SHE IS DEAD

Monster stepdad Duncan ruined our lives, raped my sister, got her pregnant twice then burned body in a hospital incinerator. Mary is not missing..

- BY SALLY HIND

FOR nearly five decades, Mandy Duncan has been tormented by the the sinister secret behind a tragedy that shattered her family.

Mandy was 11 when her sister Mary went missing aged 17 in Alexandria, Dunbartonshire, in 1976 sparking a tragic mystery that has never been solved.

Today, ahead of the 50th anniversary of her disappearance, her heartbroken sister tells how their stepdad, "Beast of Bonhill" Norman Duncan, fathered Mary's baby when she was just 15.

And for the first time she shares her late mum's belief that Mary was pregnant again with the brute's child when she vanished, saying she fears the teen's body was disposed of in a hospital incinerator by evil Duncan, who was later jailed for sexually abusing both Mandy and Mary.

Mandy, 61, finally lays bare her beliefs about the case after their abuser died in 2022 and loved ones had Mary declared dead in court, saying the family "ran out of time" to bring Duncan to justice for the young mum's disappearance.

She told the Record: "There's one monster to blame for everything.

"We've always known Mary died that night she went missing. We've always known she never ran away. She'd have never left her baby.

"I don't like the words 'missing Mary Duncan' because Mary is dead.

"We wanted her back to say bye properly as a family but we were never given that chance. I'm getting old now and I don't want anyone to think I gave up on Mary.

"I will always believe it for the rest of my life and anyone who asks me, I'll tell them what he's done."

Mary's mum Ruby was a single mum of six when she met Duncan, who had a job as a gardener across the road from the chip shop where she worked.

When they married, Mandy and her sisters thought they would be looked after. She said: "At first he was a dad, the only dad we had. We thought he was there to care for us and look after us all."