Witness appeal for '83 murder

Published on Sunday 18 May 2008 00:27

DETECTIVES reinvestigating the murder of a woman 25 years ago will launch a new appeal for witnesses this week, it was revealed last night.

The body of married mother-of-two Sheila Anderson was found in Edinburgh's Granton area on April 7, 1983.

The 27-year-old, who worked as a prostitute, had suffered crush injuries. Her killer has never been found.

Lothian and Borders Police have reopened the case and will appeal for information at a conference on Tuesday.

The force said the investigation had been reopened in line with the policy of the Association of Chief Police Officers of Scotland (Acpos).

A police spokeswoman said: "A periodic review of the murder of Sheila Anderson is under way in accordance with Acpos policy regarding unsolved murders."

Police thought Anderson's death may have been the result of a transaction with a client that went badly wrong.

Her body was found by two CB radio enthusiasts on a rubble-strewn track at Gypsy Brae, off West Shore Road in Granton. The night before she died, Sheila, who seemed to drift from one address to the next with no permanent home, stayed at a house in Drylaw, where she remained until noon the next day.

By 7.30pm that night she was in the Wullie Muir pub in West Granton Road, where she stayed for 15 minutes.

A blank spot exists in her known movements until later in the evening when she appeared in Leith in the triangle formed by Commercial Street, North Junction Street and Coburg Street, between 10.30pm and 11pm.

She was last seen alive at 11.25pm by two beat officers outside Lindean House in Commercial Street, obviously touting for business.

Within the next few minutes Sheila is believed to have been picked up by her killer, and at 11.55pm her battered body was found at Gypsy Brae.