Time has not healed the anguish.. Renee and Andrew deserve to rest in peace

Sister begs the man responsible to reveal what he did with their bodies

- DAVID LOVE

THE sister of Renee MacRae yesterday begged her former lover to reveal what he did with her body after he was convicted of murdering her 46 years ago.

William MacDowell was found guilty of killing both Renee, 36, and their three-year-old son Andrew in the Highlands in 1976.

The 80-year-old pensioner will now die behind bars after he was told he will serve a minimum of 30 years in prison before being considered for parole following a trial at the High Court in Inverness.

The bodies of the mother and son have never been found and Renee's sister Morag Govans urged MacDowell to reveal what he did with them minutes after the guilty verdict for what the judge called "executions".

Police Scotland also asked the killer to disclose what he did with them so the family can get the answers they "want and deserve".

Morag, 80, said: "He has kept quiet for this long. I can't see him telling us what we have wanted to know for 46 years. I hope he will."

She added in a statement read out by prosecutor Alex Prentice KC: "The pain of losing Renee and Andrew doesn't ease. Not a day passes when both are not in our thoughts.

"Andrew's life was cruelly and brutally cut short at such a young age, just three years old. I often wonder what he would be doing now.

"The passage of time has not eased the anguish. We have not been allowed to grieve properly.

"Not knowing how Renee and Andrew died and where their remains lie compounds the anguish. I have never stopped trying to find justice for Renee and Andrew who deserve to rest in peace.

"Thinking of the terror they must have felt when they died in such a calculated and callous way continues to haunt me."

MacDowell, of Penrith, Cumbria, was also found guilty of attempting to defeat the ends of justice by disposing of their bodies and belongings.