Garden dig to find missing teacher

Published on 26/06/2012 01:21

POLICE will dig up a garden in the hunt for a teacher who went missing more than 40 years ago.

Detectives fear the remains of mother-of-two Ellen Ruffle may be buried there. Mrs Ruffle lived at the address in Motherwell, Lanarkshire, with her family before vanishing without trace, aged 34, in November, 1969.

Officers from Strathclyde Police are planning to carry out excavation work. It is understood they are acting on a tip-off that she was killed and her body dumped in the garden and a major re-investigation into her disappearance is under way.

Mrs Ruffle, a former primary teacher, lived at the house from 1967 with her husband, son Graham and daughter Rosemary.

Shortly after her disappearance, Mr Ruffle took the family to live in South Africa.