Detectives find skeleton in hunt for missing Mary

DETECTIVES searching for the body of pensioner Mary Ferns, who vanished almost three years ago, have discovered remains on a river bank several streets from her home in West Lothian.

The skeletal remains were found by the River Almond in Craigshill, Livingston at around 3pm yesterday.

Officers came across the body, which has not yet been identified as human, close to Cromarty Court, as they searched the area for the missing pensioner.

The remains were found less than one mile from Mrs Ferns' home on Vancouver Avenue.

Officers have searched the area on a number of occasions since January after a breakthrough in the investigation, the Evening News has learnt.

It is understood the remains were found partially buried on an area of the riverbank, in a wooded area just off Cromarty Court, near Livingston Rugby Club.

This morning police were guarding a large cordon measuring several hundred yards around the scene where the remains were found.

Around ten officers were placed at entrances to the site, with three police vehicles at the scene. The cordon is extended to prevent the site being seen from the road. Tape cordoned off the wooded area around the River Almond, ending at Almondside, Wallace Mill Gardens and Cromarty Court, believed to be the street closest to the site of the discovery.

The remains will stay at the scene until forensic officers have carried out tests and combed the area for new clues.

Mrs Ferns, who was 88 when she went missing, disappeared on June 17 2008 after she travelled from her home in the Howden area of Livingston to Edinburgh city centre.

Despite several national television appeals police have not had a breakthrough on the missing person case until now.

Officers working on the investigation admitted that the disappearance of the retired nurse was "bizarre". They previously said the force has been in the dark over how she managed to travel from West Lothian to the Capital.

In June and July 2008 police divers searched the River Almond for traces of her body, however CCTV footage later placed her outside the Balmoral Hotel on Princes Street,

In July last year her stepdaughter Anne Foster, 46, made a television plea for help finding Mrs Ferns, also known as May, in a bid to end their ordeal.

It followed a BBC missing persons appeal in March 2009.

She also sent a message of support to the family of another missing woman when 38-year-old book-keeper Suzanne Pilley vanished from outside her Thistle Street office in May last year.

Mrs Ferns had told her husband Bill, 83, that she was popping out to buy some socks.

He thought she had gone to Livingston, but CCTV cameras in Edinburgh picked her out walking with her distinctive floral walking stick along Princes Street in the direction of Leith Walk.

She has not been seen since.

A Lothian and Borders Police statement said last night: "Police in West Lothian are investigating the discovery of skeletal remains in Livingston.

"Officers from Lothian and Borders Police discovered the remains at an embankment by the River Almond, in the Craigshill area, around 3pm.

"A police cordon is in place while enquiries continue at the scene, and an examination of the remains will take place in due course."