POLICE looking for Margaret Fleming have hit a brick wall as the search for the missing Inverkip woman enters its fifth month.

The detective in charge of the inquiry says officers are still combing her home looking for new leads and that Margaret's carers remain unwilling to make a public plea to help find her.

The inquiry team is also liaising with Crown Office chiefs amid concern that she may have come to harm.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Livingstone — who is leading the missing person inquiry — has told the Telegraph that Scotland’s prosecution service is being kept updated on the progress of the investigation.

Meanwhile, 37-year-old Margaret’s carers, Edward Cairney and Avril Jones, who have told officers that they last saw her at 5.40pm on October 28 last year, are still not prepared to make a public appeal to help find her.

An intensive search at Seacroft — the isolated home on the edge of the River Clyde that Margaret shared with Mr Cairney, 75, and Ms Jones, 56 — continues as the UK-wide inquiry enters its 18th week.

DCI Livingstone said: “We will remain there for as long as it takes and we are leaving no stone unturned.

“There could be a scrap of paper or contact details for someone that takes us further forward.”

Asked if the Crown had been approached in order to have Margaret, inset, officially declared dead, Mr Livingstone said that ‘no report’ has been made to the department.

But he confirmed: “We do have liaison with the procurator fiscal and keep them updated on what we have.

“However, there is no evidence of criminality and this remains a missing person inquiry.

“Margaret was reported missing on October 28 last year — that’s when she was last seen at Seacroft, so that’s our start point.”

However, the last independent sighting of the missing woman was in December 1999 at a family gathering.

The Telegraph previously asked Police Scotland if Mr Cairney and Miss Jones would be willing to take part in a public appeal to try and help find Margaret, but we were told that this opportunity had been declined by them.

DCI Livingstone confirmed that this remains the case.

He said: “There is always the possibility that Margaret has come to harm in some way.

“She could have been walking in a remote area and fallen, she could have taken ill or had feelings of low mood.

“Or she could be living with someone and doesn’t want to come forward.” 
Asked about the assistance provided by Margaret’s carers to the

investigation, Mr Livingstone said: “We have spoken to several hundred people and they have been as co-operative as the next person.

“If there is anything we feel we have to ask them we will go to them.”

As well as searching the missing woman’s home, police have quizzed hundreds of people in a ‘stop and speak’ operation, excavated the back garden of Seacroft, drafted in forensics teams, divers and the dog branch and their search remains ongoing. 

Before Margaret started living with her carers in 1997, she’d stayed with her father Frederick in Port Glasgow until his death in 1995.

She then lived with her grandparents and mother, also Margaret, until moving in with Mr Cairney and Ms Jones.

If anyone has any information about the whereabouts of Margaret Fleming they should contact police on 101.