The Unsolved Templeton Woods Murders
Carol Lannen and Elizabeth McCabe were both found dead a year apart in Templeton Woods, Dundee. Their killers, or Killer, has never been caught.
Carol Lannen
18-year-old, mother of one Carol Lannen, did not have the best start in life. She was the youngest of five children, her father had been in prison during her childhood, and Carol had been placed in care for part of her young life. She was described by her peers from school as being a loner with very few friends.
During the late 1970s, police believed that Carol was working as a prostitute in Dundee. However, her family have always denied this. They asserted that she was not a sex worker and was in a relationship with her baby’s father, and that the two intended to marry.
On March 21st, 1979, a couple was out waking in Templeton Woods when they found the naked body of a woman. There were no signs of her clothing or belongings. The body belonged to Carol Lannen, she had been strangled. Her body was found just 150 yards away from where Elizabeth McCabe’s body would be found a year later.
Templeton Woods in the 1970s were known to be a place for prostitutes to go with clients.
Police told the public that they had managed to get some registration plates of men that had been seen curb crawling in the area that Carol was known to frequent. They did not want to embarrass these men by publicly declaring the registrations, so they asked anyone that was curb crawling in the area on the day, or a few days before the 21st of March, to come forward. We do not know if the police were bluffing, but they hoped someone would come forward out of fear of being exposed. They surmised that Carol must have been taken in a car to the woods as they are five miles away from the Red-Light district of Dundee.
On the Tuesday evening, the night before Carole was found, a witness placed her at the junction between Commercial and Exchange street in Dundee. She was seen getting into a red estate car, which the witness believed was a Ford Cortina estate. Police appealed for the owner of this car to come forwards, but nobody did. The man was said to be between 25–30 years old, thin, pale, with short dark hair with short sideburns. He was clean-shaven with a moustache.
On the 1st of April 1979, a black handbag and clothing were found that had been washed up on the bank of the River Don in Aberdeenshire. Inside the bag was a purse containing money and an allowance book for a child. The items were given to an off-duty police officer, who dropped them at a local police station. The items were confirmed as belonging to Carol, but they were found 85 miles away and a 2-hour drive from where Carol’s body was found.
Elizabeth McCabe
On Sunday 10 February 1980, Trainee nursery nurse Elizabeth McCabe, 20, went on a night out with her friend Sandra in Dundee. The pair visited a few bars in Dundee before heading to Teazer’s nightclub on Union Street.
At about 12.30 am, Sandra went to get her coat from the cloakroom. Elizabeth already had her coat as she wanted to leave. The pair agreed to meet outside and were going to share a taxi home together. When Sandra retrieved her coat and went outside, Elizabeth was nowhere to be seen. Sandra looked in the club and on the street for Elizabeth, but she was nowhere. Sandra assumed that Elizabeth had gone home and got a lift with an ex-boyfriend, who had also been in the club.
The next day, February 11, 1980, when Sandra did not hear from Elizabeth, she called her at her parent's house. Her parents said she was not there and had not been home. Concerned, they called the police and filed a missing person report.
On the 25th of February 1980, some rabbit hunters were walking with their dogs in Templeton Woods when they found what looked to be a body. The body belonged to Elizabeth McCabe. Elizabeth, like Carol had been strangled. She was partially naked and her her shoes, gloves and handbag were missing. Police believed that her body had been in the woods for some time before it was discovered.
Police tried to piece together what might have happened after Elizabeth left the club. Sandra told the police that Elizabeth was upset that evening and spent some time crying in the bathroom because she thought that she was unattractive to men. They wondered if Elizabeth had got into a taxi outside the club, intending to wait for Sandra. However, the taxi driver drove off. Police started to question taxi drivers in the area. On March 2, 1980, Vincent Simpson, a taxi driver from the area, was interviewed by police in relation to Elizabeth’s murder. He was not charged.
Some clothing that belong to Elizabeth was found about a mile away from her body. It had been thrown over a wall near a bus stop at Coupar Angus Road, near the Kingsway. On the 2nd of April 1980, other items that belonged to Elizabeth were also found on some wasteland near Cobden Street. These items included shoes, a handbag and jewellery. The handbag contained Elizabeth McCabe’s college ID, so police knew that these items belonged to her.
According to the Courier Newspaper, police made a series of mistakes during their initial investigations back in 1980, including mishandled evidence and witness intimidation.
Suspects
The public and the papers were convinced that these murders were done by the same killer due to their similarities. However, police eventually concluded they were looking for two killers, they said that they may be looking for a copycat killer in the case of Elizabeth McCabe.
A man named Brian Lindsay was interviewed by police 18 times during 1980. He was alleged to have been looking for sex on the night Elizabeth disappeared. There were allegations that he knew Elizabeth and that he got into an argument on the night that she disappeared with her friend Sandra in Teazer’s over Elizabeth going back to his flat that night. Lindsay denied these allegations.
In 2004, detectives re-launched the cases with breakthroughs in DNA technology. They re-tested the evidence that they had on both cases.
In July 2005, police officers again interviewed and detained former taxi driver, Vincent Simpson over Elizabeth’s murder due to some DNA evidence found on part of Elizabeth's clothing and a hair root. He went to trial in October 2007, and was found not guilty in December of that same year, on the grounds that the DNA evidence was flawed.
In 2005, evidence was handed to Tayside Police in relation to the Northern California Zodiac slaying, which happened between 1968 and 1974. This evidence linked the Zodiac killer with Carol Lannen. This was ruled out by investigators.
In 2019, journalist Alexander McGregor claimed in his book The Law Killers, that former social worker Andrew Hunter may have been involved in both murders. In 1988, Hunter murdered his wife, Lynda by strangulation in some woods in Ladybank, Fife. Her body was found six months after her death. During his trial, it emerged that Hunter would trawl the streets for prostitutes. In addition, he looked similar to the photofit of the man seen in Carol’s case. Hunter died in 1993 in Perth Prison.
In 2020, an unnamed American serial killer was named as a possible suspect. The man passed away in 2016, but his family claimed that he could have been involved in the murders as he visited Scotland several times during the late 60s, 70s and 80s.
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe and Worlds End pub murderer, Angus Sinclair, have also been named by conspiracy theorists.
At the time, these murders saw the largest investigation on record by Dundee police. As of 2022, police are no closer to solving either case.
Sources and Further Reading
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/tayside_and_central/7143137.stm
https://news.stv.tv/north/templeton-woods-murders-can-still-be-solved-40-years-on
https://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/crime/american-cold-case-suspect-linked-22362977
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