One of Tayside’s most infamous unsolved murder cases has remained unopened for the past four years.
As the 40th anniversary of Carol Lannen’s Dundee murder approaches, Police Scotland said “there are currently no active lines of enquiry”.
A Courier investigation has revealed the case was last reviewed in 2014 although police said it would explore any new information which comes to light.
The police evidence vault includes 1,485 items which were seized by officers during the investigation, 3,715 statements which were obtained and 1,510 questionnaires that were completed.
Scottish Conservative shadow justice secretary Liam Kerr said: “Police Scotland has dozens, if not hundreds of murder investigations it regards as unresolved but still open to new evidence.
“The Templeton Woods murders of Elizabeth McCabe and Carol Lannen sparked one of Scotland’s biggest ever manhunts.
“Despite the passage of time, they are indelibly marked on the city.
“They are foremost among these cold cases and it is right police are open to investigating new evidence.
“But it is very sad that their families may never see justice, and they have been denied proper closure for 40 years.”
The strangled and naked body of part-time prostitute Carol Lannen was found dumped in Templeton Woods in Dundee on March 21 1979.
She was last seen the evening before her disappearance, when she entered a red estate car in Exchange Street.
During the manhunt that followed, owners of red cars were interviewed and a photo-fit of a suspect was released.
Days after the initial discovery, her handbag and clothes were found on the banks of the River Don, near Kintore, Aberdeenshire.
Despite the discovery, no-one was arrested in connection with the young mum’s death.
In February 1980 the city was plunged into further shock when the body of 20-year-old nursery nurse Elizabeth McCabe was discovered naked and strangled in the same area.
What followed was the biggest criminal investigation in the history of Tayside Police as scores of officers scoured woodland and carried out door-to-door inquiries.
More than 7,000 people were interviewed over the course of the investigation and police visited every hotel, bed and breakfast and boarding house in the city.
Sixteen years after nursery nurse Miss McCabe’s murder, Tayside Police instructed a review of both deaths.
The murders were also included in a secret investigation into six possible Yorkshire Ripper attacks in Scotland by then West Yorkshire Police Chief Constable Keith Hellawell.
The man responsible for the infamous Zodiac slayings which terrorised Northern California from 1968 to 1974 was sensationally linked to the murder of Miss Lannen after a dossier of evidence was given to Tayside Police in 2005.
The dossier stated the killer had fled to Scotland and said the “Zodiac’s last act” was the murder of Miss Lannen but the theory was eventually quashed by investigators in California.
Vincent Simpson was eventually tried for the murder of Elizabeth McCabe in 2007 but walked free from the High Court in Edinburgh after the jury returned a not guilty verdict.
