COATBRIDGE, Scotland, Jan. 8 (UPI) -- A Scottish family has given permission for the family plot to be opened to determine if a missing girl's body was hidden there half a century ago.
The family of Moira Anderson believes she was killed by Alexander Gartshore, a bus driver and convicted child molester who died in 2006, The Scotsman reported. Gartshore knew Sinclair Upton, who died and was buried in Old Monkland Cemetery around the time Moira vanished in 1957.
Moira, 11, left her home in Coatbridge to buy something for her grandmother at a nearby store.
Janet Hart, Moira's sister, petitioned to search the Upton plot. Gartshore's daughter, Sandra Brown, who has written a book outlining her belief her father killed the girl, said she believes Moira's body will be found.
Sinclair Upton, great-grandson of the man who was buried in 1957, said the family finds the exhumation upsetting but wants Moira's family to learn the truth.
"I just hope they find that wee lassie to give the family a bit of closure," he said.
The excavation is to begin Tuesday and is expected to take several days. It will be carried out by Strathclyde Police working with Sue Black, a forensic anthropologist who heads the Center for Anatomy and Human Identification at Dundee University.
