AN ANGUISHED mother in the Scottish village of Bonhill, near Dumbarton, Strathclyde, yesterday pleaded for the killer of her only daughter to be caught. The body of Caroline Glachan (14) was found earlier in the day in the River Leven, a mile from her home in Bonhill.
Overcome with emotion and speaking with difficulty, Mrs Margaret Glachan made her appeal as detectives intensified the hunt for the killer. Caroline was an only child.
Caroline had left home on Saturday to visit friends in nearby Renton and her body was found in the water yesterday afternoon by a passerby.
Her grandfather, Mr William McDermott, said: "I know how close knit Renton is. But I would ask people to come forward and tell police what they know."
Police did not disclose the cause of death but said Caroline was the victim of a "violent" but not sexual assault. An inch by inch search of the river area was being made yesterday.
The teenager was found in the same clothes that she was wearing when she was last seen alive on Saturday night, police said. Detective Chief Inspector Janette Joyce, leading the inquiry, said the young girl had left her home on Saturday to meet friends, and was last seen at 11.30 p.m. that night at shops near her home in the Ladyton housing estate. She added that the girl had not been reported missing overnight.
Detectives were concentrating inquiries on interviewing her circle of friends.
Local people said drug users frequented the area but police said that although drugs was a possible line of inquiry, there was no evidence to suggest any drugs involvement.
The teenager's parents are thought to be estranged but her father was in Dumbarton yesterday.
A neighbour at the family home said: "They are a lovely family - you could not ask for a nicer family."