In 1991 Vicky Hamilton
disappeared from a bus stop in Bathgate after a weekend with her sister in Livingston. The 15-year-old was travelling back to her mum’s house in Stirlingshire. Despite a huge inquiry and appeals by her distraught family no trace of the teenager was found.
Unknown to Police Scotland,
serial killer Peter Tobin was living in a house in Bathgate 10 miles away with his new bride and baby. Tobin, a violent sex offender, had moved into the unassuming semi-detached home on Robertson Avenue in the quiet West Lothian town.
It was there he murdered the teenager and buried her body in the garden.
Six weeks after Vicky disappeared, he moved to Kent, through a council house mutual exchange scheme. But a suspicious neighbour had spotted him digging a large hole in his back garden. Tobin claimed it was a sandpit for his son Daniel
In June 2007, his former Bathgate home was raided and the quiet residential street suddenly became national news. Inside they found a knife in the attic which bore traces of Vicky’s DNA.
CSI Peter Faulting, who was brought in to comb the home, found a large rockery that eventually revealed Vicky had been buried there before being moved by Tobin.
Peter said: “The first thing that caught my eye was the huge rockery in the back garden. It was an unusual feature. We removed it and police brought the cadaver dogs in.
The Record's new online series looks at Scotland's Murder Homes and the cases behind the headlines that shocked the nation.
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