Body found in search for missing 14-year-old Jasmine Macquaker

Police have placed a tent over the body found at North Queensferry this morning. Picture: Ian Rutherford

Jasmine Macquaker, 14, was last seen getting off a train from Waverley Station, Edinburgh, to Dalmeny, near South Queensferry, at 8:30pm on Sunday.

Specialist police teams scoured the area and an urgent public appeal was issued just after 5am calling for information on her whereabouts.

The search appeared to have come to an end after a member of the public discovered a body on a beach in North Queensferry.

Jasmine Macquaker went missing last night. Picture: Police Scotland

Formal identification had yet to take place last night but Jasmine’s family had been informed.

The death is being treated as “unexplained”, and a post-mortem examination will take place.

Jasmine, from the Stockbridge area of Edinburgh, was a pupil at Queen Margaret’s School in York, a boarding school for girls aged 11 to 18.

She had attended Edinburgh’s Cargilfield School before winning an art scholarship 18 months ago.

She was overall winner of the National Schools’ Handwriting Competition last year, and in 2013 entered the Saatchi Gallery Art Prize for schools with a Picasso-inspired charcoal drawing. The teenager was also a keen athlete and former member of Inverleith Swimming Club, and took part in the Yorkshire Regional Biathlon Championships in October 2014.

Yesterday, police cordoned off a section of rocky beach in North Queensferry after the body was found at around 7am. A white forensics tent was later erected.

Police said Jasmine’s parents, city fund manager Charles and his wife Sarah, had “requested that their privacy be respected at this very difficult time”.

A spokesman said: “Police Scotland can confirm that a body has been recovered from a stretch of coastline in North Queensferry this morning as part of the search operation for missing Edinburgh teenager, Jasmine Macquaker.

“A member of the public raised the alarm with police shortly after 7am. A formal identification is yet to be carried out.”

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