Arlene Fraser murder trial: Fraser suspected wife was having a ‘carry-on’ with lover, court hears

AN ALIBI given by Nat Fraser for the day his estranged wife disappeared was scrupulously checked and found to stand up, a court has heard.

Fraser told police he was making deliveries for his fruit and vegetable business, and also revealed to the police that he suspected Arlene Fraser had vanished with his money and was seeing another man.

He had said that he heard a rumour earlier in his marriage that Mrs Fraser had been unfaithful, but she denied it when he confronted her.

“It just festered in my head… I never got a satisfactory answer… that she was not seeing anyone else,” Fraser said.

Fraser, 53, denies acting with others to murder Mrs Fraser, 33, who vanished from her home in New Elgin, Moray, on 28 April, 1998. He pleads alibi and incrimination, blaming Hector Dick, a former friend, and another, or others, if she was killed.

William Robertson, 58, a retired detective inspector, told the High Court in Edinburgh that he had questioned Fraser over six hours on the day after his wife’s disappearance.

Fraser listed a series of addresses in the Elgin area where he had made deliveries with a “van boy”, and Mr Robertson agreed with the defence solicitor-advocate, John Scott, QC, that every witness had been interviewed and the lorry’s tachograph studied.

Mr Scott said: “This alibi was tested and checked as thoroughly as any alibi you had ever heard of. It stood up?”

Mr Robertson said: “Yes.”

During the questioning, Fraser had described a “relatively stormy relationship” with his wife, adding that the marriage had not got off to a good start.

“About two or three weeks before we were married, Arlene broke a mirror tile over my head after overhearing a telephone call I had from a female in Banff,” Fraser had said.

“She thought I was maybe going to meet this girl and she never gave me a chance to explain. That sort of set the tone for our relationship. It was up and down.”

He went on to speak of somebody giving him a “whisper” that his wife was seeing a man who worked in a furniture store.

“I did ask her if she was having a carry-on with another man and she just told me no and not to be so stupid. But it just festered in my head and kept gnawing at me and I did ask myself, was it really happening, was she clever or was I imagining things?” he had said.

“The problem was I never got a satisfactory answer or conclusion in my own mind that she was not seeing anyone else.”

He maintained that he did not know where his wife was, and that he had not caused her harm or arranged for someone else to cause her harm.

“I have no idea where she is,” he said.

Mr Robertson agreed that Fraser had been in the police station from about 11am until 5pm, and the advocate-depute, Alex Prentice, QC, wondered if Fraser had asked how the police were getting on in the inquiry.

“No,” said Mr Robertson.

Mr Prentice continued: “Did he express any desire or thirst or hunger for knowledge about whether you had found Arlene Fraser?”

Mr Robertson replied: “No.”

In a subsequent interview, Fraser had said: “I recently suspected she may have had somebody else.”

The trial resumes next week.