By Steven Bell

An anonymous call which provided police investigating a 29-year-old Dundee murder with important information was prompted by an article in The Courier, it emerged yesterday.

Now detectives on the Operation Trinity team looking into the unsolved killing of Carol Lannen want the female caller to get back in touch with them.

The Courier revealed on Monday that the team was launching a fresh appeal for information about a case which has frustrated police for three decades.

It included details—first released last summer—of a man the teenager was friendly with in the mid-1970s. Thought to be called Roger, he lived in the Main Street area and may have been a bus driver.

The man leading the inquiry, Detective Chief Inspector Ewen West, said, “Our assessment is that we still have not identified this individual.

“However, as a result of Press coverage on Monday, there was a lady who wished to remain anonymous who spoke to my detective constable.

“She has given us what we believe initially to be some quite important information that might lead us to the identity of ‘Roger,’ and we would like to ask this lady to get back in touch with us.

“We need to develop the information she alluded to yesterday further. It may be that she can identify Roger, it may be that she cannot, but it shows that information is still coming to light.”

Detectives revealed yesterday that it is one of a number of new leads they are pursuing in connection with the murder.

At a packed press conference at police HQ, Detective Chief Inspector Ewen West said they had also identified a pub in Dundee which Carol used to frequent.

He said new information had been unearthed as a result of focused inquiries around the Kintore area in Aberdeenshire, where the victim’s bag was found days after her body was recovered at Templeton Woods.

DCI West said, “Since I have been running this investigation I have been utterly amazed at the information that has come in.”

Police hope that by renewing calls for information they might jog memories and help to build a picture of exactly what happened to Carol.

Her body was found in Templeton Woods, Dundee, on March 21, 1979.

Last month the inquiry team received a call from a man who was able to shed some light on her movements on the Friday night before she went missing.

DCI West declined to go into detail about the nature of the call because it is still being investigated, but added, “We were able to confirm some information that we had previously, and he was also able to give us some new information.

“I would say that not a week goes past where we don’t get some new, relevant information coming in—some the result of work done by the inquiry team, some the result of appeals in the media, and some just because people decide to phone us.”

The detective acknowledged it was “difficult to say” why it had only emerged now, almost 29 years after her death, that Carol frequented the Highwayman pub in the Hilltown.

The lead came from a member of the public who had been out of the city for a while, and the inquiry team considers the information “quite significant.”

“It also leads us to the questions: did she frequent other pubs in the Hilltown area and, if she did, who was she with there?” said DCI West.

“Did anybody see her leave the Highwayman public house with men or other women?

“Did in fact Carol go to the Highwayman on the night she went missing, because we are not clear on where she was between the time she left her sister’s house in Hill Street and the time she was seen in Exchange Street,” he said.

“We have done a lot of work recently around speaking to staff and customers from around that time, and we are looking to develop that particular line of inquiry.”

If anyone recalls seeing Carol in the Highwayman, or has any information concerning other places she may have visited or frequented, they should contact Tayside Police.

The inquiry team has in recent months focused on a 25-mile stretch of water in Aberdeenshire, believing the killer may have a link between Dundee and where the bag was found.

Carol was last seen at about 8pm on Tuesday, March 20, 1979, in the area of Exchange Street, Dundee, where she was seen to get into the passenger seat of a red vehicle driven by a man.

Her handbag was recovered on the banks of the River Don at Kintore on April 1, 1979. It contained items including a white polo neck jumper, pants, belt and tights. However, no purse was found.

New information continues to be gathered in the Kintore area, but DCI West believes there is potentially more information to be had from the local community.

DCI West said, “I strongly believe that whoever took the handbag to Kintore, or the surrounding area, did so because they had some connection with the area.

“A similar handbag was seen by witnesses floating down river east of the Ton Burn on March 21, 1979, and Carol’s handbag was recovered on the river bank near Dalwearie, near to Kintore, on April 1 the same year.

“I would appeal to anyone who lived or worked in the area at the time to contact us as they may have information that could prove invaluable to our investigation into the murder of a young Dundee woman.

“They might have information regarding people who resided or frequented this area. They may even know of someone from the area who had links to Dundee,” he said.

“The answers to some of the questions that we have lie within the Inverurie/Kintore area. I would ask residents in that area—whether they have lived there for many years or are new to the area—to come forward with any information they have.”

The “cold case” Operation Trinity was launched to review the murders of Carol Lannen and Elizabeth McCabe, whose bodies were dumped at Templeton Woods outside Dundee more than a quarter of a century ago.

Police have acknowledged they are not pursuing any active leads in relation to the death of Ms McCabe following the acquittal of Vincent Simpson at the High Court last year.

So far the joint investigation has cost just under £250,000, including hundreds of man-hours in overtime.

DCI West said, “If we look at the (Lannen) inquiry at this time last year, to where we are now, then I’m quite content we’ve got more relevant information.

“How close we are to identifying who killed Carol is a really difficult question to answer,” he added.

Anyone with information that can assist the murder inquiry team can contact the police by calling Dundee 591909, texting 07973 124711, or sending an Email to mail@tayside.pnn.police.uk

Alternatively, they can provide information anonymously to Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.