Moira Anderson inquiry: Appeal to Baxter's Buses staff

Moira Anderson disappeared while on an errand for her family

Police investigating the disappearance of schoolgirl Moira Anderson in Lanarkshire in 1957 want to trace former employees of Baxter's Buses.

The 11-year-old was last seen on a bus to Coatbridge, which was driven by child abuser Alexander Gartshore - the man suspected of murdering her.

Officers want to speak to people who worked at Baxter's from 1957 to 1959.

Moira's remains were not found during the exhumation of a grave in Old Monkland Cemetery in January.

Strathclyde Police said detectives were currently working on a number of lines of inquiry.

Assessing information

Officers are keen to speak to bus drivers, conductors, cleaners, administrative staff and any others who worked at Baxter's Buses in Airdrie during the late 1950s.

Det Ch Insp Pat Campbell said: "The publicity surrounding the exhumation process resulted in additional and further information being passed to the inquiry team.

"Officers are currently assessing that information and following up any leads.

Moira's remains were not found in Old Monkland Cemetery

"At this time, I would like to ask former employees from Baxter's Buses to get in touch with us, even if they spoke to police at the time, I would like them to get back in touch.

"I appreciate a significant amount of time has passed but we would like hear from anyone who was employed at the company during that time."

Moira was last seen by her family on 23 February 1957.

After leaving home during a snowstorm to run an errand to a local Co-op, she boarded a bus driven by Gartshore, who was the last person to see the schoolgirl alive.

Later that year, he was jailed for raping a 17-year-old babysitter.

In 1999, convicted child abuser James Gallogley named his former friend Gartshore as Moira's murderer.

Daughter's allegations

Gallogley was said to have made the confession to another inmate while he was dying in Peterhead Prison.

After Gartshore's death in 2006, his daughter Sandra Brown, a former friend of Moira, published a book in which she accused her late father of the schoolgirl's murder.

She said she believed Gartshore had initially buried the child's body in a ditch but later moved it to the open grave of an acquaintance, Sinclair Upton, at Old Monkland Cemetery.

An exhumation of the Upton family burial plot in January did not find Moira's remains.