A jury in the murder trial of a pensioner accused of killing Inverness mum Renee MacRae and their toddler son Andrew is considering its verdict.
William (Bill) MacDowell denies killing his secret lover, the estranged wife of his boss at the time, and the three-year-old boy they had together.
The pair vanished on November 12 1976 and haven’t been seen since, leading police to believe they were murdered.
MacDowell is accused of causing Renee and Andrew’s death by means unknown in the Dalmagarry lay-by on the A9.
The wheelchair-bound 80-year-old also denies setting Mrs MacRae’s BMW car on fire to destroy evidence and then disposing of their bodies and belongings.
Renee’s BMW was discovered in the lay-by abandoned and ablaze, 12 miles from the Highland capital on the evening of November 12 1976.
A jury of eight women and seven men at the High Court in Inverness are now considering their verdict, after receiving final instructions in law from Lord Armstrong.
Jurors retired at 10.11am on the 12th day of the murder trial, which comes almost 46 years after the mother and child vanished.
MacDowell, who’d been having an affair with the 36-year-old housewife, was sacked as company secretary of the woman’s husband’s firm, MacRae Builders, days after the disappearance – the trial heard earlier.
He has lodged a special defence of alibi – claiming he was elsewhere in Inverness when the MacRaes went missing.
And the pensioner also blames his former employer, Mrs MacRae’s husband Gordon, for being responsible for the mum and son’s disappearance.
The trial, before Lord Armstrong, continues.
