A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) is to be held into the death of Renee and Andrew MacRae\u2019s murderer William MacDowell.<\/p>\n
The 81-year-old convicted killer died while serving a life sentence at HMP Glenochil near Stirling.<\/p>\n
Bill MacDowell heading in to court. Picture: Staff photographer.<\/p>\n
As his health deteriorated, the inmate was transferred to Forth Valley Royal Hospital on February 7, 2023, where he died eight days later – five months after his conviction.<\/p>\n
Renee and her three-year-old son disappeared on 12 November 1976, with her BMW car found ablaze in a lay-by near Dalmagarry Quarry, about 12 miles (19km) south of Inverness.<\/p>\n
MacDowell, her lover and Andrew\u2019s biological father, took the secret of where he disposed of their bodies with him to the grave.<\/p>\n
Renee and Andrew MacRae<\/p>\n
The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is obliged to investigate such deaths and an FAI is mandatory.<\/p>\n
As a consequence, COPFS has lodged a First Notice to begin the court process for a Fatal Accident Inquiry into MacDowell \u2019s death.<\/p>\n
MacDowell had been receiving palliative care while in legal custody and in the care of the state at the time of his death.<\/p>\n
A Preliminary Hearing will be held on 7 January at Stirling Sheriff Court.<\/p>\n
William MacDowell and Renee MacRae. Picture credit: Crown Office<\/p>\n
The purpose of a Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI) includes determining the cause of death; the circumstances in which the death occurred, and to establish what, if any, reasonable precautions could have been taken, and could be implemented in the future, to minimise the risk of future deaths in similar circumstances.<\/p>\n
Unlike criminal proceedings, FAIs are inquisitorial in nature, and are used to establish facts rather than to apportion blame.<\/p>\n
Procurator Fiscal Andy Shanks, who leads on fatalities investigations for COPFS, said: \u201cThe Lord Advocate considers that the death of William MacDowell occurred while in legal custody and as such a Fatal Accident Inquiry is mandatory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe lodging of the First Notice enables FAI proceedings to commence under the direction of the Sheriff.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A fatal accident inquiry (FAI) is to be held into the death of Renee and Andrew MacRae\u2019s murderer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":578282,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,188,1102,5899,21530,4884,1501,712,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-578281","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-crime","10":"tag-edinburgh","11":"tag-free","12":"tag-give-me-perspective","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-latest-news","15":"tag-scotland","16":"tag-uk","17":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115570763701348756","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578281","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=578281"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/578281\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/578282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=578281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=578281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=578281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}