Claim husband hired hitman to kill Arlene

Published on Tuesday 21 January 2003 00:00

THE estranged husband of missing housewife Arlene Fraser hired a hitman to kill her, burned her body and scattered the remains, a court has heard.

Nat Fraser, 43, confided in his close friend Hector Dick that he arranged for her to be strangled and he disposed of her body after grinding it up to prevent her from being identified by dental records, the High Court in Edinburgh was told.

Mr Dick, 46, of Mosstowie, near Elgin, also told the court he destroyed a car which he bought on Fraser’s behalf the night before Mrs Fraser went missing and lied to police about its whereabouts.

There has been no trace of Mrs Fraser since she disappeared from her home in Smith Street, New Elgin, on April 28, 1998. Her husband has denied conspiring to murder her and defeat the ends of justice by disposing of her body.

Mr Dick and another man, 51-year-old Glenn Lucas, from Spalding, Lincolnshire, had been on trial alongside Fraser until last Tuesday, when the Crown dropped the charges against them and announced they would be calling Mr Dick as a witness.

Mr Dick told the court yesterday he arranged to meet Fraser six weeks after his wife disappeared because he was becoming concerned after being interviewed twice by police about her disappearance.

He said: "I asked what had happened to her. He said she was dead. He said he had disposed of her body." Asked how Fraser had disposed of the body, Mr Dick replied: "He said he had burned it. He said he had ground her remains up, including her teeth, so there could be no identification by dental records.

"He said she couldn’t be found, so there would be no problem and he told me to settle down."

Mr Dick said over the course of several conversations, Fraser also told him how he had paid somebody to carry out the killing at the family home. He told the jury: "He had given them a key to get into the house. He said someone had come in about the house when Mrs Fraser was killed and they had almost come a cropper too."

Mr Dick said Fraser told him he was relieved his children had not come back to the house "or they would have gotten it as well".

The trial, before Lord Mackay of Drumadoon, continues.