Lynda Spence: Fresh search for body of missing murder victim

Lynda Spence was murdered in 2011 but her body was never found

Police and forensic experts are examining a remote area in Argyll as part of a search for the body of a woman murdered more than 10 years ago.

Financial advisor Lynda Spence was 27 when she was last seen in Glasgow in 2011.

Two men were jailed for life in 2013 for kidnap, torture and murder - but her body was never found.

Officers have begun assessing forestry land near Dunoon, ahead of a potential search for Lynda's remains.

The 8.7-acre site, which is next to a B road about five miles (8km) from Dunoon, was cleared of trees in 2016.

Police Scotland said it was assessing the land ahead of a potential search to establish if Lynda's remains were in the area.

A former woodland near Dunoon is being assessed by Police Scotland

Det Supt Suzanne Chow said: "This detailed work involves Police Scotland detectives, local policing officers and specialist search teams, supported by forensic scientists and experts from across the United Kingdom."

She said the operation was expected to take "some considerable time due to the nature of the ground and remote location".

There will be a significant police presence in the area.

"Lynda's family have been informed of this development and officers are supporting them during this difficult time," she said.

"We will keep them updated as the work continues."

Lynda Spence was held and tortured in a flat in West Kilbride

Det Supt Chow asked anyone with information to come forward and speak to officers.

Colin Coats and Philip Wade were convicted of killing Lynda in April 2013.

Her body has never been found, and only one spot of her blood was discovered in the flat in West Kilbride where she was held.

The men were jailed for life for abducting, torturing and murdering Lynda. Coats was ordered to spend a minimum of 33 years in prison, while Wade will serve at least 30 years.

Two other men, David Parker and Paul Smith, were each jailed for 11 years for assaulting Lynda and holding her captive.

Colin Coats and Philip Wade were jailed for life

Lynda was held at the flat for two weeks, taped to a chair and not allowed to use the toilet. Her kneecaps were smashed, her hands branded with an iron and her thumb chopped off.

Coats and Wade abducted Lynda on 14 April 2011 after she had failed to pay back Coats money he had invested with her.

For the next two weeks, she was kept prisoner in an attic room as Coats and Wade tried to force her to reveal details of financial deals.

When it became clear that she had no financial information, they murdered Lynda and disposed of her body.

Lynda, who was being investigated by Strathclyde Police for fraud, had taken an £85,000 investment from Coats, all of his money.

Initially Coats, who had a history of violent crime, had hoped for a return of £100,000 but Lynda could not pay and strung him along with the promise of millions from a property deal near Stansted Airport in Essex.

Lynda Spence's parents Patricia and James Spence appealed for information about their missing daughter during a police press conference in 2011

Following the 11-week trial, her parents spoke of their "heartache and pain" over the "terrible ordeal" she suffered at the hands of her killers.

At that time, police appealed for the convicted men to tell them where her body was so her parents could lay her to rest.

Before the trial, Coats had boasted to a cellmate that he smothered Lynda, cut off her head and burnt her remains in a furnace.

Coats and Wade are known to have taken Lynda's hired Vauxhall Astra on 29 April 2011 to Tighnabruaich, about 20 miles (32km) by road from the site being assessed by police outside Dunoon.

They had asked a friend if they could use his boat, but he refused, saying later he thought "he was being asked to dispose of a body".

Neither the body nor the car has ever been found.