After 40 years, police are still hunting the killer of Dundee nurse Elizabeth

Police are no closer to finding the killer behind one of Dundee’s most notorious murders, four decades on.

On February 25, 1980, the body of nursery nurse Elizabeth McCabe was discovered in Templeton Woods, two weeks after she first vanished.

The 20-year-old had disappeared on February 11 after a night out in with a friend in the city centre.

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She had left her home in Lyndhurst Avenue for with her friend Sandra Niven and headed out for the night.

The pair visited several city centre bars before heading to Teazer’s nightclub in Union Street.

The following day she was reported missing by her family.

Elizabeth’s body was discovered 15 days later, the day after she would have celebrated her 21st birthday.

She was found naked and strangled in Templeton Woods, only 150 yards from where the body of Carol Lannen had been found.almost a year earlier.

With the discovery of her, the murder hunt concentrating on Carol’s death gained new impetus.

And officers leading the investigation feared the murders were linked and they might have had a serial killer on their hands.

But unlike in Carol’s case, however, someone was eventually tried for Elizabeth’s death.

In 2007, Vincent Simpson walked free from the High Court in Edinburgh after the jury returned a not guilty verdict.

Sandy McGregor, who was chief reporter at the Tele and Courier at the time of the murder, vividly recalls the days and weeks after Elizabeth’s initial disappearance.

Sandy said: “To begin with there wasn’t too much interest. Elizabeth was a missing person and that was it.

“I remember her parents, Anne and James, getting in touch with us at the papers. They were really concerned.

“To begin with when Elizabeth didn’t return from her night out and her mum and dad thought she had probably stayed with her friend Sandra.

Dundee Templeton Woods murder suspect never found amid fears a serial killer was on the loose

“However, when she didn’t report in for work the alarm bells began to ring for the family and they went to the police to report their daughter was missing.

“I think her parents felt that the police weren’t doing enough to try to find her and they came to us asking for our help to try to find her

“Elizabeth was a respectable girl from a good background. Then her naked body was discovered only yards from where Carol Lannen’s body had been discovered.

“Suddenly there was a lot more interest and people were linking it to Carol’s murder.”