The trial of the man accused of killing Dundee mother-of-three Mary McLaren is due to start at the High Court in Edinburgh today.
Patrick James Rae (41) has denied murdering and raping Mrs McLaren between February 25 and March 10 last year.
Rae also denies hiding the 34-year-old’s body in undergrowth on North Marketgait, removing and disposing of her coat, bag and contents, disposing of a knife or something similar, and disposing of and washing clothes in an attempt to defeat the ends of justice.
His trial is expected to last up to six weeks.
For almost a fortnight last spring, Dundee was the centre of one of the most intensive missing persons investigations ever carried out by Tayside Police, with more than 50 officers called in to help in the hunt for Mrs McLaren, of Rowantree Crescent, who was reported missing after a night out with her sister Michelle Rodger.
The search came to a tragic end when the former Kingspark School pupil’s body was found in undergrowth on an embankment above the Ladywell roundabout.
There followed a painstaking forensic examination of the area, during which specialist Ministry of Defence police officers from the Faslane naval base on the Clyde were called in to help investigate the most inaccessible parts of the steep embankment.
Floral tributes quickly piled up at the scene and Mrs McLaren’s funeral at St Vincent’s RC Church was attended by hundreds of mourners, including her husband Scott, sons Aaron and Dylan, and daughter Sarah-Jane, who gave birth to the dead woman’s first grandchild, Cameron, just weeks later.See The Courier every day for extensive coverage throughout the trial.