The sister of murdered Annalise Johnstone has said she “feels like she’s lost two siblings” after their brother was cleared of killing her.
Shabbana McDonald has spoken out after the High Court trial in Livingston.
Jurors heard Annalise had her throat cut Annalise at the Maggie Wall’s witch’s monument near Dunning and Johnstone said he did not kill his sister and he had carried her body from the murder scene and dumped her behind a wall some two miles away.
Johnstone admitted changing his appearance, burning bloodstained clothes and burying the weapon that could have linked him to Annalise’s killing, which he blamed on his ex, former co-accused Angela Newlands, who was also cleared of all charges.
Shabbana told The Sun: “I now feel like I’ve lost two siblings and I’m alone.
“Nobody will ever understand the pain.
“I don’t know what happened to my sister. It’s heartbreaking because she was my world and he used to be the best brother ever.
“Annalise’s life was taken from her in the most horrific way and nobody has been held responsible.
“I just want to get justice for my sister — I’m so angry.”
Shabbana recalled the shock at being told by her cousin that Annalise’s body had been found last May, just hours after Johnstone had called her claiming that Annalise had gone missing.
She said: “I’ll never forget that morning. She said, ‘You’ll need to phone your granny, she needs to speak to you’.
“I begged her to tell me what had happened and eventually she came out with, ‘They think they’ve found Annalise’s body’. I took a gasp and then started laughing. I couldn’t take it in. I said, ‘no’. I didn’t believe it.
“I stood there in shock. I called my granny and she confirmed it.
“She said they had described her tattoos — it was her.”
Annalise was laid to rest beside her mother, Kathleen, who died in 2006.
Johnstone said in court he hid the knife inside a McDonald’s Happy Meal box, along with Annalise’s phone and glasses, and buried it at the side of the Inchture to Errol road.
Now a police source has reportedly confirmed investigations are continuing to find the knife and any new evidence could lead to a retrial.
Johnstone claimed that former co-accused Angela Newlands was responsible for killing his sister, although all charges against Newlands were dropped.
Now a police source has reportedly confirmed investigations are continuing to find the knife and any new evidence could lead to a retrial.
