Cops refuse to rule out murder in case of OAP found dead

Forensic experts used dental records to identify human remains found in the Longtown area of Cumbria on January 18 as Mrs Brown, who had last been seen alive in Edinburgh in May last year. But with the cause of death still unknown, officers said they were considering "every possibility from natural causes to murder" as part of the inquiry.

Detective Chief Inspector Jeff Ashton, from Cumbria Constabulary, who is leading the inquiry, said: "We believe Betty may have intended to visit her family and took the bus down from Edinburgh and got off at Longtown.

"Her body has not just materialised in these woods, and we want to find anyone who remembers seeing her on the bus, or in Longtown. They may hold vital information which is key to this inquiry."

In a bid to find potential witnesses, Cumbria Constabulary and Lothian and Borders Police will mount a combined operation tomorrow.

A team of 25 officers will be deployed to travel on tomorrow's schedule of X95 buses between Edinburgh bus station and Carlisle. An officer will be on each of the 16 journeys to and from Carlisle during the day, speaking to anyone who gets on the bus and handing out leaflets and photographs of Mrs Brown.

Posters of Mrs Brown are also being put up around Longtown, which is around five miles from Gretna, where Mrs Brown's daughter Sarah lives.

DCI Ashton said: Officers will show passengers photographs of the two black Aldi bags Betty had been carrying on the day she went missing, which were recovered in the vicinity of her body, as well as CCTV images of Betty and other photographs of Betty herself. The passengers will also be asked to fill in a questionnaire. We're hoping that people who use that bus service on a Friday may have seen Betty and remember her.

"We'll also have posters going up in Longtown and officers handing out leaflets and speaking to people.

"We know Betty has family in the Gretna area and that when she used to visit them she would get the X95 bus to Longtown from Edinburgh, getting off at the Graham's Arms. It is entirely possible that she did get the X95 bus on or around Friday, May 28 last year and for some reason never got to her intended destination.

"We need people to come forward with any possible sightings of Betty or anything else that might help us in our investigation. Not only do we want the answers but her family deserve to know what happened to her."

Mrs Brown, a 55-year-old mother of three from Gorgie, was last seen getting off a No. 3 bus in Nicolson Street. Shortly before noon, cash was withdrawn from her account at the RBS ATM on Nicolson Street, which police believe was carried out by Mrs Brown.

DCI Ashton added: "We're still carrying out tests to try and determine the cause of death. Because of the condition of the body, that has taken time.

"All options remain open at this point because we don't have a cause of death and we don't know how Betty got from Edinburgh to those woods. That means keeping open every possibility from natural causes to murder."