Toni Andersen

Toni Andersen was found dead on the Glasgow Road near Invergarry.

She was a Danish girl from Copenhagen and had been living in Buckingham Avenue, Friern Barnet, at the time of her death but had been on a hitch-hiking holiday with a 19-year-old friend.

They had both been working as domestic helps in London at the time.

It was said that at the time they had been to visit the Danish two-masted auxiliary yacht Jill which was owned by a Danish shipowner and had been lying in the Caledonian Canal at Laggan at the time.

It was said that they were thought to have visited the ship on the Saturday night, 6 August 1960 but the police said that they did not suspect foul play although it was thought that she had been hit by a hit-and-run driver.

However, it was heard that when she was found she was semi-naked and lying spreadeagled across the road with no shoes or stockings on.

When she was found by the police it was raining hard and she was naked up to the waist with her skirt pulled up around her waist. There was no blood on the road and she had been wearing a blue duffle jacket.

However, it was later heard that she had been run over although it was thought that she had already been lying prone in the road at the time. When the police later examined a man's car they found marks underneath it.

At the hearing into her death the jury were asked to consider whether at 1.40am on the morning of Sunday 7 August 1960 between Spean Bridge and Laggan Locks that Toni Andersen had been struck by a motor vehicle and sustained injuries from which she died after the vehicle passed over her body and legs.

A hostel warden at Loch Lochy Youth Hostel near Spean Bridge said that on the evening of Saturday 6 August 1960, two Danish girls, Toni Andersen and her friend had booked in for the night. However, she said that at 8am the following morning that the police called to see whether anyone had been missing and found that Toni Andersen was missing and that her bed had not been slept in.

A 50-year-old woman who lived in South Laggan, Invergarry said that just after midnight on 6 August 1960 that she and her husband heard a knocking on the door and found a lady standing there with a fair-haired man. She later identified the woman as Toni Andersen from a photograph, saying that the woman that had called looked like the photo of Toni Andersen.

She said, 'The girl asked if her friend was sleeping in my house. She had evidently mistaken my place for the youth hostel. the girl and the man were both very much under the influence of drink, the girl more so than the man. The girl did not have a shoe on her left foot. She persisted that her friend was sleeping at my house but I directed her to the youth hostel.

A 19-year-old apprentice joiner said that he had been returning to Glendoe, Fort Augustus with a girl as pillion passenger when he saw another girl walking along the road at Laggan Locks. He said that as they passed he turned to his pillion passenger and remarked, 'She's not frightened'. He said that the girl had been walking quite steadily very near the verge.

He said that when he returned along the same road sometime later that he was stopped by the police and that he then saw the same girl that he had seen earlier lying dead on the road.

A police sergeant said that he received a message from a man early on the morning of 7 August 1960 saying that he had run over something on the road near South Laggan. The police sergeant said that the man sounded excited and said that when he arrived near the scene he found the man outside a phone box who he said then said to him, 'You were not long boys. Thank God you've come'.

The man that had called was a blacksmith and he had been out to a dance in Fort-William and had been driving home at the time, about 2.30am. After running the girl over he immediately reported the matter to the police.

Following the discovery of her body the police carried out inquiries in the Invergarry area, particularly around Laggan where her body was found and called on householders and asked them if they had seen any strangers in the district in the early morning.

It was said that the police did not suspect foul-play and it was said that one of the theories was that Toni Andersen had been struck first by a car that didn't stop and then run over by the car that they examined.

It was said that after Toni Andersen and her friend had booked into the youth hostel that they had gone out for a stroll along the road and had visited a Danish pleasure yacht that was anchored at Laggan Locks where they were invited aboard and spent some time before leaving.

It was reported that detectives later spent some time aboard the yacht following Toni Andersen's death during which Toni Andersen's friend also spent some time on board.

At the inquest the police sergeant said that because of the clothing that Toni Andersen had been wearing and because of the darkness of the night that he didn't think that Toni Andersen would have been easily seen on the road. He said, 'Any motorist coming round a bend would have come up against something like a crisis meeting this body on the road.

He added that from all the evidence and the injuries Toni Andersen had received that she appeared to have been lying prone on the road.

He added that her injuries were consistent with having been struck with a motor car and that when the car that the man who had called saying he had hit something was checked that it was found to have marks underneath it.

Medical evidence from two doctors stated that Toni Andersen died from multiple injuries and that they were consistent with her having been run over by a motor car.

However, whilst the hearing was reported to have been due to continue, nothing more is known about the matter.