Moira Anderson

Moira Anderson disappeared on the afternoon of Saturday 23 February 1957 after being sent on an errand to the local Co-op in Coatbridge, Lanarkshire, by her grandmother.

At the time there had been a severe snow storm.

She had disappeared six weeks before her 12th birthday. She had two sisters and her mother came from Fife whilst her father was from Coatbridge.

In 2014 a convicted paedophile was named by prosecutors as the prime suspect. However, the man had died in 2006, but it was said that if he had still been alive that he would have been charged and tried for her murder. He was noted as having been the driver of a Baxter's bus that was running at the time and it was thought that he had picked her up after she caught it with the intention of going into Coatbridge town centre. He had not been officially considered a suspect until 1992 after his daughter came forward with her suspicions.

However, it was additionally noted that indicting a person for a crime was not the equivalent of that person being found guilty. A judge said, 'The trial process is the only place in which guilt or innocence can be determined. We are not saying that the suspect is guilty, only that there is sufficient credible and reliable evidence to indict him and there would be a reasonable prospect of conviction had he still been alive. It was only after serious consideration of the circumstances of this case that it was decided to place this information in the public domain.'

Moira Anderson's body has never been found. In January 2013 it was reported that a grave in Old Monkland cemetery in Coatbridge belonging to a friend of the bus driver was dug up in a search for Moira Anderson's body, but nothing was found. The police said that the burial plot that they had excavated had had three layers and that that they thought that up to eight people had been interred there. The police said that they thought that it was possible that the grave had been open around the time Moira Anderson vanished and that the bus driver might have dumped her body beneath a coffin there.

It was noted that following her disappearance that her case was only considered to have been that of a missing person and that it wasn't until 2012 hat the police upgraded it to one of murder. It was as such said that because of that the appropriate resources were not given at the time into solving the case.

Following her disappearance a nationwide search for her was made by the police and it was reported on 26 February 1957 that the police thought that she might have been taken away in a car or lorry and could be in England.

She had lived at 71 Eglinton Street in Coatbridge and had gone out on the Saturday afternoon to visit her grandmother in Mulryhall Street after which her grandmother had sent her out to get some shopping. She was seen on a bus going from Cliftonville-Kirkwood towards the terminus near Old Monkland Cemetery but was never seen again. The bus that she took was run by Baxters, a local company.

It was said that her grandmother was ill and that when Moira Anderson had arrived that her uncle had sent her out to the Co-op store in Laird Street near to her own home to get some lard to cook some fish in. It was later claimed that when Moira Anderson had got to the co-op store that it had shut early because of the snowstorm, but it was said that that fact had initially been denied, with it being reported that the Co-op had not shut early. It was later said that Moira Anderson had found the Co-op store shut and had then got the bus instead of going back to her grandmother's house, it being additionally noted that she had been due to meet her cousin with whom she was going to go to see a film show at Regal's at 5pm in Coatbridge town centre.

It was later said that the bus driver had at the time been out on bail for sexual offences relating to another girl of about Moira Anderson's age who had been babysitting his children, but that he had been allowed to have his job back whilst he was awaiting trial. It was noted that that fact would not have been common knowledge and that in particular that Moira Anderson would have known nothing about it. It was additionally said that Moira Anderson would have been fairly familiar with the bus driver as he regularly drove the bus that passed by her front door in Eglinton Street.

Following her disappearance, her mother said, 'She was always home early and wherever she is now, she is not there of her own accord. She was such a happy-go-lucky little girl'.

Moira Anderson was described as:

• 12-years-old.
• Well-built.
• Fair, straight hair.
• Blue eyes.
• Wearing a blue showerproof coat and a knitted pixie-hood. It was later revealed that the pixie hood had been navy blue and had  had two red bands.

Following her disappearance the police and volunteers searched slag hills and public parks around Coatbridge for her as well as cinemas and public libraries. A police spokesman said 'a serious view' had been taken of her disappearance and it was reported that neighbours and Moira Anderson's family had organised themselves into groups to scour the neighbourhood.

Her picture was televised by the BBC on the Saturday night, 18 May 1957, but with no result.

Several reports of alleged sightings were made of Moira Anderson:

• Doncaster on Sunday afternoon 24 February 1957.
• Greenock on Monday 25 February 1957.

A sighting of Moira Anderson was reported as having been made on Wednesday 27 February 1957 with it being said that someone had seen her in Doncaster on the Sunday afternoon, 24 February 1957, with a lorry driver. The report was made by a lorry driver that had lived in Oxlow Lane, Dagenham after he passed through Doncaster on the Sunday. When the police went to see the lorry driver they showed him a photograph of Moira Anderson to which he said that it was a good likeness.

On Wednesday 6 March 1957 another sighting of Moira Anderson was reported by a woman in Greenock who said that she had seen a girl that resembled Moira Anderson standing on the pavement on the main Greenock to Gourock road near the railway bridge close to Princes Pier Railway Station on the Monday 25 February 1957. It was reported that she had been able to tell the police a significant point, that being that the girl had been wearing a knitted blue pixie hood with two red bands, it being noted that up until that time that fact had not been published in the official description of Moira Anderson. The Coatbridge police later confirmed that Moira Anderson was believed to have been wearing a navy blue pixie hood with two red bands when she had gone missing.

The woman had lived in Brougham Street which was close to where she thought she had seen Moira Anderson and had been returning home at the time after going out to buy some chops for lunch time. She said that she was convinced that the girl that she had seen had been Moira Anderson, and said, 'She smiled at me and I smiled back. I could pick that wee girl out of hundreds just by looking at those eyes. She seemed to be a lost little child. There was no one standing near her although several people were passing at the time'. However, she said that after seeing the girl she just walked home.

The bus driver who was later considered to have been a prime suspect was convicted of the offences that he had been awaiting trial for when Moira Anderson went missing in April 1957, namely the rape of his babysitter and imprisoned for 18-months.

It was said that the bus driver was never suspected at the time and that it was not until 1992 when his daughter approached the authorities and told them that she suspected that he had been responsible based on conversations that she had had with him. After the bus drivers daughter came forward the police interviewed the bus driver in Leeds on suspicion of Moira Anderson's murder and other charges relating to the sexual abuse of his daughter's cousins. However, no further action was taken and the bus driver was not taken to Scotland for further questioning.

It was said that when he was questioned in 1993 he had said that Moira Anderson had got on his bus and that he had got off the bus at the same time that she did. It was later heard that he had admitted to family members that he had been the last person to have seen Moira Anderson alive.

It was additionally heard that the bus driver's daughter had recorded a conversation with him around 1973 in which he revealed facts about Moira Anderson's disappearance that only the murderer would have known. It was also heard that the bus driver was said to have incriminated himself by stating that he knew that Moira Anderson was missing before she was considered to have been a missing person.

In 2013 it was also heard that two other witnesses had come forward. One witness had claimed that the bus driver had previously exposed himself to herself and Moira Anderson in a park in 1956 at which time he had also called Moira Anderson by her name.

The second witness had said that he had seen a man dragging a young girl whose description matched that of Moira Anderson by the arms near the bus terminus in Carnbroe, Coatbridge on the day that Moira Anderson vanished. When the witness later looked at a number of images he was able to pick out the bus driver as the man that he had seen. It was additionally noted that the witness had a credible reason for not having come forward earlier.

The bus driver's daughter later said that her father had been part of an organised paedophile ring. It was also said that the bus driver had told other family members that he had been sexually attracted to young girls and in particular had been sexually attracted to Moira Anderson.

When the Crown Office released the information about the bus driver in 2013, they said that they had taken the 'unprecedented' step of making the information they had public due to the high level of interest in the case. They said, 'We reiterate that we are not saying the suspect is responsible for her murder, only that there is sufficient credible and reliable evidence to indict him and that there would be a reasonable prospect of a conviction, had he still been alive'.

Additionally in 2017 Moira Anderson's sister came forward to say that the bus driver had sexually assaulted her two years after Moira Anderson vanished. She said that the police had spoken to her about it after the incident but that nothing more had come of it. She said that she had been on her lunch break from school at the time and that the bus driver had been fixing his car with the bonnet up. She said that he called her over and  asked her to hold his dipstick and that he then groped her and she ran away. She said that she noted his car registration and told the police and said that they came to her school and spoke to her about it but that nothing more was done.

Following the introduction of the bus driver into the case in 1992 it was additionally noted that he bas would have had a conductress on board at the time and it was suggested that she might have been an important witness.

Around 2007 a woman came forward to say that she recalled hearing a scream at the time and having had seen footprints in the snow near to a farmhouse. She had come forward after reading a book written by the bus driver's daughter and had at the time, 2007, been living in France. She had been lodging at a farmhouse on the edge of Coatridge in 1957 and had been in her late teens. The bus driver's daughter said that that woman from France had written to her and told her that she had got off a bus from the town centre to go back to her lodgings at the farmhouse and that as she was walking along the road that led into a farm track she heard a scream and saw footprints in the snow that she could not account for, stating that no one else was likely to have been on the track at that time of night. She said that at the time she told the couple at the farm house but said that they dismissed her concerns, noting that she didn't know why as she felt that the matter should have been reported to the police.