When a horrified dog-walker stumbled upon a human skeleton inside a tent at a disused Highland quarry a few weeks ago, the local community was stunned.
But the grim discovery was all the more shocking for one family who were unexpectedly forced to relive some painful memories.
Living hundreds of miles away in Cornwall, relatives of the dead man were left struggling to understand how the Army veteran ended up in a tent in Inverness.
And his son has now appealed to Highlanders to answer that question and help piece together his father’s final years.
James Thomson Lawson Fernie was found dead inside a tent at Torvean Quarry on the edge of Inverness on September 18 this year.
The 64-year-old had served with the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards between 1972 and 1986.
Police initially were unable to identify him and had to take a DNA sample from his son Ben, who lives hundreds of miles from Inverness in Redruth, Cornwall after managing to make a connection with his family.
Mr Fernie jnr last had contact with his father in 2001 at a funeral – and had been trying to trace him for several years to give him the good news that he had become a grandad.
However, they were unable to find him until they received the worst possible news that police had managed to identify the skeletal remains.
Mr Fernie jnr, 36, said: “I wanted to find him for my kids, to tell he was a grandad and to find out if he had made anything of himself.
“We don’t know anything about what happened. We don’t know why he was in Inverness, where he had been, what he had been living off.
“Somebody must know something about where he has been all this time and how he ended up in Inverness and ended up in a tent in the quarry.
“I’ve got so many questions and we just don’t know any of the answers. We are appealing for information, no matter how small, which might give us an idea of what happened.”
Mr Fernie snr was originally from Stirling and served with the Dragoon Guards in Germany, undertaking two tours of duty in Northern Ireland.
He met his wife while in serving in the army at Catterick in Yorkshire and after leaving the army he settled in Cornwall with his family, including Ben.
But when Ben was around eight-years-old he left the family home and disappeared.
Mr Fernie jnr said: “We didn’t hear from him. We reported him missing but didn’t hear anything.
“Obviously if someone goes missing and doesn’t want to be found then they can manage that but it was difficult for us.”
Mr Fernie jnr said they discovered that his father had been treated for cancer in Penzance and had then gone back to Stirling with his own parents – before disappearing from there as well.
He did not see his father again until the funeral of his grandmother – Mr Fernie snr’s mother in 2001 – but the meeting did not go well.
Mr Fernie jnr returned to Cornwall and has started a family with his partner Jennie Jenkin and their children, aged two and three.
He never saw his father again.
Mr Fernie jnr believes that his father spent some time in Northern Ireland – but is at a lost to explain how he ended up in Inverness.
He said: “As far as we know he had no connection with the Inverness area but we really don’t know.
“I’ve made contact with the Salvation Army and a couple of food banks in the Inverness area in case they had come across him and I’m waiting to hear back from them.”
Mr Fernie jnr has also been attempting to work how he was living by contacting the Department for Work and Pensions to try and see if his father was claiming benefits.
Despite being next of kin he was been unable to access his record – but he did establish his father was not drawing on his army pension.
He fears his military service may have impacted on his mental health.
He said: “He was in Northern Ireland and we are afraid that might have made him forget himself somehow later on.
“He wasn’t taking his army pension so he might have been taking cash in hand work to survive.”
Mr Fernie jnr pleaded with anyone who thinks they may have seen his father in the Inverness area or further afield to make contact with him.
Mr Fernie snr was found inside his tent at a secluded spot in Torvean Quarry, where police said he may have been living for some time.
The tent was found pitched in a quiet area of the disused site at the top of a steep bank above one of the many paths running through the woods around the quarry.
Police were initially unable to identify much from the remains and said that Mr Fernie appeared to have lain for some time before being discovered.
A spokesman for the police said “extensive inquiries” had been carried out and “there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding this death”.
It is believed he died from natural causes.
Mr Fernie jnr can be contacted 07840266564 by anyone with information.
