A Burntisland man remains in an unmarked grave almost 10 years after his mysterious disappearance and death.
In November 2006, widower Jimmy Ewan boarded a trans-Atlantic cruise in Barcelona and vanished without trace two days into his holiday.
The 73-year-old’s body was discovered on a beach in Portugal two years later and he was laid to rest in Faro, the country’s southernmost city.
With no immediate family, Mr Ewan made his friend, John Cooper, executor of his will.
Mr Cooper, 79, had plans to mark the grave with a memorial, but he never managed to visit the cemetery.
He said: “We organised a memorial service in the Erskine Church in Burntisland about six months after he was found.
“I always meant to take time to go to Portugal and visit the grave to make sure everything was OK.”
He said he still has the paperwork detailing where Mr Ewan is buried.
“We had a heck of a job getting the death certificate. It took five years.
“Eventually, through third parties and my lawyer, we found out he was in a graveyard in Faro.”
Mr Cooper, who runs Kingdom Amusements, had hoped for Mr Ewan to be cremated and his ashes scattered in Burntisland.
But by the time he found out what had happened to his friend he had already been interred.
“They had already planted him by then so we were snookered,” he said.
“Rather than disturb him again, we thought he liked to travel and he’s in Portugal so we’d better leave him and that’s what we decided to do.”
He continued: “He once said he was going to max all his credit cards, go on a world cruise and jump off the end of the ship but we thought he was kidding.
“I don’t know whether he fell, jumped or was pushed.
“He was the most amicable bloke you could meet. He was very good company.
“His wife used to come in and play prize bingo. We knew each other through talking in the arcade. He had the same sense of humour as me.
“His wife died a long time ago and after that he just went on holidays.”