Arlene Fraser was a devoted mum. She adored her two kids and would never have left them willingly.
But on April 28, 1998, Arlene waved her children off to school and simply vanished. There has been no “proof of life” and her body has never been found.
Five years later, three men stood trial accused of her murder but only one was convicted - her estranged husband Nat. He was convicted of her murder after a retrial in 2012 - but he has refused to reveal where her remains are.
Her family believe his refusal to accept his guilt means he will never give up her body. They are now serving their own life sentence while Nat Fraser languishes in Low Moss prison.
Arlene’s disappearance from her Elgin home sparked a massive police investigation. Her marriage to Nat was crumbling, he’d choked her almost to death, they were wrangling over money and Fraser was already out on bail for assaulting her.
Early indications appeared she’d just had enough of that life. But her family insisted Arlene was a devoted mother who would never have left her children, aged five and two at the time, no matter what was going on with Nat.
Search parties were organised, posters sprung up around Elgin, neighbours, friends, acquaintances were all spoken too. No stone was left unturned. Chillingly, Fraser took part in those searches and even made a public appeal for Arlene to come home.
Six months after her disappearance, Grampian Police Detective Chief Inspector Peter Simpson declared: “The only conclusion that’s still left open to us, which I firmly believe has happened, is that something criminal has taken place here and that Arlene has been the victim of a crime. I am of the opinion that she’s dead. There’s no indication that she’s living somewhere else.”
Despite being on bail for assaulting her, Fraser was first charged with attempted murder but this was later reduced to assault - police still believed his claim that he was out delivering fruit and veg and at the exact time of Arlene’s “disappearance” he was making a phone call to a woman in Fochabers.
It was a perfect alibi - but too perfect for some seasoned detectives, who began to suspect the threat of a £250,000 divorce settlement and losing custody of his children was enough to drive Fraser to kill.
Another part of Fraser’s behaviour that stirred suspicions was the concern he showed for the woman he’d been painting as a bad wife and mother. He would rush to the police station every few days showing faux concern.
The big breakthrough for police came when they discovered Fraser’s farmer friend Hector Dick had bought a second-hand Ford Fiesta in weird circumstances.
Dick said he’d been asked by Fraser to find a runabout for Arlene after the family’s previous car was found torched outside their home weeks before.
That car has never been traced, leading police to believe it was used in her disappearance.
Nine days after Arlene went missing, her wedding rings reappeared in the house. Her family found them hanging on a peg above the bathroom sink and detectives suspected Fraser had placed them back in the house to make it look like she’d given up on their marriage.
But he didn’t know police had videoed the house and the evidence showed the rings had not been there before. On April 6, 2002 - four years after her disappearance, Fraser, Dick and Glenn Lucas were charged with conspiring to murder Arlene, murdering her and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
During their trial, the Crown announced Dick and Lucas - who died in 2006 - were not being prosecuted for the murder and Dick was to be a witness for the prosecution. In the witness box, Dick admitted burning and crushing the Ford Fiesta police had been looking for because he feared that it might be linked to the disappearance of Arlene.
He claimed that Fraser told him he’d arranged for his wife to be killed and then disposed of her body by grinding it up and burying it. He denied any involvement in her disappearance.
On January 29, 2003, Fraser was found guilty of murdering Arlene. Judge Lord Mackay described the 44-year-old as “evil” before sentencing him to life imprisonment, with a recommendation he serve a minimum of 25 years.
But there were twists as Dick was later called a liar and Fraser’s defence team discovered in 2006 that evidence was not made available to the original trial. Fraser repeatedly appealed and eventually had his conviction quashed by the Supreme Court.
But at his retrial in 2012, he was again found guilty of murder and sentenced to at least 17 years behind bars. The only thing the monster has left is his refusal to say where Arlene’s remains are.
Officers who were involved in the case believe he will never tell. Former detective superintendent Alan Smith said it is “the last piece of control that Nat Fraser has” and a “secret that he’ll probably take to his grave”.
Arlene’s grieving family will never have a sense of closure until twisted Fraser gives up his secrets. It’s unlikely he ever will - he believed he’d come up with the perfect plan for murder and has refused to admit his guilt. Revealing where Arlene is would mean admitting to his family - his children - that he killed their mother in cold, premeditated blood.
