A new national television appeal for information to help Aberdeen detectives catch the notorious Cheese Wire Killer has taken calls from as far away as the Midlands in England.
It followed a TV appearance by the family of murdered taxi driver George Murdoch and the detective looking for his killer on the BBC One’s Crimewatch Live yesterday.
A reconstruction of the 58-year-old’s brutal death was shown on the daytime broadcast 38 years after he was found dying on Pitfodels Station Road.
Mr Murdoch had earlier picked up a fare on the city’s Queen’s Road during an evening shift on September 29 1983 and was heading towards Culter at the time of the tragedy.
‘Quite promising’
The murder investigation remains one of the biggest north-east history, with officers taking 11,000 statements and visiting more than 10,000 houses with questionnaires.
But the cold case remains unsolved with no suspects identified and no arrests made.
After appearing on Crimewatch, Detective Inspector James Callander told The Press and Journal that Police Scotland’s latest appeal was “quite promising”.
He said: “It was good to get some national coverage particularly because Aberdeen is such an international city and 1983 was right in the boom years of oil.
“We’re reaching out to people that were maybe in Aberdeen at the time and left shortly after and haven’t really heard about the case for many years and had forgotten about it,” the Det Insp added.
Major Investigation Team members continue to believe that the motive for George’s murder was theft.
The killer took his wallet and the takings from the taxi which amounted to anywhere between £21 and £35.
Det Insp Callander commented: “Although it wasn’t a lot of money to us, less than £100 back in 1983 would have been a fairly significant amount of money to some people back then, so certainly the motive that we work on is that it was a robbery”.
Crimewatch receives three calls
The detective revealed that three phone calls were made to Crimewatch Live while he was at the studio to talk about the case.
He said: “We feel that getting it nationally may well just get us that little bit of information that we need.”
Speaking about the callers, the Det Insp added: “I’ll need to get fuller details from them and arrange to go see them and note statements.
“One of them came from the Midlands of England which just confirms the need for putting this national.”
‘Every chance’ killer not from this country
The Major Crime detective admitted there is a “huge possibility” that the killer may have come from or gone back to another country.
He said: “The oil industry is a worldwide industry so there is every chance that the person responsible isn’t from this country.
“Going UK-wide is a start and we’ll see what comes of that.”
George Murdoch’s nephew Alex McKay also appeared on yesterday morning’s programme and appeared overwhelmed with emotion at one point.
After the episode aired he told The Press and Journal that there is “no question” that theft was the motive for his relative’s death at the hands of “somebody filled with absolute rage”.
Mr McKay praised Police Scotland and Crimewatch producers for giving his family’s campaign for justice “a big boost” with the programme’s reach.
He said: “The fact it goes out at 10 o’clock in the morning, it would reach people who were around at the time that this took place.
“I got an email from somebody down in London, a colleague I used to work with.
Getting exposure
“He said he saw it on the programme. I thought ‘God, this really has got a reach’.
“I wasn’t expecting that. He didn’t even know about the fact that my uncle had been murdered. I felt great because it’s getting that exposure.
It’s understood a police appeal in 2018 led to investigators receiving calls or emails from around the world.
A statement from the force urged anyone with information to telephone 101 or e-mail a dedicated inbox at SCDHOLMESAberdeen@scotland.pnn.police.uk
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