By Mark Mackay

DETECTIVES INVESTIGATING the disappearance of Errol man Adam Alexander have confirmed the search for his body has ceased at the initial dig site.

Tayside Police started their search for the 39-year-old’s body on September 24 last year in a field at Muiredge, near Errol brickworks.

Since then they have excavated areas of the field and used both sniffer dogs and, more recently, scanning equipment in an effort to locate his remains.

They also enlisted the help of Professor Sue Black, a professor of anatomy and forensic anthropology at Dundee University.

Despite a painstaking search, their efforts have failed to shed any light on Mr Alexander’s disappearance.

He went missing from his home in the village’s High Street on Sunday, November 14, 1999. But it was not until September last year that detectives in Perth announced they were now treating the case as murder, following new leads on his disappearance.

A 35-year-old man has been charged with murder.

Detective Chief Inspector Roddy Ross, who is leading the investigation, said yesterday, “The initial dig site has been re-instated and no further digging is taking place,” he said. “However, this does not mean that there will not be digging elsewhere and the investigation continues.”

The DCI was unwilling to specify any other potential sites for the search.

He stressed that the search for Mr Alexander’s remains would continue alongside the investigation, not least because of the importance to his family.

As the investigation develops, officers have also begun to shut down a number of the websites set up to provide new leads.

Both Myspace and Bebo sites were created in the hope of gleaning new information on Mr Alexander.

“We got a lot of hits and the sites prompted more people to become interested in Adam Alexander,” said DCI Ross.

“Unfortunately, they have not generated any significant new information.”