Elizabeth Sutherland

Thirty-year-old Elizabeth Sutherland, known to everyone as "Totsie" or "Tots" because of her petite stature, was born and raised in the small village of Culbokie in the Scottish Highlands all her life. She and her husband Kenny lived in the bungalow he'd built for them along with their two children Stephen and Jane, aged twelve and nine respectively. By all accounts, Elizabeth was a bubbly, upbeat woman who enjoyed such activities as flower arranging and was an active member of the local Women's Institute (WI).

Case
After seeing Kenny off to work and the children to school on Monday, September 24, 1984, she embarked on her morning routine. She picked up the newspaper from the local corner shop before heading home to begin the laundry. Once the laundry was completed, she went to Rose Cottage, the nearby bungalow where here parents lived to have coffee with her sister, also named Jane. The two discussed flowers that they were preparing to enter in a local competition. Elizabeth left for home at just after 12pm, only to return immediately because she had forgotten to pick up the planting instructions from her sister. After more small talk, she headed back home at 12:40pm. This was the last time Elizabeth would be seen alive.

Her daughter Jane, who always arrived home from school before Stephen, called out to her mother to let her know she was home. After receiving no response, she looked in every room with no luck until she went entered her own bedroom. There, she found Elizabeth lying face down in a pool of blood. She had been stabbed repeatedly in the chest and neck.


 * Suspects: None.
 * Extra Notes: This case originally aired on March 14, 1985.
 * Results: Unresolved. George MacPhee of Lincolnshire was convicted of Elizabeth's murder in December 1985 and sentenced to twenty-five years to life. Elizabeth apparently walked in on MacPhee and his partner Colin Hawkins burglarizing her home and was murdered to ensure her silence. MacPhee maintained that Hawkins was the one who actually committed the murder and in 2003, a jury overturned his conviction and he was released after serving eighteen years.

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