Officials working to find the remains of a schoolgirl who disappeared nearly six decades ago have received an initial forensic report.
Moira Anderson was 11 when she disappeared from her home in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, in February 1957 while running an errand for her grandmother.
Prosecutors last year took the unprecedented step of announcing that convicted paedophile Alexander Gartshore, who died in 2006, would have faced prosecution for the schoolgirl’s murder if he were still alive.
Earlier this year, the Crown Office enlisted the help of forensic soil scientist Professor Lorna Dawson as part of efforts to find Moira’s remains.
Prosecutors have now received an initial soil report but further work is still to be carried out before the search can move to the next stage.
Aberdeen-based Prof Dawson is expected to meet police and top prosecutors next week to discuss her findings.
BBC Scotland reported her team wants to search a new site north of Coatbridge where a farm worker reported an empty bus blocking a lane on the night the schoolgirl disappeared.
A Crown Office spokesman confirmed the Lord Advocate has received an initial soil analysis report but that more work is required.
“Further meetings will be held in due course,” he added.
Coatbridge bus driver Gartshore, who was 85 when he died, was the last person to see Moira alive and had long been connected with the case.
The Lord Advocate has instructed that the investigation remains open in the hope that one day Moira’s body may be found and her family given closure.
Prof Dawson, who runs a lab dedicated to forensic soil science, has worked on dozens of cases from around the world and helped bring World’s End killer Angus Sinclair to justice last year.
She was one of a number of expert witnesses who gave evidence at his trial for the 1977 murders of 17-year-olds Christine Eadie and Helen Scott.