The mystery surrounding the disappearance of Margaret Fleming intensified yesterday when a friend of the couple who cared for the vulnerable woman said that they had never spoken about her despite sharing a home for 17 years.
Ms Fleming, who suffered from learning disabilities, was last seen by someone other than her two carers in December 1999. Fears for her safety have been raised after the couple reported her missing on October 28 this year.
Edward Cairney, 75, and Avril Jones, 56, were registered carers for Ms Fleming and told police that she had vanished shortly before officers arrived at their coastal home to speak to her about a social work issue.
Police have since revealed that there had been no public sighting of Ms Fleming, 36, since 1999 and no evidence that she had had contact with anyone since then. Yesterday they appealed to anyone who may have visited the house in Inverkip, Inverclyde, for social or business purposes to come forward.
Police have also confirmed that Ms Fleming’s carers assisted with her finances.
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Rosemary Connelly, a close friend of Mr Cairney and Ms Jones, said she visited their house regularly and enjoyed month-long holidays with the couple but they only mentioned Ms Fleming’s name once in the mid-1990s.
“I never saw her [Margaret] at the house. When we went to their house we sat in the living room. There could have been someone else upstairs, I don’t know,” she said.
“I did hear Avril mention Margaret once because she hadn’t went to college or something.”
Ms Connelly, who met Mr Cairney and Ms Jones in the late 1980s, said she was not even aware if Ms Fleming lived with the couple.
“They would often ask us to go out for dinner or round for drinks in their lovely garden, which was like an orchard,” she said. “Avril was a very keen gardener and her garden and plants were beautiful.”
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Police Scotland’s major investigations team continued to hunt for clues to Ms Fleming’s disappearance at the couple’s cottage and garden yesterday. Detectives said they feared that Ms Fleming may have “come to some harm” and have excavated the garden.
Ms Fleming, who was 19 when she was last seen, lived with her father, Frederick Fleming, in Port Glasgow until his death in 1995. She then stayed with her grandparents and mother before falling out with them and moving in with Mr Cairney and Ms Jones, her father’s friends, in 1998 while attending James Watt College in Greenock.
They became registered as her carers in 1999 and her last sighting in public was at a festive gathering hosted by Mr Cairney and Ms Jones’ relatives.
Questions have been raised about how a young person with learning difficulties — with two registered carers who were not family members — could go 17 years without contact from social services agencies.
A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “We can’t comment on whether she was known to social services as someone with learning difficulties.”