The Northern Scot's Arlene Fraser and Nat Fraser files: 2003 – Horror story centred on Moray
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This story appeared in the Northern Scot, January 31, 2003.
THE eyes of a nation have, for the past four weeks, been firmly focused on the sensational and often horrific story which was unravelled at the High Court trial of Nat Fraser.
His defence QC summed up the evidence against him as being like a badly-written plot from the television soap Eastenders.
And with a mystery hit man, infidelity, money and greed thrown in for good measure, it is easy to see why the comparison was made.
But this was no soap opera.
The people of Elgin have been living with the mystery of Arlene's disappearance for the past five years.
The young woman's fate was the subject of conversation on every doorstep and street corner – wherever people gathered.
However, all those who speculated as to what had happened to Arlene could not have foreseen the true horror of her demise.
A stunned community is now coming to terms with the knowledge that a murderer has lived and worked among them, presenting a public face of innocence and hiding terrible secrets behind a genial facade.
The town has featured on numerous television news programmes and countless column inches have been written in the national press since that fateful day in 1998.
Elgin has gained a notoriety throughout the country and will forever be synonymous with the names of Arlene and Nat Fraser.
The court case is over; her murderer has begun a life sentence; justice has been seen to be done.
But will the town - and, more importantly, Arlene's family - ever be able to draw a line under this horrendous crime unless her remains can be found and laid to rest?
