Suzanne Pulley murder: Father tells of torment over unknown grave

THE father of murder victim Suzanne Pilley has spoken for the first time about his last memories of his daughter and the anguish of not knowing where her body lies.

Ms Pilley, 38, set off for work in Edinburgh city centre on 2 May, 2010. She was seen on CCTV just before 9am in the city centre and then disappeared.

Her work colleague and former lover David Gilroy was convicted of her murder, but her body has never been found.

Gilroy will be sentenced today at the High Court in Edinburgh. Tonight, Ms Pilley’s father, Rob, will speak publicly for the first time in a BBC Scotland documentary.

Mr Pilley, 68, said his parental instinct had told him “something sinister” had happened to his daughter, a book-keeper.

He said she had been in the habit of texting her mother frequently and when the texts stopped the day she went missing, he grew alarmed.

“She was always on the phone to her mother, and Saturday night was ‘text night’ – ‘What did you think of this’, and ‘were you watching the television?’ and things like that.”

He added: “If she was going out with her workmates for a drink after work or anything like that, the first thing she would do is pick the phone up and, ‘Hi mum it’s me, will ye go in and feed the cat the night? I’m going to have a drink wi’ the girls.’

“And then, didn’t matter what time of night it was when she got in to the house, she’d always text, ‘Hi mum, that’s me home’.”

Recalling the final time he was in touch with his daughter, Mr Pilley said: “I was the last one to see her, in the family. I’d picked her up from the shops with her messages and I dropped her off at the stair.

“I was bad with my walking – waiting on getting operations done to my legs – and so I couldn’t help her up the stair with her messages.

“She just gave me a wee peck on the cheek. And that was the last I seen of her. Never seen her again since.”

Describing the day she went missing, he said: “We got a call from her work to say she hadn’t appeared, which was very unusual of Suzanne. Even if the bus was late, or she was only going to be five minutes, she’d always phone up her work and let them know.

“Her mother texted her and everything, but as time went on it just seemed to get worse and worse.

“Eventually I went down to the flat and I could see that she’d been in the flat in the morning. I thought, well she’s been in, and got changed and went to her work.

“Her mother was texting her and she got on her voicemail as well, and she gave her hell for not getting in touch with us.

“But as the time went on, I thought, ‘Oh there’s something, something sinister has happened’.

“About half past six, quarter to seven, Sylvia and I decided that we better phone the police. It was just probably instinct. I don’t think we had thought, ‘I’m never going to see her again’.

“It was just so unlike Suzanne not to be in touch. I knew there must have been something sinister.”

Mr Pilley praised the police, who had kept him informed of the search in Argyll for Suzanne’s body.

“The forests are enormous. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. You see the forests, look for the car parks, it’s just trees, and all you see is a hairline crack going through the trees, you don’t realise that it’s actually a road that’s going through there, and Suzanne could be in any one of these roads.”