Jenny Methven murder: Police begin forensic work on pensioner’s kitchen

The kitchen at the home Jenny Methven, 80, shared with her son in Forteviot has been boarded up by police.

She was found by her son at the cottage on 20 February.

Crimestoppers has offered a reward of up to £10,000 for information that could lead to the arrest and conviction of the murderer.

Tayside Police have said Mrs Methven was attacked in the kitchen with a blunt object, leaving her with fatal injuries to her head and body.

Police are now using specialist laser equipment from the Home Office’s Centre for Applied Science Technology (CAST) that will help identify areas of the cottage that need to be forensically examined.

The examination of the cottage by scenes of crime officers and forensic scientists from the Scottish Police Services Authority (SPSA) is expected to take several days.

Mrs Methven was seen out walking her spaniel dog near her home just prior to 9am on Monday last week.

Police want to trace two vans that were seen about 500 yards east of Mrs Methven’s cottage at around 10.15am that day on what is described locally as the “bad bend” on the Forteviot road travelling from Forgandenny.

One van had stopped on the roadside. It had LDV written on its right side near to the bottom.

Another vehicle, white, was travelling in the opposite direction at the time. It had Draincure written on it.

At about the same time, two cyclists were seen in the area, both wearing high-visibility vests.

Detectives have already revealed that Mrs Methven cut short her last-known phone conversation because she heard a vehicle pulling into her driveway at around 10.30am on the day she died.

They appealed for information to trace the vehicle and whoever was in it.

They also want to trace two white or light-coloured vehicles seen parked nose to tail in Mrs Methven’s drive at about 1.45pm last Monday and are keen to speak to various people seen in the area that day.

They include passengers on the number 17 Stagecoach bus which travelled between Dunning and Perth at around 10.30am, a man seen walking a brown dog on the road out of Forteviot and the driver of a yellow agricultural forklift vehicle which passed the cottage at around that time.

Rail commuters have also been asked if they saw anything suspicious from their carriage window as they travelled through the area on the nearby line.

Police have asked anyone who passed through the area by train on the route between Dunblane and Perth between 7am and 5.30pm to contact them.