POLICE are to carry out a fresh search for the body of missing bookkeeper Suzanne Pilley after new witnesses came forward in response to a television appeal by her parents.

BBC Crimewatch received a dozen calls after Rob and Sylvia Pilley made an emotional appeal for information about the whereabouts of their daughter, four years after she went missing.

Two contacts from new callers stood out to Detective Superintendent Gary Flannigan, who led the murder investigation. They related to an area in Argyll where it is believed her body could be hidden and which has been searched before.

Police have previously said the case will remain open until Ms Pilley's body is found. Yesterday they said the area identified would be rechecked.

Ms Pilley, 38, disappeared in 2010 on her way to work and although her body has not been found her former lover and work colleague David Gilroy was convicted of her murder in 2012.

One of the new callers is understood to have seen a silver car that matched the description of Gilroy's Vauxhall Vectra in which police believe he transported Ms Pilley.

A Police Scotland spokesman said: "We had 12 callers but Detective Superintendent Gary Flanngan had two callers who had not called before and there was a sighting of the sliver car. It has brought the issue to the public again."

During the investigation, police were helped by members of mountain rescue teams in a series of searches across hundreds of miles. More than 200 searchers scoured 100,000 acres of land.

The hunt has focused on the Argyll Forest, targeting Glen Croe. An area known as Hell's Glen - a valley off the B839 - was also searched.

Gilroy is thought to have disposed of Ms Pilley's remains somewhere between Inverary and Tyndrum on a stretch of a journey that should have taken about 40 minutes but took him two hours on the day police said he disposed of her body.

Mr and Mrs Pilley, of Edinburgh, have previously appealed for information and said they wanted "closure".