Taggart, Livingstone and others in “Unfinished Business”

Margaret Balfour, age fourteen. It was the only photo we had to work on. Husband David is serving a life sentence in Barlinnie for her murder. [He brings up the next slide, showing an abandoned car with the driver door open and the bonnet up.] Now, that's the Balfours' car, it was found abandoned on 20th November 1975 in a lay-by between Howwood and Johnstone on the A737. [He beings up the next slide, showing the passenger seat stained with blood] See the blood staining on the seats? Consistent with a stab wound to the left side. [The next slide shows two photos of the sides of the car.] Now, that's the ground around the car. Notice there's no blood?

Suggesting that Margaret Balfour was removed from the car somewhere else, not in the lay-by.

[Brings up the next slide, showing photos of a bloodstained handkerchief and shirt.] Bloodstained handkerchief. Same blood group found in Balfour's possession. His shirtsleeves were also bloodstained. His story was his wife had had a nosebleed. [Brings up the next slide, showing more photos of the ground, as well as one of a knife.] There it is, the murder weapon. Ordinary sized kitchen knife, found in the grass about twelve feet away. No prints. [Brings up the next slide, showing the contents of the car boot.] Heavy soil traces in the car... [Brings up the next slide, showing a shovel and a pair of shoes.] match those found on the shovel in Balfour's flat and on his boots. He said they'd been for a drive down Kilbirnie way the day before and he had to dig the car out of some mud.

Could've been true, after all.

The theory was... [Brings up the next slide, showing a map of the area in which the car was abandoned.] he buried her body in this area, and then abandoned the car here... [points to an "X" on the map] to make it look as if she'd been abducted by a passing motorist. [He turns the lights back on. Livingstone turns the projector off.]

Your theory, Jim. I wasn't on the crime squad then.

He made a confession.

[As he packs away the projector] Then retracted it afterwards. I was in my first year at university. I followed the case. One of the few convictions for murder without a body on record.

But the evidence was circumstantial, but there was a motive: she had a £50,000 insurance policy taken out by her father before he died. It wasn't to mature until she was forty.

Did Balfour have any connection with 16 Dalmally Road?

No, none...

[Interrrupting] I've traced the owner of the flat. It was one of the Peebles' properties. Josephine Peebles owned it.