The trial of a man convicted in the Scottish courts of killing his ex-lover is to be the focus of a new podcast questioning the verdict which sent him to jail for life.

David Gilroy was found guilty of the murder of Suzanne Pilley, a colleague with whom he had been having an affair, in 2012 at the High Court in Edinburgh.

The case was hailed as a triumph for the police, who built a case using CCTV to establish an account of what happened on the morning of Ms Pilley's disappearance and by tracking Gilroy's movements in the aftermath.

But unusually, the body of the missing book-keeper has never been discovered, and Gilroy – who has always maintained he is innocent of the crime – was convicted without any witness to the crime, forensic evidence, or a confession.

Now two experienced TV documentary makers have made a five hour podcast attempting to answer unresolved questions on either side of the case.

Body Of Proof, which will go live on publishing site Audible today, is the latest in the phenomenon of true crime podcasts and TV series which delve into unsolved crimes, police investigations and questionable convictions, many of which such as Making A Murderer, Serial, West Cork and Evil Has A Name, have become hugely popular.

For many in the Scottish public and the media, the conviction of Gilroy drew a line under the case, after a jury was persuaded that he attacked Ms Pilley in the basement of the Edinburgh office building where they both worked and then embarked on an inexplicably long drive to Lochgilphead, during which he disposed of her body.

Gilroy has exhausted his options in appealing against his conviction and failed in bids to get the Criminal Cases Review Commission to reopen his case.

But according to those behind the podcast, their initial inquiries into the case convinced them that at the very least there were significant unanswered questions about the prosecution case, and elements of Gilroy's own story, sufficient to justify a nearly two year investigation of their own.

Darrell Brown has made numerous documentaries on cases such as the Shannon Matthews disappearance, the coastal-path murders in Wales and an investigation into the treatment of child-killer Jon Venables, and has worked on Channel-4’s Dispatches. He teamed up with Sophie Ellis, a freelance TV producer and journalist, to produce the podcasts, which approach the case with an open mind.

The ten half hour episodes of the podcast feature extensive interviews they carried out with Gilroy himself as well as contributions from his stepmother Linda Gilroy, a former Labour MP who has supported his campaign to prove his innocence. They do not feature significant involvement from the Pilley family, who did not want to be involved in a project which might call Gilroy's conviction into question.

However Police Scotland, while maintaining that they are confident they got the right man, have remained willing to talk about the case, in the hope that further publicity might produce information leading to the discovery of a body.

Brown and Ellis say the more they looked into the case, the more questions arose about the accepted version of events.

Ellis said: "It felt cut and dried at the outset. David Gilroy didn't seem a particularly nice person and there was no alternative version of events. But investigating the case has made me feel very differently."

While the Pilley family are not involved, Brown and Ellis insist their podcast is not simply a "mouthpiece" for Linda and David Gilroy, and they examined the case with an open mind and a blank slate.

"We have great sympathy for the family – they are the victims and I don't think we ever lost sight of their feelings along the way. Whatever facts are in doubt, Suzanne is missing and that is a fact and the family strongly believe in David's guilt," Ellis says. "Who is to say that they are wrong? But if exploring it leads to information emerging that gives any answers, that would be fantastic."

Nevertheless, the podcast does explore issues that were never put before the jury, the pair say, while many of the details of the case were open to alternative explanations from those put forward by the prosecution. They ended up knowing significantly more than the jury ever did, they claim.

"People assume that the jury is privy to all the information, but that is not the case, which is more of a reflection on the justice system," Brown says. "There are lots of gaps and unanswered questions on both sides. What we have done is present all the facts we have so listeners can make up their own minds."

Body of Proof is available to download now on Audible for free with a 30 day trial