How The Murder Of Marion Ross Became Known As “The Shirley McKie Case”
Police Officer Loses Job After “Scotch Botch” Fingerprint Scandal
In January 1997 a woman’s body was discovered at a property in Kilmarnock, the largest town in Ayrshire, Scotland. She had been stabbed multiple times and forensic technologists set to work cataloguing the crime scene. In the course of this work, they dusted two fingerprints and sent them to the Scottish Criminal Records Office (SCRO) for analysis.
One print, found on the bathroom door frame, belonged to one of the investigating officers, Shirley McKie, and the other, found on a Christmas present tag, was to become the prime suspect, David Asbury. Following a search of Asbury’s home a small tin containing money was found to have another fingerprint on it. This was identified by SCRO as belonging to the victim, Marion Ross.
But there was a problem — Shirley McKie denied ever having set foot in the house. The consequences of this denial led to the case being known as the Shirley McKie case, with the murder of the unfortunate Marion Ross becoming merely incidental to the story.
