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Alexander L Drummond

Age: 33

Sex: male

Date: 24 Jun 1991

Place: Falside Farm, Boarhills, St Andrews, Fife, Scotland

Alexander Drummond was found dead on a farm track near his home at about 8pm on Monday 24 June 1991.

He was a former Black Watch soldier and was single.

It was noted that the police had not publicly announce that they were dealing with a murder for some time and that it took them 117 days before they announced to his family that they were doing so. It was reported in the newspapers on 3 July 1991 that his death was not being treated as a murder, but as a suspicious death. However, in September 1992 it was reported that the police had known that they were dealing with a murder as of 6pm on 25 June 1991.

He had been strangled, but it was thought that he might have been strangled elsewhere and then dumped on the farm track which was just off the A917.

It was thought that Alexander Drummond had been choked in a martial arts neck hold such as a Ju Jitsu neck hold as he had neither external ligature marks around his neck, nor finger marks, typical of strangulation.

He had lived about 175 or 400 yards away from where he was found in No. 2 Cottage at Falside Farm, Boarhills and had been working in a mill at the time, although he had quit the day before

It was thought that he had died sometime between 11am and 8pm on 24 June 1991 on the track or elsewhere. His body was found facedown on the track which was described as overgrown and disused.

It was heard that when the police first arrived, they were suspicious about the position of his body, but that because there were no signs of injury or violence, it was initially decided that he had died from natural causes and that it wasn’t until the post-mortem was carried out that he was determined to have bene asphyxiated.

The police said that they were trying to piece together the last six hours of his life.

He was last seen at about 2pm on Monday 24 June when he visited Kinkell Braes caravan park after spending the morning in St Andrews. His body was later found at 8pm.

One clue was an orange-coloured Morris Marina car that had been seen parked near his home several times, including the day he died, which was never traced, and which was thought could have had some bearing on his death.

A reconstruction later on also revealed that the police were trying to trace a man who got on a bus near Falside Farm on the afternoon of 24 June 1991 and who later got off at Lamont Drive in St Andrews and who was said to have been carrying a handkerchief that was bloodstained.

Alexander Drummond had been working at the Guardbridge Paper Mill but had quit the day before he was murdered and withdrawn money from his bank account. He had been working at the paper mill for seven years and so the timing of his quitting his job appeared to be highly significant. Most of the money that he had taken out of his bank account was later found at his home.

It was later reported that in a cold case review the police identified a suspect in his murder, but that the suspect had since died. It was further noted that it was thought that the case was still open in case there had been any accomplices in the murder.

It was said that the police determined from their enquiry that there was something obviously going on in Alexander Drummond’s life, noting that he had quit his job and taken out large sums of money, but that they were unable to determine what that was.

The police later said that they thought that someone might have been blackmailing him or bullying him.


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