Fifty-year search for Moira: grave to be exhumed

POLICE ARE to exhume a family grave in the search for the body of a girl killed more than five decades ago.

Moira Anderson vanished aged 11 during a trip to the shops in Coatbridge, North Lanarkshire, in 1957.

Bus driver and convicted child rapist Alexander Gartshore, who died in 2006, has been linked to her disappearance which police are treating as murder.

A sheriff yesterday granted a request fromMoira’s relatives to open a grave at the Old Monkland cemetery where they believe she is buried.

Police will now search the family plot of Sinclair Upton, an acquaintance of Gartshore’s, in a bid to draw the 55-year mystery to a close.

A police spokeswoman said: “A detailed strategy, endorsed by the Crown Office, has been prepared.

“This process is expected to take several days and will involve highly skilled personnel.

“This is a very sensitive issue and we have been liaising with the families to ensure they are kept informed.”

Moira went missing after getting on a bus as she ran an errand for her family.

Her body was never found and Scotland’s Lord Advocate Frank Mulholland ordered cold case detectives to reopen the case as a murder this year.