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Monday 2 November 2009

Portencross Murder


A short walk to the north of Portencross village lies Northbank cottage,isolated and close to the sea,however it was the scene of a murder unsolved to this day.

In May 1913 three people moved into the cottage,they were Alexander MacLaren and his wife,Jessie and his sister in law Miss Mary Speir Gunn.

The three of them were sitting in the cottage on the evening of Saturday 18 October,
Alexander MacLaren was reading aloud from a book when suddenly the peace was shattered by gun fire,smashing the window the bullet hit Miss Gunn.
More shotts rang out one wounding Mrs MacLaren,when the shooting had stopped Alexander left the cottage and ran to Portencross to raise the alarm.

It is recalled that the dogs in the kennels had not barked which they usually did when a stranger was in the vicinity. When the police and doctor arrived they found Mrs MacLaren shot in the back and Miss Gunn dead, further bullets were found outside the broken window.

The police made extensive enquiries but to no avail,they even investigated as far away as Saskatchewan in Canada where Miss Gunn had a boyfriend,however no motives or suspects were ever discovered,the murder remains unsolved to this day.

1 comment:

Jane said...

What an awful thing to happen Gerry - I never heard about this before..