Arlene's mother quizzed son-in-law

Arlene Fraser wanted to divorce her husband

The mother of a woman who disappeared without trace from her Elgin home confronted her son-in-law demanding to know what had happened, a High Court jury has heard.

Isabelle Thompson said Nat Fraser appeared to be "not bothered" after his wife, Arlene, suddenly vanished on the morning of 28 April 1998.

Fraser, 43, from Elgin, is one of three men standing trial at the High Court in Edinburgh for conspiring to murder his wife, then aged 33.

Arlene murder trial charges
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Mrs Thompson, from Hamilton, told the jury she had travelled to her daughter's home in Elgin the day after she was reported missing and stayed in the house in order to look after Mrs Fraser's two children.

She said she found her daughter's personal effects, including her clothes, glasses and contact lenses, scattered around the house, as well as Mrs Fraser's medication for Crohn's Disease.

Living apart

Mrs Thompson said her daughter had told her she had been consulting a solicitor about her marital situation and the couple were living apart at the time she disappeared.

Asked about Mr Fraser's attitude towards his wife's disappearance, she replied: "Quite normal. He wasn't really all that bothered."

Advocate-depute Alan Turnbull QC asked if she had asked Mr Fraser anything in the days after his wife disappeared.

I asked him if he had done anything to Arlene and he said 'what would be the point?'

Isabelle Thompson

She replied: "I asked him if he had done any deals and had he done anything to Arlene, and he said, 'What would be the point?'

"I said, 'Well, you'd have your business, your children and your house'. And he said, 'I wouldn't have Arlene' and I said, 'You wouldn't have her anyway, she was divorcing you'.

"I don't think he replied to that," she told the court.

Nat Fraser is charged with two other men of conspiring to murder Mrs Fraser.

All three deny the charge and two men have lodged special defences of alibi, claiming they were elsewhere in Scotland at the time of Mrs Fraser's disappearance.

Devastating effect

The court was also told Mrs Fraser's car was set on fire outside the family home three weeks before she disappeared.

Mrs Thompson, who has remarried since divorcing Mrs Fraser's father, said her daughter's disappearance had had a "devastating" effect on the family.

She said: "We just want to know what has happened to her. Obviously I know I'm not going to see her again."

The trial was continuing on Wednesday with 14 jurors after a woman on the panel was discharged on the direction of trial judge, Lord Mackay.