A MURDER inquiry is under way after the 17-year-old nephew of a teenage girl murdered 25 years ago was also killed in a street in the same town.
Detectives said there was no evidence yet to confirm a link between the fatal stabbing of 17-year-old Jack Doyle in Greenock, Renfrewshire, yesterday morning and the strangling of 16-year-old Elaine Doyle in June 1986.
The body of the teenager, who was a supporter of the campaign to find the killer of the aunt he never knew, was found at 9.45am near Antigua Street –one-and-a-half miles from the spot where his aunt's body was found.
Jack, of Gourock, died near a communal drying area at the rear of houses on Hope Street, near Antigua Street.
One friend of the family said: "I'm utterly disgusted this could happen to the one family twice. Let's hope justice prevails this time for the Doyle family."
Shocked friends of the youngster registered their disgust on social networking sites and launched a campaign to support a Damian's Law petition backing a mandatory jail sentence for carrying a knife or other dangerous weapon in public.
The petition was started in 2008 by John Muir, who has been campaigning for action since his son Damian was stabbed to death in Greenock in 2007.
However, after the petition had gathered more than 21,000 signatures, in June 2010, the law was voted down in parliament by just two votes.
A website memorial to Jack Doyle said: "It's terrible that so many young people have died through the use of knives.
"The people who use them are a disgrace to the world and should be ashamed at the fact they can take a life so crudely.
"Rest in Peace Jack - and Rest in Peace all those who have died at the hands of soulless individuals."
Detective Chief Inspector Duncan Sloan of Greenock CID, who is heading the investigation, said: "Officers have been carrying out door-to-door inquiries and are checking CCTV from the area.
"These inquiries have told us that there was a report of a disturbance and blood found in a close in Antigua Street earlier in the morning near to where Jack's body was found."
He said Jack was in the town's Orangefield at around 10pm on Monday, and he sought public help in establishing Jack's movements between then and when his body was found.
The latest tragedy to hit the family came six months after Elaine Doyle's father, Jack, launched a fresh appeal for information.
The appeal was supported by a BBC Crimewatch reconstruction of the murder on the 25th anniversary of her death.
Ms Doyle was killed as she walked home from a disco in Laird Street. She was last seen alive by friends in the town's Hamilton Way shortly after midnight on June 2, 1986.
Her body was found the same morning in a lane off Ardgowan Street, 50 yards from the family home.
A post-mortem examination found she had been strangled. The only item taken from the crime scene was Elaine's blue handbag.
Mr Doyle still has no answers as to why his daughter died, and the killer has yet to be caught.
Last month Detective Chief Inspector Ricky Mason said he was hopeful that the search, which has gone as far afield as Australia, would finally bring her killer to justice.
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