Caroline Glachan | |
|---|---|
 Dillichip Loan, where Glachan was last seen. | |
| Born | 8 January 1982 |
| Died | (aged 14) |
| Cause of death | Murder |
| Parent(s) | William Glachan Margaret Glachan |
On 25 August 1996, Caroline Glachan, a fourteen-year-old Scottish girl, was found murdered in the River Leven in West Dunbartonshire, Scotland. The case was unsolved for 27 years until the conviction of three people in 2023. [1]
Glachan was born in Derry, Northern Ireland. [2] She was an only child. [3] At the time of her death, she was a fourth-year pupil at Our Lady and St Patrick's High School in Dumbarton. [2]
Glachan lived in Bonhill. [4] On the night of 24 August, Glachan planned to meet her boyfriend at a bridge after being cautioned against this by her best friend. [5] Caroline was last seen as she walked along Dillichip Loan to a friend's house from shops on the Ladyton estate at Renton after spending the evening with friends. [6] She was walking towards Dillichip Bridge and then on to the river towpath as a shortcut. [7]
Her partly submerged body was found in the River Leven, near Place of Bonhill in Renton the following day by a passer-by. [8] She was found with extensive injuries to her scalp, face and neck sustained from blunt force trauma. The day her body was discovered by police was on her mother's 40th birthday. [9] A pathologist found that ten "significant blows" to the head had rendered her unconscious before she went into the river. [10] A group of teenagers verbally abused her and repeatedly kicked and punched her on the head and body using a blunt instrument of some kind. [11] The cause of death was considered to be drowning. [12]
Glachan's funeral was held on 26 February 1997 in Alexandria. [13]
The prime suspect was her boyfriend at the time, Robert O'Brien. [14] A taxi driver who knew Caroline witnessed a hooded figure further down the street, walking about 30 yards behind her. [15] One key witness was a four-year-old boy. [16] He had claimed witnessing a girl fall into the river. [17]
In September 2006, a £15,000 reward was offered for information. [18] In 2015, a further appeal was made by Police Scotland. [19]
On 5 September 2016, the case featured on BBC Crimewatch. [20] This followed the original appeal on the programme on 10 December 1996. [21]
The case has appeared on STV's Unsolved and CBS's Donal MacIntyre: Unsolved . [22]
In November 2021, three people were charged with the murder of Caroline Glachan. [23] The trial began at the High Court in Glasgow in November 2023. [24] [25] On 14 December 2023, Robert O'Brien, aged 45, Andrew Kelly, 44, and Donna Marie Brand, also aged 44, were convicted of Glachan's murder at the High Court in Glasgow. All three had been teenagers at the time the crime was committed. A fourth, Sarah Jane O'Neil, died before being charged. [26] In January 2024, O'Brien and Kelly were sentenced to life in prison, with O'Brien eligible for parole after 22 years and Kelly after 18. [27]
West Dunbartonshire is one of the 32 local government council areas of Scotland. The area lies to the north-west of the Glasgow City council area and contains many of Glasgow's commuter towns and villages. West Dunbartonshire also borders Argyll and Bute, East Dunbartonshire, Renfrewshire and Stirling.
The Vale of Leven is an area of West Dunbartonshire, Scotland, in the valley of the River Leven. Historically, it was part of The Lennox, the name of which derives from the Gaelic term Leamhnach, meaning field of the Leven. Leamnha is thought to mean elm-water.
Levi Bellfield is an English serial killer, sex offender, rapist, kidnapper, and burglar. He was found guilty on 25 February 2008 of the murders of Marsha McDonnell and Amélie Delagrange and the attempted murder of Kate Sheedy, and sentenced to life imprisonment. On 23 June 2011, Bellfield was further found guilty of the murder of Milly Dowler. On both occasions, the judge imposed a whole life order, meaning that Bellfield will serve the sentence without the possibility of parole. Bellfield was the first prisoner in history to have received two whole life orders.
On 21 March 2002, Amanda Jane "Milly" Dowler, a 13-year-old English schoolgirl, was reported missing by her parents after failing to return home from school and not being seen since walking along Station Avenue in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, that afternoon. Following an extensive search, her remains were discovered in Yateley Heath Woods in Yateley, Hampshire, on 18 September.
The murder of Danielle Jones was an English child murder case involving a 15-year-old schoolgirl who disappeared from East Tilbury, Essex, England. There was a large and exhaustive search to find Jones' body and it was considered one of the biggest cases Essex Police had to deal with at the time. Despite the police's best efforts, her body was never found.
Unsolved is a British regional crime documentary television programme produced by Grampian Television that aired in Scotland. The programme aired from 8 January 2004 to 30 November 2006.
The murders of Eve Stratford and Lynne Weedon, two young women from London, England, occurred in separate, sexually motivated attacks by the same unidentified individual during 1975. Stratford was a bunny girl and Weedon was a schoolgirl who was killed almost six months later, on the other side of London. After Weedon's cold case was re-opened in 2004, new DNA techniques revealed that she and Stratford had been murdered by the same person. Stratford's case was re-opened in 2007, but neither case has been solved. A £40,000 reward for information leading to the killer remains on offer.
The World's End Murders is the colloquial name given to the murder of two girls, Christine Eadie, 17, and Helen Scott, 17, in Edinburgh, in October 1977. The case is so named because both victims were last seen alive leaving The World's End pub in Edinburgh's Old Town. The only person to stand trial accused of the murders, Angus Robertson Sinclair, was acquitted in 2007 in controversial circumstances. Following the amendment of the law of double jeopardy, which would have prevented his retrial, Sinclair was retried in October 2014 and convicted of both murders on 14 November 2014. He was sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 37 years, the longest sentence by a Scottish court, meaning he would have been 106 years old when he was eligible for a potential release on parole. He died at HM Prison Glenochil aged 73 on 11 March 2019. Coincidentally, he died on the same day the BBC's Crimewatch Roadshow programme profiled the murders.
The 1891–92 Scottish Football League was the second season of the Scottish Football League after its formation in 1890. A total of 12 clubs took part in the competition. Dumbarton and Rangers were the defending champions having shared the title the previous season.
Crimewatch is a British television programme produced by the BBC, that reconstructs major unsolved crimes in order to gain information from the public which may assist in solving the case. The programme was originally broadcast once a month on BBC One, although in the final years before cancellation it was usually broadcast roughly once every two months.
Colette Aram was a 16-year-old British trainee hairdresser who was abducted, raped and strangled as she walked from her home to her boyfriend's house in Keyworth, Nottinghamshire, on 30 October 1983. The murder was the first case to be featured on the BBC television series Crimewatch when it began in June 1984. However, despite receiving over 400 calls as a result of the programme, Nottinghamshire Police were unable to catch the killer, and it was not until 2008 and following advances in forensic technology that police were able to develop a DNA profile of the suspect. Paul Stewart Hutchinson was finally charged with the murder in April 2009. He initially pleaded not guilty, but changed his plea to guilty on 21 December 2009 and was sentenced to life imprisonment on 25 January 2010. Following his sentencing, Crimewatch ran a recap of the murder and investigation on BBC TV on 27 January 2010 exposing several inaccuracies reported in the press about his background, notably a lie about being a psychology graduate.
The 1885–86 Scottish Cup was the 13th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. Queen's Park won the competition for the eighth time after they beat defending champions Renton 3–1 in the final.
The 1886–87 Scottish Cup was the 14th season of Scotland's most prestigious football knockout competition. Hibernian won the competition for the first time after they beat Dumbarton 2–1 in the final.
Charlene Elizabeth Caroline Downes disappeared on 1 November 2003, when she was 14, from her home town of Blackpool, a seaside town in north-west England. Downes was last seen in an area of the town centre that contained several takeaway and fast-food units. Lancashire Constabulary, the police force investigating her disappearance, believe that she was murdered within hours of the last sighting.
The 1885–86 season was the 13th Scottish football season in which Dumbarton competed at a national level.
The murders ofKate BushellandLinda "Lyn" Bryant, a 14-year-old schoolgirl and a 41-year-old woman, respectively, occurred in separate incidents in the West Country, England. The events occurred on 15 November 1997 and 20 October 1998 respectively. The similar circumstances of the murders led investigators to conclude that there is a high possibility the murders are linked, with both killed with knives while walking dogs along isolated lanes.
On 1 August 1992, Helen Gorrie, a 15-year-old British schoolgirl was found half-naked and strangled in the grounds of Merchistoun Hall in Horndean, after going out one night to meet a 21-year-old man named John Corcoran.
George Murdoch was an Aberdeen taxi driver who, on 29 September 1983, was the victim of a notorious and brutal unsolved murder dubbed the 'Cheese Wire Murder'. Having picked up a passenger in his 20s or 30s on Aberdeen's Queen's Road, Murdoch was taken to Pitfodels Station Road on the city outskirts and attacked in brutal circumstances with a cheese wire. Two teenagers witnessed the man being strangled to death in the street and alerted the police, but help was unable to arrive in time. The killer stole Murdoch's fare money and wallet, but the victim only had £21 on him and it is not known whether robbery was the motive. The murder is one of Aberdeen and Scotland's most notorious unsolved crimes and was said at the time to have "shocked the nation". In September 2022, police appealed for information on a man seen in Aberdeen's Wilson's Sports Bar in 2015, saying he was in his 60s or 70s and wearing an Iron Maiden T-shirt. Police say they believed he has information which could help solve the case and ask him to come forward.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)