Found Deceased UK - Susan McLean, 61, U.S. tourist, Aberfeldy, Scotland, 17 May 2015

[Katerz]

Just a quick note azure and will speak more later: go back to post 348 to see my photo of the trail map. Gate is never open btw, just open now for police vehicles (they are still there this evening) and go back to post 350 for a photo of the stile/gate to the secondary trail where Susan was found.

I don't remember as I've read so many pages and different cases on websleuths.. Did you do a search of the area where Susan was found since you had the picture of the gate?


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[hippy hippy]

<modsnip> My question, as well as other acquaintances of Susan;s, is it possible the body was recently moved to where it was found? How could it have been missed if it is not that far from the resort and on an actual trail? After three months outside in the summer heat how could it not have been discovered especially in an area crawling with tourists on the Memorial Day weekend. I am not certain the truth will ever be known in this case.

Hi
I think you have a misconception about Aberceldy. First there is no summer heat, not this year anyway! Also no such thing as Memorial Day and also Aberfeldy does have tourists but it is never crawling with them and the forest she was found in is uphill and at least 1.5 miles as the crow flies from the resort she was staying at. If you look at the maps, you will get a picture of how searching for her all around Aberfeldy within a five mile radius would have been like looking for a needle in a haystack. Speaking purely for myself, I was fortunate to have been able to narrow my own search down to the forest uphill and south of the village purely because of what happened with my dog and genuinely believing she had found Susan. I will never know for sure but at least the incident put me in the correct general area from day three

 

[pinklilies]

Just a quick note azure and will speak more later: go back to post 348 to see my photo of the trail map. Gate is never open btw, just open now for police vehicles (they are still there this evening) and go back to post 350 for a photo of the stile/gate to the secondary trail where Susan was found.

I'm sure you don't want bombarded with questions HH but if you wouldn't mind, I have just one. If you don't want to answer, that's fine, I understand.

Those pics of the metal gate and wooden stile. For Susan to have got in there, would she have had to climb over the stile or through the whole in the fence next to the closed gate? Thank you
I'm just picturing her route in my mind.

 

[equivet]

I also still wonder if your dog found Susan hh. You & LJ are amazing people.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Equivet - I hope you're doing ok. Sending big warm British hugs from us all :grouphug:

 

[mbmc]

Equivet, my sincere condolences to you and your family, I hope you can now feel some comfort that Susan can come home.

Lumberjill, I want to say how much I admire you, what a wonderful friend and indeed person you are.

Hippy hippy, my admiration goes to you also, the determination to find Susan was initially kept going by you.

I have followed Susan's story from the beginning, I feel terribly sad but also relieved because now Susan can be where she belongs, with her loved ones.

 

[ZaZara]

Hi equivet, my heart goes out to you and your sons.

I think the dog set in motion a series of events that led to Susan being found.
Like the proverbial stone that changes the course of a river.

We will probably never know for sure if the dog was there that day, unless he left some hairs that are still there and the medical examiner bothers to look for them ~ which is unlikely.

On the barking of the dog and hh's perseverance, Lumberjill built a theory that turned out to be solid and spot on.
Some say that all science is based on intuition and art, and this may well be the case here.


Or else a miracle.


:candle:

 

[zombiefan]

Obviously Aberfeldy does not have Memorial Day but it does have the last week in May! when the temp was 58 degrees, well above freezing. And 1 1/2 miles is not that far. Susan walked it in street shoes. And according to the family Aberfeldy was filled with visitors that weekend. As an outdoors man it is hard to understand how a deceased could be exposed to above freezing temps for a few months and not have been noticed. But none of that matters now. There are questions that will remain unanswered. And will remain a mystery. Luckily your group of locals stepped up and succeeded where the police obviously very badly dropped the ball. Due to your efforts at least Susan can be laid to rest appropriately. And that mystery of where Susan was, has been solved.

 

[Lumberjill]

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/lo...ain-us-tourist-s-body-has-been-found-1.895016
Susan was found by a couple in our Saturday search. They had finished their assigned section and proceeded to the next section when his dog yapped. He went to see the cause of the bark. And the article covers details.
I was told twice by CID that the police had thoroughly searched the complete area of my interest, based of how I believe Susan would think after reaching Gatehouse Nursery, where she was last sighted. She must have left Crieff Rd within minutes of that sighting because of the timing of the Glasgow ex-policeman's non-sighting on Crieff Rd. The sensible conclusion was that she turned west to walk on Loch Hoil Trail, then turned north on any of several stone walls to return to Moness. However, just today I learned that the police ONLY SEARCHED THE TRAILS, NOT THE FOREST SECTION INTERIORS!!! How could CID not have known that? Or he deliberately deceived me twice. The police report says she was found in dense undergrowth. WRONG!!! She was lying on pine needles in the center of a small triangular section of forest that's about 50x60feet. The forests here are so thick that sun does not penetrate, hence only trees inside, no plants, no undergrowth. And only two sides of the forest triangle had undergrowth on the edges. The north-facing side of the copse had no dense undergrowth whatsoever. I'm expecting a retraction from the police quite soon. Hope this answers some questions.
The police may have searched the sections near hh's dog's excursion. Supposedly 25 (later only 12) police were on hands and knees between the main and secondary trails.
hh, after looking at the maps, do you think Phoebe may have run down to Susan's location? It wasn't possible to determine if she could have been a source for Phoebe. Maybe the post-mortem exam will have insights regarding the possibility whether Susan might have bled.

 

[Lumberjill]

This map shows Moness entrance/exit and Susan's location, and has a distance key in the lower right corner.
If the police had searched as much and where the told me, they would have found Susan.

 

[Baylea]

Lumberjill, Thank you for this information. Amazing that the truth will now come out, LIES

 

[ZaZara]

.. during her many searches over the past few weeks, she had passed by the spot where Susan lay on a number of occasions.

She said: “I am shocked and surprised. She’s about 30ft inside a section of woods and I’ve been past her many times and just didn’t look far enough into that section.

Almost hiding in plain sight ...... I'm lost for words.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I've had a good look at the map and where Susan was found. And I just can't understand why she'd even go into the trees at that point, it looks to me like there are cut paths all the way around and some relatively open spaces.

LJ/HH, having been there, what are your thoughts?

 

[CoverMeCagney]

View attachment 79370

So pink area is where I know SAR searched on hands and knees. They may have done more thorough searches in the area before or after my call, but definitely they searched where I pointed to them the area the dog disappeared into. Yellow dot on LE is lip balm, yellow dots on right are snack packets, that area on right thoroughly searched by my son and I. Red line is my track today, red dot where I found tie about 10 feet into trees from track. Red patch is where I did another thorough search as it follows a path leading downhill to open fields and may have been an option to do a shortcut...

I was just going through the maps and came across this one, so Susan was pretty close to where you found the tie (red dot on red line)? there is a little glitch in the line there, perhaps you unknowingly sensed something.

 

[eucalyptuz]

Thank you for your updates LJ and HH!

The maps put everything in perspective and I agree it's difficult to know what brought Susan in to the tress at that place? From the last sighting she would have had over an hour of daylight left to find her way back to the lodge or at least out to the road. Maybe she became lost, walked in circles, then fatigue/hypothermia? Or possibly had rolled her ankle and left the path to find shelter?

And then what to think of the blood?

If you zoom in on the map area on Google Earth you can see a bike rider or dog walker on the path near where Susan was found. The images are from 2015 (the month we can only guess but I would say spring/summer from the vegetation).
https://www.google.com/maps/place/5...3.854273,579m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0

 

[LinTX]

Lumberjill, add my thanks for the info - your description of the true scene of discovery helps. I'm sure there are a lot of 'if onlys' that will run through your brain, but from looking at the areas in question, there is no way that anyone searching on their own or even with few volunteers could go far enough off of every trail to make sure every pc. of land was searched. And from the report, it was a trained dog that eventually found her. I hope you remember that you found your friend within a relatively short time of your arrival and that it was your and HH's determination that made the difference, regardless of who actually made the discovery. If the police had put the same efforts into finding her as they're making in this media CYA, your trip would not have been necessary. Susan was blessed in having you for a friend!

 

[CoverMeCagney]

Another thing... the bothy is actually not that far from where Susan lay, about 150 metres by my reckoning.

Do we know if the campers were ever traced? We camp a lot and in the stillness of night can hear things from far away, sometimes the mind plays tricks and noises are heard, I'd love to know whether those lads think they heard anything while they were in the area.

 

[windrower]

Thank God for you, hippy hippy, and your dogs, for you, Lumberjill, and using your personal resources to aid hh in the personal searches she, her son, and her dogs were doing, and Websleuths for bringing you together. The power of love and caring and friendship and integrity truly in action here.

The blood hh's collie got into makes my heart ache more, as I, too, think it was Susan the collie found, and it pains me to think of her injured and hurting and waiting for someone to find her. But, I don't see Susan harming herself, so what in the world happened??

To Susan's family and friends, and hippy hippy and others who diligently searched for her, I am so very glad the search is over, and Susan's remains can go home.

 

[Satchie]

So glad that she has been found, I agree that Lumberjill's amazing ability to piece together the clues and come up with a hypothesis focussing the search made all the difference in Susan being found. Now that she has been found, the police can do their job which is collect forensic and other evidence to try to figure out what happened.

 

[Katerz]

http://www.thecourier.co.uk/news/lo...ain-us-tourist-s-body-has-been-found-1.895016
Susan was found by a couple in our Saturday search. They had finished their assigned section and proceeded to the next section when his dog yapped. He went to see the cause of the bark. And the article covers details.
I was told twice by CID that the police had thoroughly searched the complete area of my interest, based of how I believe Susan would think after reaching Gatehouse Nursery, where she was last sighted. She must have left Crieff Rd within minutes of that sighting because of the timing of the Glasgow ex-policeman's non-sighting on Crieff Rd. The sensible conclusion was that she turned west to walk on Loch Hoil Trail, then turned north on any of several stone walls to return to Moness. However, just today I learned that the police ONLY SEARCHED THE TRAILS, NOT THE FOREST SECTION INTERIORS!!! How could CID not have known that? Or he deliberately deceived me twice. The police report says she was found in dense undergrowth. WRONG!!! She was lying on pine needles in the center of a small triangular section of forest that's about 50x60feet. The forests here are so thick that sun does not penetrate, hence only trees inside, no plants, no undergrowth. And only two sides of the forest triangle had undergrowth on the edges. The north-facing side of the copse had no dense undergrowth whatsoever. I'm expecting a retraction from the police quite soon. Hope this answers some questions.
The police may have searched the sections near hh's dog's excursion. Supposedly 25 (later only 12) police were on hands and knees between the main and secondary trails.
hh, after looking at the maps, do you think Phoebe may have run down to Susan's location? It wasn't possible to determine if she could have been a source for Phoebe. Maybe the post-mortem exam will have insights regarding the possibility whether Susan might have bled.

Oh the news article made me cry. I can't imagine how you're feeling. Are you doing okay? I know you passed by her several times.. But please don't let that eat at you. The POLICE should have looked further and they would have found her.


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