Murderer bagged by hidden holdall

MRS Helen Torbet, 62, met her brutal death at the hands of a man who

showed no remorse. He constructed an elaborate network of deceit to

cover his crime and was brought to justice by a dogged police

investigation.

Having committed the murder, Donald McMillan trussed up his victim's

body and masked her face with bandages and parcel tape. He dumped it in

a shallow grave only yards from his parents' house, covering it with

firewood, coal, and sheets of metal.

He then invented a story of how Mrs Torbet had driven from the

guesthouse with another man, leaving her own car behind.

He was to maintain the deceit over 10 months, repeating the story over

and again to police. He even complained in the press about police

harassment when they returned to question him. His lies were

sufficiently credible to convince his parents and temporarily throw

police off his scent.

Police were later to find his fingerprints on the tape with which Mrs

Torbet had been bound after using liquid nitrogen to separate the glue.

Because of the difficult, rocky ground in the West Highlands and the

presence of his cousin in a nearby caravan, it would have been difficult

to dig the grave on the night of the killing. He had relatives staying

in a caravan near the wood pile and they heard nothing that night.

McMillan went for lunch with them the following day to celebrate their

anniversary, offering no clue that he had just brutally murdered one of

his guests. He even showed little concern for his parents who were

grieving for his father's dying brother-in-law.

They returned from Aberdeen on the Friday but by then McMillan must

have removed the hidden body and dug the 12-inch deep grave. Next to the

woodpile was a big plastic tank which was large enough to hold a corpse.

He hid some of Mrs Torbet's belongings under the floorboards of the

house. Others he inexplicably concealed just 200 yards from the house in

undergrowth near the Inverinate to Kyle of Lochalsh road.

In a strange twist to the tale, police photographed Grianan House from

a helicopter as they carried out extensive sweeps of the area while the

Torbet case was still being treated as a missing person's inquiry.

In the picture, Donald McMillan is seen standing in the garden beside

a pile of logs -- on the very spot where he had buried his innocent

victim.

THE breakthrough in the case came in March when Muriel MacKenzie, from

Glasgow, was on holiday in the area and came across women's belongings

in undergrowth. Not realising their importance, she alerted a forestry

worker who immediately contacted the police.

The items had been concealed beneath willow trees near the Kyle to

Inverinate road by Donald McMillan after he had disposed of Mrs Torbet's

body. Over the winter months they had been covered by snow, but were

exposed in the spring.

The items included Mrs Torbet's handbag, purse, bank cards, her

hillwalking bag -- and a single slipper. Still missing, however, was a

large canvas holdall which was to prove significant later. The discovery

changed the case from a missing-person inquiry into the hunt for a body.

In one of the biggest searches mounted in the Highlands, a helicopter

was hired to take aerial photographs of the entire area, the Royal Navy

was called in to advise on searching Loch Duich, a team of police divers

was brought in and other policemen scoured the mountain terrain.

The investigation team, now convinced Mrs Torbet was dead, decided

first to search the guesthouse itself. At the same time, ground radar --

similar to the equipment used to uncover bodies in the Cromwell Street

investigation in Gloucester -- was brought in.

On entering the guesthouse the team found to their horror it had been

extensively redecorated and recarpeted. Twelve hours into the search,

during which time the team had even opened blocked-up chimneys, they had

still found nothing.

Then, in a downstairs shower room, officers lifted floorboards in a

cupboard and found, well hidden, the missing holdall with Mrs Torbet's

name printed on the handles. Other materials found in a plastic bag

included a slipper which matched the one found by the roadside.

At this point Donald McMillan was detained on suspicion of murder. But

still he kept the police guessing as to how he disposed of Mrs Torbet's

body.

Eventually his devastated parents, unable to take the strain any

longer, pleaded with him to co-operate. The following day he drew a

diagram pinpointing the spot in the back garden where Mrs Torbet was

dumped in a shallow grave.

The Dingwall procurator-fiscal, Mr David Hingston, who was in charge

of the inquiry, said the culmination of the case provided immense

satisfaction on many levels.

For 10 months the Torbet family had not known if she was still alive,

was in pain or in hospital with memory loss.

Mr Hingston said: ''Although it was terrible to find out she was dead,

it is a final act and they were able then to give her a proper burial

which is important psychologically.''

There was also satisfaction, he said, with the way the police

operation was carried out. ''This was not a case where we struck it

lucky -- it was down to dogged, hard work.''

Finally, there was satisfaction in bringing to justice a ''very

dangerous individual'' who had shown no remorse for his crime.

Mr Hingston said: ''It was a cold, calculated killing of an innocent

member of the public and he could have done it again if he hadn't been

caught.''

THE VICTIM

Helen Torbet first stayed in Grianan House at Inverinate about six

years ago, seeing it as the ideal base for her regular hillwalking

expeditions in the hills above Wester Ross. She returned time and again

to the house with its views across Loch Duich.

Mrs Torbet married gynaecology consultant Dr Thomas Torbet on August

12, 1960. They had one son, Alistair. In 1967, they moved to a house in

Busby, where they lived until Mrs Torbet disappeared. Some months after

the police investigation began, Dr Torbet petitioned the court to allow

him to sell the family home and this was permitted. He was obviously

convinced his wife had died and angrily denied any suggestion that his

wife had been having an affair, as hinted at by Donald McMillan.

Dr Torbet, who now lives in Blanefield near Glasgow, was very close to

his wife. During his evidence he recalled every detail about where she

may have bought an item of clothing or jewellery.

Apart from writing for magazines like The Great Outdoors, Mrs Torbet

had been trained as a musician in her younger days. Like her husband,

she was also interested in sailing, and was a recognised yachtmaster

with the Board of Trade.

The couple had another home at Tighnabruaich in the Kyles of Bute

where they kept their boat. Dr Torbet retired from practice in June 1993

from his post at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital.

Mrs Torbet was a staunch campaigner against the introduction of

fluoride into public water supplies. She also had her eccentricities --

taking a jar of pulses, cereals and nuts in a jar as well as her own

water while on an expedition.

She kept a meticulous diary of all the climbs she made and what she

saw on her expeditions, from birds to trees and plants. She even

corrected Ordnance Survey maps.

THE KILLER

DONALD McMillan's motive for murder was sexual. The 33-year-old former

soldier, who claimed he wore women's underwear, had a fascination for

older women which proved fatal for Mrs Torbet.

Police found pornographic magazines in the caravan where he stayed

alone next to the guesthouse run by his mother. The naked models were

rated with stars. Younger women were marked at around 10 and 20 while

the few pictures of women over 40 were awarded marks of up to 500.

McMillan found it difficult to speak to women of his own age but wrote

letters to numerous women in the area. Even while awaiting trial he

continued his almost obsessive correspondence with local girls. One

described it as ''really frightening''. The letters were not aggressive

or even sexy. They were full of gushing romantic phrases.

One letter was given to Mrs Torbet with whom he had struck up a

totally innocent relationship during her regular trips to Inverinate and

who was old enough to be his mother.The last entry in Mrs Torbet's

diary, written on the night she died, read: ''Strange letter awaited me

from Donald McMillan. Embarrassing to cope with.'' Police have never

discovered the letter.

Donald McMillan was born in Stranraer and left school in Ayrshire

without qualifications. After working as a dairy farm assistant and

trainee manager with the Co-op, he joined the Army as a clerk in 1979.

He served first with the Royal Armoured Corps in the Royal Scots Dragoon

Guards and saw service in Germany and Northern Ireland.

His career in the service was undistinguished and he left after

serving six months in Army detention after going absent without leave.

He later joined his parents in Inverinate where his mother, Zena, began

ran a bed-and-breakfast guesthouse with husband Donald. Donald junior

helped around the house and garden.