NEWS: Head In The Bag Case...Day 4

By Mark McLaughlin
Edinburgh Evening News
January 5, 2009

POLICE investigating the discovery of a severed head in a shopping bag in Newhaven are today trawling through missing person reports from across the UK searching for a DNA match to identify the woman.

DNA testing is continuing to discover the identity of the head found in an Ikea bag on a path near Hawthornvale last week.

One case that would be looked at is that of Carolyn Pilbeam, a 48-year-old who was suspected of travelling to Edinburgh after going missing from her home in Staffordshire on St Valentine's Day last year.

Some tests have already been carried out, but police warned they had a "massive" task ahead to compare the body to the national missing persons database.

Initial tests have already ruled out the possibility that it could be the remains of 43-year-old Louise Tiffney, who went missing from Dean Village in 2002.

Other recent outstanding missing persons from the local area include Mary Ferns, 88, of Livingston, who was last seen on Princes Street in June last year.

A team of 30 officers have been working to identify the head and other bones found in the bag, which are thought to belong to a female aged over 14.

Police originally described the head as "mummified" and said it could have been the remains of someone who died up to 15 years ago, but later said that it was in fact "badly decomposed" and the person may have died as recently as six months or up to 20 years ago.

One forensic source reportedly said the dental work pointed to someone over the age of 14, but "probably approaching middle age".

Police are still treating the find as a "suspicious death", saying there wasn't yet enough evidence to elevate it to a murder inquiry.

Other recent missing persons from further afield include Mithla Lidi Ismail, 14, who went missing from Glasgow in April 2006, but was thought to have headed to London, and Ellen MacDougall, 61, of Muir of Ord in Rossshire who was last seen in Leachkin Road, Inverness, in May 2004.

Police theories may also raise the possibility that the remains could belong to Heather Thomson, 27, also of Inverness, who went missing in January 1994 but had connections to Edinburgh.