gordon. Now, he was the company's secretary at Hugh McRae Builders, which is where he and Renee knew each other. Now, Bill lived outside at Narenside with his wife, Rosemary, and their two daughters. In a new house, he had built himself on several acres, complete with stables. And his wife and both girls had horses of their own, and he had a company Volvo, and the family had a white Range Rover, which in 1976 was very much a car people noticed as a symbol of status. So, once Bill was brought in for questioning, he made four different statements within one week of Renee and Andrew going missing. Now, the first came on Monday, November 15th, when he said, quote, "I deny any association with Mrs. McRae," unquote. But Valerie's conversation with the police earlier suggested otherwise. And according to her, Renee was never going to Kilimarnock, and Renee had confided in Valerie about other plans. So, going to the police meant breaking that trust, because Renee was actually leaving for the weekend with Bill, and Valerie had offered to keep Andrew for those few days. But Bill instead insisted that Andrew come along. So, police brought Bill back in the same day, and this time he admitted the association. And then he filled in the details, telling police that the two of them had been sleeping together, sometimes twice a week, at places out in the countryside and around Evanesce itself. Quote, "We spoke about going away to Shetland "and Renuck Lodge, but I was only joking," unquote. And in a third statement, on November 18th, he said the two of them had talked about a weekend away that Friday or Saturday, quote, unquote, "but there was nothing definite." And Bill continued, quote, "An arrangement was made to meet her "about 5:00 to 6:00 PM near her house, "but I could not because of my work. "I did not keep the appointment. "I always had to lie to her. "If she had her way, it would be every weekend. "That is why I kept telling her lies, leading her on," unquote. What a gem of a guy. And in another one of the interviews, he said Renee, quote, "kept wanting me to go away with her, "saying we would hit it off "and that he'd always made it clear "he had a wife and two daughters "and wasn't going to leave them," quote. "If I was misleading her, "it was only because I was afraid of what she might do," unquote. Now, detectives then quizzed him about the disappearance itself. And Bill said, quote, "I never harmed Renee in any way apart from mentally perhaps. "I couldn't do that," unquote. And on "Where'd She Gone?" he told the officers that he didn't know and was unable to shed light on her disappearance. And then the fourth statement came on Friday, November 19th. And Bill said, quote, "I had arranged to pick up her suitcase "on the Thursday, November 11th, "but I had no intention of picking it up. "I had made up my mind on Monday. "It has been suggested I was going to leave my wife "and go to Shetland. "This is not true. "I never applied for a job there. "I had no intention of picking it up. "I had no intention of going to Shetland," unquote. So through all of it, he denied any part in what had happened to Renee and Andrew. But the affair had been going on for more than four years. And back on the weekend, they went missing, found out. And he had told Renee once that it would be unacceptable for her to get involved with one of his employees. And he also learned that Andrew was actually Bill's son. So Gordon had very little to do with the boy. So on Monday, three days after Renee and Andrew disappeared, Gordon fired Bill. And then eight days after Renee vanished, the press got her lover's name by accident. And at a routine police press conference, a reporter saw the name William McDowell on a policeman's briefing paper written down as Renee's boyfriend. And nobody at the conference had mentioned him out loud. And reporters drove straight out to Nairnside. And Stuart Lindsay, covering the case for the Glasgow Herald, was kept outside the farm gate after arriving alongside other press. And Bill admitted the affair and told them Rosemary was standing by him. And he also said he didn't think Renee was dead. The two of them had a signal for when she wanted to reach him, he would say. And it had been used twice since she disappeared. And Lindsay asked him whether he had told the police that. And he said, no, it must have slipped my mind. Okay, that seems like a pretty big thing to not tell the police. And Alan Dow of the Sunday Mail had been out to the house several times and Bill was never around for an interview. So he called again at lunchtime that Saturday and said, I don't know. And he said, I don't know. And this time Rosemary opened the door and she told him her husband would talk and showed him into the front room. And Bill confessed the affair there in front of his wife. And Dow said of her, quote, Rosemary seemed quite relaxed about the affair, as if it was something that she had come to terms with. She didn't seem angry in any way. The wife was a strong character and no shrinking violet, unquote. And of Bill, he would say, quote, McDowell, too, seemed a very cool customer. Calm and collected, charming and smooth talking. I remember him being quite vain and combing his hair and taking off his glasses before being photographed. To me, it was a calculated confession that he was the secret lover, unquote. So Bill mentioned to Dow that Gordon had fired him days earlier, but Bill would not admit to Dow that Andrew was his son. So that was still not revealed. Now, once the story was out, the papers turned on Renee, and she was written up as a scarlet woman, the rich man's wife with a secret. And a senior officer had already described the investigation as running into a web of deceit, which kicked the rumors off. Now, a newspaper report the following year laid the two versions of her side by side, asking whether she was just a rich man's wife living some glamorous life or a shy and devoted mother living an ordinary one. And her sister, her friends and Gordon all defended her. And so did most of the police who spent months on her case. And Chief Constable Donald Henderson said, quote, she was not a fast living, high stepping woman. Basically, she was an unhappy woman in company she tended to withdraw, unquote. So back when the affair started in 1972, Bill wanted it kept quiet. And in the months before she vanished, he regularly came back to her for reassurances of that promise. And they used a simple signal to communicate in secret. When Renee wanted him she would call his house, let it ring twice, then hang up. And that was his signal to call her back. And Renee told Valerie the two of them were going to have a life together somewhere else. Now, at first, she said he talked about all four of them emigrating, Bill, Renee and her two boys. And by August of 1976, that plan had turned into Shetland. And Valerie noted, quote, she was very excited and said that Bill had got a job in Shetland working for Texaco and the four of us are going. He said he would show her the plans for the house, unquote. And the company was throwing in the house, he told her, one with veranda and a big kitchen. And Renee wanted a new bathroom fitted. And he was handing her vouchers from the firm, without Gordon knowing, of course, to buy things for the new home. Now, for that weekend in November, a chalet was booked for the two of them at a hotel out by Rannoch, which was a stretch of moor and lock down in Perthshire before the move. North. And most of that wasn't included in the account Bill gave to the police. Now, the move to Shetland and Rannoch Lodge had been all talk and nothing more he would tell them. He had only been joking, right? And Renee had her doubts all the same. And she thought he'd lied to her a lot, though she appeared to accept that's how things were. She doubted they would ever really make the move happen. So she gave in to her suspicions and started checking in on him. And he told her he had bought a container for shipping their things north. But she went looking for it and couldn't find it. And he had told her he'd reassigned from the firm. And she tried to find out quietly whether that was true. And by that November, the undisputed fact was that there were boxes in the house at Cradle Hall. And when detectives went in the morning after she vanished, household goods and toys were packed up as though she was about to leave. And there were suitcases packed too. And Valerie described her in love with Bill. Some of the people who knew them both said he was never as taken with her as she was with him. Let's take a quick pause to talk about some unsettling stats. Okay. Over 75% of Americans are chronically dehydrated and 90% don't get enough potassium. And that's why you can drink water all day and still feel tired and foggy. And that was me on recording days. So I started mixing instant hydration into my water every morning. It's an electrolyte drink mixed with zero sugar. So no spike and no crash. And the taste is honestly what got me because it's smooth and refreshing and it's not salty and chalky. There are so many electrolyte powders that are, they just taste like I'm drinking ocean water, but instant hydration does not taste like that, thankfully. So I've actually been able to stick with it. And they even use authentic French gray sea salts imported from France and it's rich in trace minerals. So it's really good. It's a really good drink. If you want to stay hydrated, go to instanthydration.com/cccm and use my promo code CCCM for over 40% off your first subscription order. It's instant hydration's best offer available. That's instanthydration.com/cccm with promo code CCCM. Seriously guys, I drink it every single day. It really helps me drink water. So if you struggle with drinking water, I highly recommend it. Thank you to instant hydration for sponsoring the video and supporting the channel. So over the first weeks, detectives interviewed Bill a number of times as we know, and detective chief inspector Donald MacArthur thought he looked worried, dejected, and tired on two of those occasions. And at one point he actually threw up, but he maintained he was innocent. And on December 20th, he came into the police station himself with what officers understood to be significant information. But Rosemary saw his car parked outside, came in after him and pulled him out of the interview room after he finished giving his statement. And a probationary officer had let her through, and she insisted that they leave him alone. And she was also his alibi for the Friday night of the disappearance. Now, no body had been found in the investigation. So without Renee or Andrew, there was nothing forensic to work with because with no weapon and no bodies, there was no way to prove either of them were actually deceased. So police went for a warrant to search Bill's property and the court refused it because without bodies, there was nothing to show a crime had actually happened at all. Now, one of the people out at A9 that night had described a man in a gleaming raincoat near the burning car. And a tip came in that there was a coat like it in an outbuilding that Bill owned, but police were never able to go and look. And a man named Martin Shand had seen a Volvo parked beside the BMW in the lay-by that night, though it never went into the statement he gave at the time. So Bill stayed the prime suspect for the time being, implausible as it seemed. But then there was a man named Dennis Tirani. Now, he had a job the summer of the disappearance at a site right opposite the McRae Builders office. And a man he took to be one of the firm's employees wanted a private word with him one night saying, quote, "He wanted to see me alone that night to talk and it could be in my favor money-wise," unquote. Now, Tirani had done time in the prison system and this man knew it. Now, the man asked him whether he could kill somebody by dousing them in acid. And there would be $500 paid up front and more when it was done, and the materials would be supplied. And Tirani said, "No." He wrote, quote, "I refused point blank. He said to me a few times to me it's the wife and bairn," unquote. Now, bairn, I might be saying that wrong, is a Scottish word for a child. Quote, "He warned me off before I left. If you talk to anyone, I could be in hot water. Just be quiet," unquote. But none of that information reached the police in 1976. And when Rene disappeared that November, Tirani assumed the man who had approached him was Gordon. And he wrote his letter to the Northern Constabulary in May of 2005. And by then, he had moved to Edinburgh and he gave his statement to officers in Leith. And Tirani wrote, quote, "I might be a lot of things, but I won't be a killer," unquote. So in 2016, a man named James Taylor went to the Scottish police with something his late friend had told him. Sandy Thompson had been a senior officer on the original inquiry, and he had been certain Renee was buried under the A9 itself, close to an overpass. Thompson's team had gone to the roads department, where a foreman told them a section of the road had been dug up on the day she disappeared. And Thompson talked about it with one of the men who had worked on that road and showed him what they had gathered. And Taylor said, quote, Sandy said he knew right away when the man looked at it that the woman was dead. That was where she was buried, and this man knew far more about it than he was telling, unquote. And the man left for the United States the day after. Now, none of it was public until the following year, and nobody had been charged with anything. So back in the years right after Renee and Andrew vanished, people kept reporting that they'd seen her. There were claims she'd been spotted as far away as Brazil, and the reported sightings added up to 123 in places like Zurich, Portsmouth, and Aberdeen. And some described a mother and child alongside a man with a Mexican mustache, much like a man police had hunted for back in 1976. But every one of those sightings was ruled out. So for two and a half decades, new information kept reaching police, though much of it was never made public. And Bill and Rosemary left Evanesce in 1986. And by that autumn, they owned the Crook Inn in Tweedsmuir, a village in Peopleshire in the Scottish borders. And in November of 1986, 10 years on from the disappearance, murder inquiry officers came to detain them both. And Rosemary was suspected of giving her husband a false alibi. And Detective Sergeant Peter Black questioned her at the police station in Peoples, because her earlier statements had Bill home that Friday night between 8 and 8.30 p.m. But this time, Rosemary told Black, quote, I honestly can't remember when Billy got home. It was very definitely before midnight. While I was making the curry, the girls, we're watching a cowboy film, which had two words in the title. It was on every Friday. After it finished, my girls went up to their beds, unquote. Now, the Western was The Quest, and it didn't finish until after 10 p.m. Rosemary had no explanation for the difference. And Black described the interview as very agitated and volatile. And at one point, she blurted out, quote, I don't know what you are getting on at for me. I never stabbed her or whatever happened to her, unquote. Weird thing to say. So in October of 1987, police detained Mitchell Yule, a handyman Bill had taken on at the inn in the autumn of 1986. Now, Yule was an ex-convict, and he was accused of stealing Bill's car. And officers told him he wouldn't get in trouble over the car if he talked to them. And Yule said that on the 10th anniversary, Bill sent him out to get two copies of the paper that was running the story. And Bill didn't seem too chuffed or pleased to see it back in the car. I don't know. I don't know. I don't the news and another time while the two were drinking yule asked whether andrew was his son and bill said he was and yule described quote unquote tears coming down both cheeks and bill also told him quote there's one or two things i might have to get off my mind you will get to know about it sometime unquote because bill spoke of a secret cottage too and said he'd been in trouble if anyone ever found out about it and later yule asked him outright whether he'd killed renee and yule recalled quote unquote he said i did and i didn't now bill and rosemary eventually moved again and this time it was to london and in 1998 workers digging on bank road and evanesce turned up a bank card marked r mcrae and at first it looked like it could be renee's but investigators found it belonged to someone else with a similar name what are they odds now over the years valerie ran searches of her own and on weekends she and her family would look through derelict cottages where renee and andrew might have been hidden and in 2004 she said quote one of the most heartbreaking things about renee's disappearance was that there has never been a funeral or even a memorial in her honor i recently planted two sapling trees at the spot where her car was abandoned but they were stolen unquote marag who was living in evanesce by then said quote i am heartbroken that no one has been caught and brought to justice for this terrible act it always gives me some hope when i read of an old crime being solved maybe one day unquote now gordon still ran the building company in evanesce and gordon jr worked in the family business so on january 8 2004 grampian television aired the first episode of a new series called unsolved and the show was made to draw information out of the public on murders that had never been solved and it was presented by alex norton an actor from the scottish detective drama taggart taggart taggart taggart i feel like it's taggart correct me if i'm wrong in the comments please read me out and its first case was renee and andrew and valerie went on camera for it and so did john cathcart a retired police sergeant who had worked on the original investigation because in april of 1977 he had been searching at dalmagari quarry a few hundred yards from the lay-by when he smelled what he believed were decomposing human remains but his superiors ordered him to stop and after dispute over hiring a digger the quarry never actually got properly searched and he told the program he was 99.99 sure that there were bodies there and brian mcgregor a local farmer from bogman saw the program and afterward he told the program he was 99.99 sure that there were bodies there and brian mcgregor a local farmer from bogman saw the program and afterward he offered to lend cathcart an excavator from his own peat business free of charge in case the police wouldn't dig the quarry themselves and frustrated at how little progress had been made he also took out a newspaper ad asking for information and two men who had been building the new a9 back in 1976 answered now the morning after the car was found a saturday they had come back to the site and found the ground they'd worked the day before disturbed and they never told police because reports back then said renee might have fled the country and it matched what the rhodes department had told sandy thompson's team during the original inquiry so the program put the case back in front of the public and police reopened it now a new appeal for witnesses brought two more people forward and police said they had quote-unquote substantially enhanced the evidence and chief constable ian latimer said he had a specific reason to reinvestigate pointing to new evidence and better forensic science and a cold case review had been set for that october but the highland force brought it forward to august and the dig was led by professor sue black of dundee university a forensic anthropologist known around the world for identifying war crime victims in kosovo and her team would focus on the north bank where people had reported seeing a man drag what looked like a sheep from the lay-by toward the quarry now the excavation ran on the north bank of the north bank and it was reported that the man who had dug the quarry was one of the men who dragged a sheep from the lay-by toward the quarry and the excavation ran on the north bank of the north bank where people had reported seeing a man drag what looked like a sheep from the lay-by toward the quarry now the excavation ran on the north bank of the north bank quarry now the excavation ran on the north bank for about a month and cost around a hundred and twelve thousand dollars two thousand trees were taken out and forensic archaeologists and anthropologists went through everything that came out of the ground the sifting turned up some men's clothing animal bones and litter but nothing of renee or andrew was found the police said the dig closed an evidential gap and instead of an answer it had ruled out the one place cathcart had been so sure of and the publicity from the search drew bill out too while living in london he told the reporter quote i didn't do it it's all starting up again and it's a nightmare for myself and rosemary it keeps following us around we can't escape it but i didn't do it unquote so in 2006 police sent prosecutors a report that named a suspect but the prosecutors decided there wasn't enough evidence to take action and that same year mcgregor had the a9 scanned with ground penetrating radar near the moy rail bridge a short distance from the lay-by and geophysicist bryce leconte claimed that one anomaly matched the size of human bodies he would say and that a second could be related to andrew stroller so in 2016 dr alistair ruffle of queen's university belfast looked over the report saying quote there is a trench-like feature with an anomaly in the trench it could be a body it could be a utility pipe or it could be something else entirely end quote but engineering records showed no utility lines or anything comparable under that stretch of road and also in 2016 psychics told a local newspaper they believed they could solve the mystery but it does not appear that anything came of that but in 2017 detectives from police scotland's major investigation team began a full review of the case and in august of 2018 it became a re-investigation codenamed operation abermule led by detective inspector brian gettys now his team went back through everything gathered over more than 40 years reading the old witness statements again and re-interviewing people wherever they could get us said quote we are applying the most modern investigative techniques in a bid to progress the investigation and this will include utilizing advances in forensic science unquote and in october of 2018 on the day andrew would have turned 45 years old police released a picture of a stroller like his a silver cross carnival with a chrome frame and a blue canvas cover and a month later on the 42nd anniversary they said they were trying to trace renee's antler suitcase which was tobacco colored and he also revealed something the public had never heard about by going through every item in the files and that was in 1982 somebody had written to police without giving a name describing suspicious activity the night renee and andrew vanished specifically at one of the quarries outside evanesce and the letter didn't say which quarry and the writer seemed to have moved away so geddes asked them to get back in touch and the review led investigators back to lenac quarry where the underwater camera had found the face the garbage face in 1977 and donald henderson the chief constable back then had said in the 1990s that he thought the answer lay in lenac and asked why it had never been properly searched he said quote i ran out of money unquote because the quarry had been judged too dangerous for divers so in may 2019 police began pumping it dry and more than 13 million liters of water came out and over five months more than a hundred thousand metric tons of material were removed and specialist officers searched over 5 000 of them and they found bones and a set of wheels like the ones on andrew's stroller but the bones were animals and none of it turned out to be evidence that summer detectives also traveled to spain to interview a key witness by then investigators had pieced together a set of strands most of them decades old after the disappearance bill asked a garage for an urgent replacement trunk hatch for his volvo telling them the old one was damaged and he'd burnt it the invoice was dated december 8 1976 and three witnesses had placed a volvo near the lay-by that evening of the disappearance at a time when bill said he'd been driving home from evanesce and tirani's letter about the acid offer had been with police since 2005. bill had given four statements within the first week and rosemary's account of when he got home had changed by 1986. but dna finally offered something the 1976 team never had and renee s dna profile was taken from an old hairbrush of hers and the blood in the bmw's trunk matched it and a match only one person in 100 million would share detective constable martin murphy checked with the tax office the pension records the driving license agency the passport office and the banks but none of them showed any sign of contact from renee or andrew so his conclusion was that they were both dead let's take a quick pause so i can vent all right i will happily spend six hours digging through a cold case file but calling to book a doctor's appointment i'm good i'll put it off for months honestly the hold music the phone tag then finding out they're not even in my network and the the the the appointment's gonna come up in like six months it's just not my jam but it's important to take care of yourself so that's why sock doc is so awesome sock doc lets you search and compare high quality in network doctors and you can see actual appointment openings and click to instantly book a visit and appointments happen really really fast for me usually within the first 24 to 48 hours or even 72 hours but that's way better than calling any office for me and you can even score same day appointments because your health matters and taking care of yourself shouldn't be complicated so if you're ready to be seen head to zocdoc.com cccm to get started and check that appointment off your to-do list finally that's zocdoc.com cccm thank you so much for sponsoring the video and supporting the channel let's get back to it so by 2019 bill was living with rosemary near penrith in the north of england because in 2011 they had sold their london flat in wimbledon and moved back to scotland for a while living near dreghorn in airshire and then they moved to a bungalow in great sockeld a village near penrith in cumbria's eden valley and by 2016 the couple were reportedly well liked there though the locals didn't know he'd been involved in the case which i think was by design now that year ahead of the 40th anniversary a newspaper reporter tracked him down at his home and bill said very little but he admitted he was aware his name had resurfaced in the media and then he said quote i don't want to carry on this conversation anymore thank you unquote and the review that had begun in 2017 led back to bill and detectives from the major investigations team arrested bill at great sockeld on the morning of wednesday september 11 2019 and at this point bill was still living in the north of england and at this point bill was still living in the north of england and at this point he was 77 years old and later that day was charged with murdering renee and andrew and he appeared at evanesce sheriff court and two more charges accused him of attempting to pervert the course of justice and the hearing was held in private and bill made no plea and the sheriff committed him for further examination which keeps the case open while prosecutors carry on investigating and granted him bail and detective inspector brian geddes said quote this is a significant development in an investigation which started when renee and andrew disappeared in november of 1976. their disappearance has had an unimaginable impact on the lives of renee and andrew's family and friends for several decades this has also been felt keenly in evanesce but also across scotland and beyond unquote so renee and andrew's remains had not yet been found and officers were still going through the material dugout of linac quarry and david love an evanesce journalist had covered the case for years and had helped with the original search along the a9 and love said quote i was delighted when mcdowell was indicted and he clearly wasn't well then unquote so in june of 2021 the case came before the high court in glasgow and bill was now 79 years old by then and he didn't attend in person for medical reasons and his lawyer queen's council murray macara pleaded not guilty for him on every charge and besides the murders he now faced a single charge of attempting to defeat the ends of justice alleging he got rid of both bodies and their belongings and he was accused as well of setting fire to the bmw and getting rid of the stroller and the volvo's trunk hatch to avoid being caught and more than 1500 people had given statements and macara said and work was needed to find out which of them were still alive so the crown's prosecutor advocate deborah mcdowell was indicted in june of 2021 and in july of 2021 mcdowell was deputed alex pinterest said quote this is a case which arises from events in 1976 and the volume of papers and other material is extensive unquote and the crown suggested holding the trial in evanesce and in august of 2021 bill was found fit enough to stand trial so after years of delays bill's trial finally began at the high court in evanesce on september 12th 2022 and lord armstrong was the presiding judge now bill was now 80 years old in june of 2021 and in july of 2021 mcdowell was sentenced to 30 years old and every day of the trial rosemary wheeled him into court and alex prentice led the prosecution for the crown and murray macara led the defense now bill denied all three charges against him and he'd also filed two special defenses one was an alibi he'd been at the mercury motor inn in evanesce that evening then stopped at his work and a shop on the way home arriving by 8 15 p.m and the other was incrimination if renee and andrew had been murdered gordon had done it along with others unknown now gordon was 85 years old when he took the stand and prentice asked whether he'd had any part whatsoever in the deaths of renee and andrew and gordon told the jury quote unquote absolutely none and macara suggested he'd been in some way complicit in the disappearances but gordon denied it completely and later macara did admit the evidence against gordon was extremely limited now rosemary who was also 80 years old gave evidence for her husband and she insisted he'd been home by 8 30 p.m even though she said that wasn't the case earlier but whatever because the tv listings prentice showed her had the western she described to the police in 1986 running from 9 25 p.m to 10 15 p.m and she said quote it was not that program not at that late hour it was probably the new avengers i was confused unquote and she also told the court about bill's health quote he's actually a walking dead man he has a dnr do not resuscitate set up already unquote why the does that matter can he still not get charged and convicted of something if he's a walking dead man that doesn't make any sense either so the day's hearing ended when macara told the court his client was struggling and the jury heard around two dozen statements from witnesses who were no longer alive an uncommon occurrence for a trial and among them were gene wallace's account of a man with the stroller and mitchell yule's police statement and dennis tirani's account of the acid offer and valerie was still alive but too ill to take the witness stand so former detective constable ruth mason read her statement out and mason also read from the statement of kenneth rock who had looked after the mcrae company cars and had since died and after bill was fired gordon sent rock to get the company volvo back and rock said quote he refused to bring it in he was cleaning it out and said he would return it when he was finished he didn't say why he was scrubbing it out the boot was up unquote and the boot is the british or scottish term for trunk of a car now the two sides had also agreed in a joint minute of facts neither disputed that bill had never put in an application to texaco and christine tuak who had gone to school with bill was 81 when she testified at around 7 45 to 7 50 p.m on the night renee vanished she'd seen a volvo on the a9 turning at the junction for nairnside and it looked like bill's company car and the man inside wore heavy framed glasses. She said, quote, I thought it was Mr. McDowell. If it wasn't him, it was somebody who looked like him, unquote. And Christopher Gannicliffe, an expert in blood splatter, said the blood in the BMW's trunk could have come from someone struck on the head who fell partly into the trunk. And he called that one explanation and agreed he couldn't say when the blood got there. And when the Crown's case closed, Bill chose not to give evidence. And in the closing speech, which ran 89 minutes, Prentiss argued that nobody but Bill had a motive. Quote, a blood-curdling scream in the dark, I suggest, was the last utterance of Renee McRae while alive. Life for Bill McDowell would change dramatically if it all came out in the open. He would lose his job, his family, and his home, unquote. And he finished with, quote, when you're in that jury room deliberating, just ask yourself, would I get rid of the boot floor from a Volvo car, unquote. And McCara told the jury there were no bodies and said, quote, the events of November 12th, 1976 have been described as a mystery. It is still a mystery, unquote. Holding a teaspoon, he told them how little blood had been found, quote, one and a half teaspoons less than you take from a cough bottle, unquote. And in his directions to the jury, Lord Armstrong told them not to hold Bill's silence against him since his innocence was presumed. So on September 29th, the eight women and seven men on the jury went out to consider their verdict. And they were out for 224 minutes. And they would come back and the jury found Bill guilty of murdering Renee and Andrew by a majority verdict. And he was also convicted of attempting to defeat the ends of justice for getting rid of their bodies and their belongings. And the jury had rejected both his alibi and his attempt to put the blame on Gordon. And Prentice read a statement from Merag, to the court. And she wrote, quote, the pain of losing Renee and Andrew doesn't ease. Not a day passes when both are not in our thoughts. Andrew's life was cruelly and brutally cut short at such a young age, just three years old. And I often wonder what he would be doing now. I've never stopped trying to find justice for Renee and Andrew, who deserve to rest in peace, unquote. Lord Armstrong sentenced Bill the same day. And he told him, quote, on the evidence at your trial, these murders appear to have been premeditated, planned and carried out by you in the most calculating way. It was not a spontaneous event which happened on the spur of the moment. These appear to have been, in effect, executions. You murdered your victims and then disposed of their bodies and personal effects, including the boy's push chair, and then took various steps to conceal the crimes you had committed and to avoid detection, unquote. The judge took into account that Bill had no criminal record before this and that his health was poor. So Bill got life in prison, the only sentence there is for murder. Judge also had to set the punishment part of the sentence, the minimum time Bill would serve before he could apply for parole. And for the two murders alone, he'd have set it at 27 years. And the charge of defeating the ends of the justice brought a six-year sentence, served at the same time, and it added three years to the minimum. So that made 30 years. And in a statement on behalf of the family after the verdict, Morag said, quote, today there is finally justice for them. It's a day we feared would never come. Not knowing where the remains lie only compounds the pain. If he has a shred of decency in his body, he will now reveal where they both lie, unquote. And after the sentencing, Bill was wheeled away. So in early October 2022, Bill's legal team confirmed they were filing an appeal against his conviction. And on November 23rd, he was moved to HMP Glenacool because his health was failing. He was given palliative care there with carers to help him dress and wash. And the rest of the appeal paperwork was never filed in time. And on December 7th, the appeal was deemed abandoned. And on February 7th, 2023, Bill was taken to Fort Valley Royal Hospital, where prison officers guarded him around the clock. And in his last days, his speech began to fail. Told he was dying, his family came to see him on February 14th. And he would die the next morning at 81 years old. A fatal accident inquiry, which is held for every death in custody, later found his death was due to heart failure, high blood pressure, alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver, and lymphoma. None of Bill's family attended the hearing, which lasted 17 minutes. And he never revealed where Renee and Andrew were. And in August of 2023, police renewed their appeal for information. And they were looking at any property Bill could have used in the early to mid-1970s, whether looked empty or occupied. And they were also looking at places he and Renee may have met during their affair, like the Blackfold area above Loch Ness, and the land between Nairnside and Daviot. Valerie would pass away on November 14th, 2024, at the age of 85. And David Love, who knew her, wrote that when Bill died, there was quote unquote, no pleasure in Val's face, because it meant he died without ever saying where they were. And in March of 2024, road crews widening the A9 into a divided highway found a child's potty with a yellow base and a rolled up piece of carpet about a mile from the layby. And the list police had given the crews included a yellow child's potty, along with a suitcase and a stroller and a coat. And officers took both items away as potential evidence. And in March of 2026, almost 50 years after the disappearance, police and military specialists searched land Bill had owned at Nairnside. And these drones, light detection and ranging, which maps the ground with lasers and ground penetrating radar. And by early April, the search had ended without finding anything. And a source close to it said more searchers were unlikely unless new information came to light. And Renee's family were reportedly grateful to the police, but disappointed that they still couldn't hold a proper funeral. And to this day, Renee and Andrew have not been found. And I pray with everything in my heart that they will be found one day. Because I can't imagine losing family members and just not knowing where they are or where they ended up and not being able to have a proper funeral for them or anything. So my heart goes out to the family of Renee and Andrew. And thank you to everybody who mentioned this case and looking into this case. I really appreciate it. And I always read the comments. So if you have any other cases you would like me to deep dive into, please let me know down below. And until then, please stay safe out there and stay beautiful. All right. Bye. We believe that better happens together. We're a locally owned bank built on relationships and personally committed to your success. We're Harmony Bank, where better happens together.