Caroline Glachan: Solving a cold case 25 years later
Margaret Glachan's 40th birthday, on 25th August 1996, was supposed to be a special day of the family. She was looking forward to celebrating with her husband William, 14-year-old daughter Caroline, and the rest of the family. However, what was supposed to be a happy day ended in tragedy when Caroline’s body was found in the River Leven, less than a mile from her home.
Despite rumours in the village, her killers weren’t caught until 25 years later, when witness testimonies and old evidence were re-examined by Police Scotland. Keep reading as the Crime+Investigation team examines the case in more detail.
The murder
The night before Margaret’s birthday, 14-year-old Caroline arranged to meet her boyfriend, 18-year-old Robert O'Brien, at a bridge near their hometown of Bonhill. She had been out that evening with friends who tried to dissuade her, but as a jury was later told, the teen was 'infatuated'. She was last seen leaving the group, taking a shortcut to the bridge via a secluded towpath.
The next day, her body was discovered by a walker less than a mile from her home, partially submerged in the River Leven. She had been badly beaten, with extensive injuries to her head, face and neck from blunt force trauma. A post-mortem exam concluded that 10 'significant blows' knocked her unconscious, before she fell face-first into the river and died from drowning.
Suspicion quickly fell on O’Brien and his friends, Andrew Kelly and Donna Marie Brand. The court later heard that all three were drug users who shoplifted to fund their habits. At the time of the murder, O’Brien was also in a relationship with Brand, who was pregnant with their child.
Why the case went cold
Despite having clear motives, there wasn't enough concrete evidence to charge the three teens with Caroline’s murder. Investigators couldn’t proceed without a forensic breakthrough in the case, but DNA analysis wasn’t advanced enough in the mid-90s.
To make matters worse, the suspects stuck to the same story, claiming they had spent the evening at Betty Wilson’s home, babysitting her two sons. Several witnesses would later contradict this, but their accounts were considered unreliable because of their age and connections to the accused.
Ultimately, no single piece of evidence was strong enough to pursue a conviction, and the case turned cold. That is, until Police Scotland re-examined the details two decades later.
How a four-year-old boy helped solve the murder
There was one witness that police kept coming back to: Archie Wilson. At the time of the murder, he was four years old and being babysat by Kelly. When his mother Betty returned home, she found Kelly drying his trousers. The teen told her that Archie had urinated on him, but this seemed out of character for the boy.
The following day, Betty asked Archie what had happened. He told her that Kelly woke him and his brother in the middle of the night and took them to the River Leven. Once there, Archie said a man called Robbie was hitting a girl and putting 'metal in her eye', a detail that police hadn’t released at the time. He went on to say the girl was then pushed into the river.
When police reopened the case, Archie’s testimony was corroborated by Betty’s neighbour, Linda Dorrian. On the night of the murder, she heard doors slamming at around 12am. When she looked out the window, she saw the teens leaving the property with Archie and his brother in a buggy. She didn’t come forward at the time because she was frightened of O’Brien.
Crucially, Archie described what he had seen at lunchtime on Sunday, several hours before Caroline’s body was found.
Trial and sentencing
Finally, Police Scotland had the evidence they needed to charge Robert O’Brien, Andrew Kelly and Donna Marie Brand with Caroline’s murder. They were found guilty in December 2023 and all sentenced to life in prison after an emotional trial.
Caroline’s family sat through several witness accounts, expert testimonies and detailed reconstructions of the murder. While painful, her mother described the happiness the family felt at finally getting justice:
'On behalf of Caroline’s dad, myself and our family this is a day we never thought we would see. Now Caroline can rest in peace… It won’t bring her back but at least we know that who is responsible is serving time for it because the past 25 years they have lived their life and had Christmases and birthdays and my Caroline was in the ground.'
Are you a true crime fan? Sign up for the Crime+Investigation newsletter today. We’ll deliver more articles, videos and episodes just like this straight to your inbox.
