A murder suspect’s wife told police “I never stabbed her or whatever happened to her” when she was quizzed in connection with the disappearance of Renee MacRae and her son Andrew.
A jury at the High Court in Inverness was told Rosemary MacDowell and her husband Willian had previously been questioned by police about the case in the weeks after they went missing in 1976.
The 80-year-old was giving evidence in the trial of her husband, whom she referred to as Billy.
He denies murdering his lover Renee and their three-year-old son Andrew at a lay-by on the A9 near Dalmagarry Farm on November 12 1976.
It has been accepted he was the toddler’s father.
He also denied disposing of their bodies, pushchair and luggage at an unknown location, and destroying evidence by setting her blue BMW alight and disposing of the boot hatch of his Volvo.
Questioned by police
MacDowell has lodged special defences of alibi, claiming he was home by 8.15pm after driving through Inverness.
He also incriminated Mrs MacRae’s husband, Gordon, of being responsible for the crimes.
The spouse was being questioned by advocate depute Alex Prentice about a statement she gave to Detective Sergeant Peter Black in November 1986, 10 years after the disappearance.
The jury was told that both her and her husband had been detained by murder enquiry officers while they were staying at the Crook Inn in Tweedsmuir and Mrs MacDowell was suspected of attempting to pervert or defeat the ends of justice.
DS Black put to her discrepancies in previous statements about the time she said her husband got home. Earlier statements had indicated between 8pm and 8.30pm.
In her statement – some of which was put to Mrs MacDowell – she told DS Black: “I honestly can’t remember when Billy got home. It was very definitely before midnight.
“While I was making the curry, the girls were watching a cowboy film which had two words in the title. It was on every Friday. After it finished, my two girls went up to their beds.”
‘It was probably The New Avengers’
Mr Prentice showed her the TV guide for that night which indicated the series started at 9.25pm and the next programme was at 10.15pm. The image also displayed other programmes including The New Avengers.
Mrs MacDowell told the prosecutor: “It was not that programme – not at that late hour.
“It was probably The New Avengers. I was confused. They wouldn’t have been up at 9.25pm. I was very strict about that.”
She admitted she got angry with DS Black who queried the discrepancies in her times.
Mrs MacDowell said to DS Black: “I don’t know what you are getting on to me for. I never stabbed her or whatever happened to her.”
Asked by Mr Prentice why she had said that, she responded: “It just came out that way in the spur of the moment. There was nothing meant by it”
Mr Prentice asked her: “Did you know she had been stabbed?”
Mrs MacDowell replied: “No, I did not. It just came out when one gets annoyed.”
She then denied that she would prevent her husband from cooperating with the police.
Removed husband from police station
Mr Prentice asked her about an evening on December 20 1976 when she went into Inverness Police Station, asked a police cadet to take her to her husband and demanded that her husband leave immediately.
“Why did you go there?” Mr Prentice asked her.
“I was probably getting annoyed that they were keeping him there because he had nothing to do with it,” Mrs MacDowell said.
Earlier the trial had heard from witnesses who placed Mrs MacRae’s car in lay-bys at Dalmagarry and nearby Meallmore between 7pm and 8pm.
Retired engineer Martin Shand, 65, said he saw two people, who he thought might have been men, talking outside a BMW and a Volvo in the Dalmagarry lay-by.
Another witness, 90-year-old Nan MacDougall said she saw a person in a “gleaming raincoat” pushing a pushchair along the A9 near the location.
She said: “I thought it unusual that anyone would be out on such a night with a child. It was atrocious.”
She couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman.
The trial, before Lord Armstrong, continues.
