By Brian Smith and Grant Smith

A “LUCKY FIND” led detectives reviewing the Templeton Woods cases to one piece of evidence but no trace could be found of others 25 years on, jurors at the High Court in Edinburgh heard yesterday.

Aware of the advances in forensic science since he had been a scenes of crime officer in the mid-1980s, former detective inspector Ian Kennedy (54) said he decided to carry out a “cold case” review when he was appointed head of the identification branch of Tayside Police.

He decided to look at the two Templeton Woods cases, having been involved himself in the 1980s and having watched “various attempts over the years” to bring them to a conclusion.

He added, “It’s a place I pass every day and it’s never far from my mind.”

He told jurors, “One of the first things to do was look at all the evidence to see what we had and what we didn’t have.”

With another officer he began examining each piece of evidence in both the Elizabeth McCabe and Carol Lannen cases—a two-day process.

Their purpose was to check the evidence they physically found against a register and enter it on to the Holmes system—the Home Office computer system developed to allow police forces to catalogue and exchange information.

All the evidence from the two cases was contained in cardboard boxes that had been held in a former blanket store at the cell area in headquarters at Bell Street. It was taken up to a laboratory at the ID branch.

Mr Kennedy said he and his colleague, wearing protective suits, masks and gloves, took each item out individually to check it.

They were aware of the risks of contamination and each item was placed on a sheet of paper to be examined and a fresh piece of paper and fresh gloves were used to handle each item.

“Individually, case by case, we took all the productions out and checked them against lists to discover which were missing and focus efforts on their recovery,” he said.

Advocate depute Alex Prentice QC asked what condition the productions were in.

Mr Kennedy said, “Bearing in mind stuff had been there for 25 years, I was relatively pleased with the state of the stuff. Some poorer than others—it was by no means a complete disaster.”

It was his recollection that all the items were in plastic bags, he thought most sealed, but accepted a few of the plastic bags may have been open.

He told the court the discovery of a vaginal swab taken from Elizabeth McCabe’s body was “an incredible lucky find.”

He explained that a chance conversation with a colleague had led him to a cabinet where a folder containing the swab had been stored.

He said searches for other items linked to the original inquiry, including Miss McCabe’s underwear and tights, had not been successful.

Mr Kennedy explained that a number of items had been taken to a forensic science laboratory in Yorkshire for fresh tests.

A black plastic sheet was, however, taken to a police rifle range where there was space to spread it out and examine it.

In the summer of 2004 he and some colleagues had been asked to go to Templeton Woods to try to locate the site where the body had been found.

He said, “I think we managed to locate it fairly accurately.”

Mr Prentice asked about the proximity of parking bays.

Mr Kennedy said there were bays which would be within headlight range of the site if a car was parked nose in.

Retired detective sergeant Michael Heron (67) said he was based at the identification branch on the second floor of police headquarters—a suite containing laboratories, office space, a photo lab and studios.

He was asked if the unit was secure and told the court, “Anybody could come in.

“It was just swing doors. Anyone could just walk down the corridor—it was not secure.”

He agreed that people would normally only go to the ID branch for specific purposes.

They travelled to scenes of crime in a Morris 1000 or Marina van which would be equipped with everything they thought they might need.

He said they wore their everyday clothes because the use of protective clothing was not the practice at that time.

Nor did they always wear gloves when handling items recovered at scenes of crime.

They took material for making foot casts, fingerprint kits, plastic bags to contain evidence —“anything of a physical nature that you were looking for.”

Asked if they took samples of blood at the scene of crime, he said, “Anything that was a major incident you would have the department of forensic medicine there and they would take responsibility for taking blood samples.”

Items would be taken back to HQ and then sent on to the forensic medicine department at Dundee Royal Infirmary.

Mr Heron said that in “major incidents, that would be done very, very quickly—maybe the next day. It would depend on the relevance of the item to the inquiry at that time.”

He described arriving at Templeton Woods around 1pm on February 26 with the head of the section, then Detective Inspector William Coyne. He said they had to push through trees to reach the scene, but tree-fellers eventually improved access.

He supported his colleague taking photos of the scene and, under the direction of pathologist Dr Donald Rushton, helped place the body on to a black plastic ground sheet they used at the time to transfer bodies to the mortuary.

This was done to retain any evidence that might be attached to the body.

Mr Heron said that on February 27, the day after Elizabeth’s body had been found, he was called to collect a jacket, pants and tights found at the south-east of Camperdown Park.

There were footprints nearby which were photographed and recorded. Asked if he had worn gloves during this procedure, he replied, “Probably not.”

Cross-examined by defence counsel Mark Stewart QC, Mr Heron agreed that a job book which was used by identification branch officers to note their actions at crime scenes made no reference to the black plastic sheet used to move the body.

The court heard that in 2005 Mr Heron had been asked by a police officer to sign an identification label attached to a bag containing a black plastic sheet.

Mr Stewart put it to him that there was nothing to relate this bag to Elizabeth McCabe and that he could have had no knowledge of where this bag had been or who else might have handled it.

The witness agreed.

Mr Stewart went on to say that the trial may hear later about items taken from the crime scene to a laboratory in Glasgow for examination.

He put it to the witness that the ID branch’s van would not have been used for this trip. Mr Heron said another police vehicle would have been used.

Mr Stewart suggested, “Anybody could have been in that vehicle for any length of time before it went to Glasgow?”

The witness replied, “You are perfectly correct.”

Mr Heron also agreed with the defence counsel’s suggestion that DNA could be shed by people at any time and transferred to anyone or anything else they touched.

Mr Stewart also asked about the procedures used if items needed to be dried.

Mr Heron said they would either be left in their sample bag with the neck open or be taken out until they were dry, then replaced in the bag.

He agreed branch staff made regular use of the room where this was done.

Mr Stewart asked if that was a contamination risk.

The witness replied, “I would say so.”

Returning to the items supposedly taken to Glasgow, Mr Stewart said the trial may hear from witnesses that the sample bags had arrived opened.

Mr Heron said he could not disagree with that.

He was asked if he could recall an incident during the post mortem examination during which a member of the procurator fiscal service had alerted staff to an earring that had fallen on to the floor.

Mr Heron said he could not remember that happening.

The trial continues.