Numb with shock: a rural community that never expected such heartbreak in its midst

TOMINTOUL was a village in shock yesterday as residents struggled to come to terms with the deaths of two teenagers who were members of the remote Highland community.

The streets of the Moray village were largely deserted as news of the deaths of local schoolgirl Sophie Taylor and her boyfriend Callum Murray spread throughout the area.

Miss Taylor, who worked part-time in the Glen Avon Hotel on one side of the square that dominates the village, was a popular teenager in Tomintoul and known by just about everyone in the community.

She stayed with her parents and her brother, David, 18, in the head gamekeeper's cottage on the nearby Delnabo estate where her father works. Her boyfriend, a trainee gamekeeper on another Speyside estate, stayed in an isolated cottage at the foot of the hill leading to the Lecht ski centre.

The few residents of Tomintoul who braved the biting wind sweeping the main street spoke with a single voice when asked about the shootings. "Nobody can come to terms with what's just happened," said one pensioner.

Another man added: "Everybody feels for the parents of both of the young folk."

Moray councillor Fiona Murdoch said: "For two young people to have died is horrendous, whatever the circumstances." Messages of sympathy continued to flood websites. A friend of Sophie, Emma Morrison, wrote: "I'm going to cry more than a million tears for you, baby."