A man suspected by his family of being involved in two unsolved Scottish murders has been quizzed by US cops investigating the triple slaying of lone women hikers.
The Record revealed last year that relatives of a US businessman, who died four years ago, suspected he was involved in the deaths of Carol Lannen and Elizabeth McCabe in Dundee’s Templeton Woods in 1979 and 1980.
It’s more than 40 years since the strangled, naked body of 18-year-old mum Carol was found dumped and partly covered by snow. The part-time sex worker was last seen getting into a car in the city’s red-light area.
Less than a year later, trainee nursery nurse Elizabeth, 20, was found dead 100 yards from where Carol’s body had been left. She too was near naked and had been strangled. No one has ever been charged with Carol’s murder and a man who stood trial accused of Elizabeth’s death was found not guilty by a High Court jury in 2007.
The Record has previously told how the family of an American – who died, aged 72, in 2016 – believe he carried out the Dundee killings during visits to the area with his Scottish wife.
They have uncovered details he was interviewed by detectives hunting a man who targeted women hiking on a trail near San Francisco in 1979.
He stalked Mount Tamalpais, near where the man owned a restaurant.
Police were tipped off by a concerned resident. A relative of the man said: “Marin County sheriff’s department confirmed he’d been interviewed in 1980 as a woman thought it was him from a sketch, his proximity to crime scenes and as he was a known ‘sociopath’ when it came to women. She told police she believed he was the killer as he ‘hated women and hated police’. But he was cleared as a suspect.”
US detectives are looking at DNA databases and genealogical research in a bid to solve at least two unsolved Californian murders.
The man’s relative added: “He’s still being investigated.”
Previously he said: “My relative visited Scotland in the late 60s, 70s and 80s. He had family connections there and was in the military. He was extremely self-righteous, was brought up in a strict Catholic family and would have disapproved of prostitutes and single mothers, like Carol Lannen. He also wrote about his fascination with nurses, like Elizabeth McCabe. My theory is he was an organised serial killer who stalked his victims.”
The relative has offered the man’s DNA to Police Scotland so they can search for familial links to the Dundee killings. Since Carol and Elizabeth’s deaths, there have been several case reviews but they have yielded no results or further suspects.
