Rings 'found after disappearance'

Arlene Fraser went missing in 1998

Three rings belonging to a missing mother turned up in her bathroom more than a week after she disappeared, a court has heard.

Arlene Fraser's stepmother, Catherine McInnes, said she found the wedding, engagement and eternity rings on a rail above the sink.

The 65-year-old told the High Court in Edinburgh that several members of Mrs Fraser's family stayed in the house in Smith Street, Elgin, for about two weeks after she was reported missing.

Arlene murder trial charges
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Mrs McInnes said the rings suddenly appeared in the bathroom on the afternoon of Thursday 7 May, 1998 eight days after the disappearance.

Mrs Fraser's husband Nat, 43, is on trial for conspiring to murder her along with 46-year-old farmer Hector Dick, of Mosstowie, Elgin, and Glenn Lucas, 51, of Station Road, Spalding, Lincs. They all deny any wrongdoing.

Advocate-depute Alan Turnbull QC, prosecuting, asked Mrs McInnes: "Were the rings there on any of the occasions that you were in the bathroom cleaning it, in it for your own purposes or looking round it before May 7th?"

"No, definitely not," Mrs McInnes replied.

She said she took the rings into the living room where she showed them to Mrs Fraser's stepfather, William Thompson.

Mrs McInnes said: "I went into the living room and called Mr Thompson to me and said, 'look what I've found, what shall I do with these'."

Asked if she had recognised the rings, Mrs McInnes said: "I knew they were Arlene's."