The victim: Arlene Fraser planned to end marriage

ELGIN-BORN Arlene McInnes met Nat Fraser at 21 and married him two years later.

Her mother, Isabelle Thompson, said Arlene had been an outgoing, popular teenager. She left school at 16 with no particular ambitions and took up a series of part-time jobs at clothes shops in Elgin.

She suffered from Crohn’s disease, a bowel condition for which she took medication.

Arlene maintained a close relationship with her parents and sister, but she kept her loveless, tempestuous marriage a secret at first.

By mid-April 1998, the couple were separated and Mrs Fraser had seen a lawyer about getting a divorce.