Renee MacRae murder trial weekly round-up

This is the week’s key evidence in the ongoing murder trial of William MacDowell, 80, who denies killing Renee and Andrew MacRae in 1976.

Friday September 23

Day 8: Accused told reporter missing lover still alive

The murder accused told a reporter he believed Renee MacRae was still alive because he heard the secret phone signal they used to contact each other twice after she vanished, the court was told.

Retired journalist Stuart Lindsay said he went to interview William MacDowell eight days after Mrs MacRae and her three-year-old son Andrew vanished in November 1976.

He and other media colleagues had just learned that the missing 36-year-old housewife’s secret lover was MacDowell.

Mr Lindsay told a jury at the High Court in Inverness: “He volunteered information that he didn’t think Mrs MacRae and the wee boy were dead.”

Convicted criminal offered cash to kill, court told

A convicted criminal told police he was offered cash to douse Renee MacRae and her son with acid and kill them by the man now accused of their murders, the jury heard.

The High Court in Inverness heard that Dennis Tyronney wrote to Northern Constabulary in May 2005 to tell them about a proposition, he said, was put to him in the summer of 1976.

Tyronney was an employee of Mrs MacRae’s husband’s building firm in Inverness at the time but it wasn’t until he saw newspaper photographs of her estranged husband Gordon and William MacDowell that he put a face to the name.

He said the person who offered to pay him more than £500 to throw acid was MacDowell, Mrs MacRae’s secret lover.

Thursday September 22

Day 7: ‘Wide-eyed’ man spotted with pushchair on A9

A man with “staring, wide eyes” was seen beside a clothed object that was draped over a pushchair on the night Renee MacRae and her son Andrew went missing, the murder trial was told.

The mystery man was spotted by a passenger in a car that was driving along the A9 on November 12 1976, close to where Renee and her three-year-old son disappeared.

Renee’s secret lover and the father of Andrew, former Inverness man William MacDowell, denies murdering both of them at the Dalmagarry lay-by that night.

Jean Wallace, now deceased, gave a statement to police and sections of it were read out on day seven of his murder trial at the High Court in Inverness.

Wednesday September 21

Day 6: Accused sought replacement floor for car boot

A jury heard the accused took his car to a garage and demanded a replacement boot floor because he burned his old one soon after his secret lover Renee MacRae and her son Andrew went missing.

Volvo salesman Ian Cattenach gave evidence in the trial of 80-year-old William MacDowell, who denies murdering Renee and three-year-old Andrew in the Dalmagarry lay-by on November 12, 1976.

Tuesday September 20

Day 5: Accused’s wife told police: ‘I never stabbed her’

The 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.

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