The investigation: Suspicion soon fell on the doting mother’s husband Nat Fraser

Nat Fraser’s conviction for murder stemmed from the largest and most protracted criminal investigation ever mounted by Grampian Police.

Vast land and sea searches were carried out, with a large number of officers assigned to the inquiry.

Police had to explore the possibility Mrs Fraser had simply decided to start a new life elsewhere, but her family believed the doting mother would never have abandoned her children.

Her family soon suspected Fraser was involved. Towards the end of 1999, the investigation focused on a Ford Fiesta, which had been sold to Fraser’s friend, Hector Dick, the day before Mrs Fraser disappeared. The apparent reappearance of Mrs Fraser’s rings in her bathroom nine days after the disappearance also grew in significance.

When the trial began in 2003, the rings became the cornerstone of the Crown case, with prosecutors alleging Fraser had placed them there, suggesting he had access to the body.

Fraser’s conviction might have been the end of the matter but problems over the disclosure of evidence to the defence surrounding the rings were its undoing. In the 2012 trial, police admitted it was a mistake to return the rings to Fraser months after his wife went missing.