One of Scotland's oldest unsolved murders is to be brought to life in a new investigation series more than a century after the mysterious crime. 

Jean Milne, a wealthy spinister who lived in a 23-room home in Broughty Ferry, was bludgeoned to death with a poker and the walls splattered with her blood in 1912. 

Her body was discovered on November 3 after a postman became concerned about the mail piling up behind the door.

A bloodstained carving fork found nearby had been used to stab Ms Milne, and her broken false teeth were scattered across the stairs.

Her murder shocked the country and as the investigation spread to England and Europe, it attracted international media attention.

Now a team from the Leverhulme Research Centre for Forensic Science (LRCFS) at University of Dundee will re-examine the case of Ms Milne, in a crime podcast. 

Over six episodes, the Inside Forensic Science podcast will examine the crime, reviewing original witness statements and exploring the evidence gathered by detectives at the time.

It will explain how forensic science, in its infancy in 1912, has changed and how it might be used in a modern investigation.

The Herald:

Professor Niamh Nic Daeid, director of LRCFS, said: “We are delighted to work with all of the experts who have contributed their knowledge and expertise to reviewing the tragic case of Jean Milne.

“In exploring how science is used in investigations, we can really see some of the advances that have been made, but also how some areas of practice have stayed the same even after 100 years.”

Ms Milne was born in Dundee and lived with her brother, a wealthy tobacco manufacturer, in the mansion.

Following his death in 1903, she lived alone and received an annual income worth more than £100,000 in today’s money as part of her inheritance.

The eastern Dundee suburb of Broughty Ferry was said to be home to the greatest concentration of millionaires in the world at the time, according to the university.

Ms Milne was known to have attended suffragette meetings at the time when local supporters were making the life of Winston Churchill, then MP for Dundee, uncomfortable.

She was unmarried and lived alone in two rooms of her sprawling home, with few close friends – although it was said she enjoyed the company of “younger men” on her frequent foreign holidays and visits to London.

While no money was found in a purse that lay beside the body, nothing else in the home seemed to have been disturbed and expensive jewellery was still at the scene.

There was no sign of forced entry, leading to a hypothesis that she had known and possibly invited her attacker into the house.

A Canadian conman was arrested in London on suspicion of the crime but released when his alibi – that he had been in Antwerp at the time of the murder – checked out.

The series can be found on Spotify, Podbean and Google podcasts.