THE senior police officer leading the search to find missing Inverkip woman Margaret Fleming says the operation is now UK-wide.

Detective Chief Inspector Paul Livingstone, inset, today pledged that no stone has been left unturned in the effort to trace Margaret.

The 36-year-old, pictured below, was reported missing from her home by her carers last October and despite the massive investigation which has been under way ever since, no breakthrough has been made.

In an exclusive interview with the Greenock Telegraph today, DCI Livingstone said: “We have been searching the house and are going through lots and lots of documents and paperwork – anything that might give us a clue or indication of where Margaret is.”

He added: “We are also continuing to make inquiries and with other police forces, health services and social work services UK-wide and if we feel we have to expand this inquiry to overseas, we will do that.”

The detective stressed once again that Margaret’s carers Edward Cairney, 75, and Avril Jones, 56, who were the last people to see her, are not under investigation.

The Telegraph has asked Police Scotland if the couple would be willing to take part in a public appeal to try and help find Margaret, but we have been told that this opportunity had been declined by them.

When asked if her carers were under suspicion, DCI Livingstone replied: “At the moment no crime has been committed and it is a missing person inquiry.

“They are assisting us with the inquiry. 

“They have been out of their house for several months to assist us and allow us to methodically go through every inch of the house, every slip of paper to help lead us to where Margaret is.”

He described the couple as being ‘patient’ during the past few months.
Earlier in the inquiry, DCI Livingstone stated that there was a possibility that Margaret ‘may have come to some harm’.

With no trace of her having been found yet, the Telegraph yesterday asked if he believed that she was no longer alive.

The senior detective said: “That is a possibility, we need to be able to prove that, taking out any aspect of criminality 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. 

“We can’t make her come back, if she is happy where she is and if she is reading any of these reports we just want to know she is safe and well.”

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 the property using diggers, 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. 

Detectives say that the case is particularly challenging because Margaret was a very private person and the last independent sighting of her was in December 1999 at a family gathering. 

DCI Livingstone said: “There could be a whole range of reasons for that.
“She could have left the country, we just don’t know.”

He revealed that the most recent public appeal in December has so far failed to shed new light on Margaret’s whereabouts.

DCI Livingstone told the Tele: “We’re still working our way through the responses and speaking to people who knew her in the past but it hasn’t taken us any further and we have had no reports of any new sightings.

“People live private lives, there are people who don’t go out a lot and prefer their own company.

“She could be living under an alias and changed her name.

“Margaret has mild learning difficulties with reading and writing but nothing to stop her getting up and ready and going to college in the morning.”

Police have now confirmed they have samples of DNA to help them with their inquiry and the DCI says they have been used in efforts to help trace Margaret through the missing persons bureau.

DCI Livingstone said: “We have been provided with items by Margaret’s carers and we have her DNA.”

Meanwhile the search at Margaret’s house in Inverkip is expected to continue for months to come.

DCI Livingstone said: “We will continue to search for any evidence to get any information, looking in every box, every shelf - it is quite a substantial house - until we are 100 per cent satisfied that we have every clue.”

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