Two former Inverness classmates went their separate ways after school – only to both be brutally murdered within a few days of each other at different ends of the country.
Elizabeth Mackay was born in Inverness on March 17 in 1956, just three months before Gordon Semple.
It is unclear how well they knew each other, but both attended Inverness High School at about the same time.
After school, Ms Mackay initially found work at the Eastgate Centre before moving to Nairn after marrying Terence at the age of 17.
The couple had one daughter before divorcing in 1992.
Mr Semple, meanwhile, found work at the Bank of Scotland before leaving Inverness to go to London.
Ms Mackay, who was the middle of three sisters, lost contact with much of her family in her later life, socialising only with a small circle of friends.
She was found dead at her home in Kintail Court in the Hilton area of the city on March 31 last year.
The 60-year-old had been one of the first tenants to live in the council house – dubbed the “house of horrors” by neighbours – after Brian Grant, who murdered hairdresser Ilene O’Connor and then buried her in the garden a decade ago.
On April 1, the day after Ms Mackay’s body was found, the Mr Semple’s partner reported the police officer missing in London.
Detectives searching for their missing colleague in London discovered his remains at a flat belonging to Italian drug addict Stefano Brizzi on April 7.
It was the same day that pensioner Michael Taylor appeared at Inverness Sheriff Court charged with Liz Mackay’s murder.
Two days later Brizzi was charged with Mr Semple’s murder and was later found guilty of strangling him when they met for sex, before cooking and eating parts of his body, and trying to cover up the grisly crime by dissolving his flesh in acid.
In February, Brizzi was found dead in his cell just weeks into his life sentence.
