Lynda Spence: Police dig under way in search for 2011 murder victim

Police searching for the body of a woman murdered more than 10 years ago have started digging after a six-week analysis of a remote area in Argyll.

Financial advisor Lynda Spence was 27 when she was last seen in Glasgow in 2011.

Two men were jailed for life for the kidnap, torture and murder of Ms Spence but her remains were never found.

Forensic experts last month started examining an 8.7-acre area of forestry land, near Dunoon.

The officer leading the inquiry confirmed the next phase of the operation was now under way.

Det Supt Suzanne Chow said: "A detailed assessment of the location has been completed and we have now commenced digging to further explore the site for potential evidence.

"This will be an extremely detailed operation, involving specialist search teams from Police Scotland, forensic scientists and soil experts from across the United Kingdom.

"The family of Lynda Spence are being kept updated as efforts to establish if her remains are within this area continue."

Det Supt Chow urged anyone with information about the case to come forward and speak to officers.

The site, which is next to a B road about five miles (8km) from Dunoon, was cleared of trees in 2016.

Colin Coats and Philip Wade were convicted of killing Ms Spence in April 2013.

Her body has never been found, and only one spot of her blood was discovered in the flat in West Kilbride where she was held.

The men were jailed for life for abducting, torturing and murdering Lynda. Coats was ordered to spend a minimum of 33 years in prison, while Wade will serve at least 30 years.

Two other men, David Parker and Paul Smith, were each jailed for 11 years for assaulting Lynda and holding her captive.

Ms Spence was held at the North Ayrshire flat for two weeks, taped to a chair and not allowed to use the toilet. Her kneecaps were smashed, her hands branded with an iron and one of her thumbs chopped off.

Coats and Wade abducted her on 14 April 2011 after she had failed to pay back money Coats had invested with her.

For the next two weeks, she was kept prisoner in an attic room as the pair tried to force her to reveal details of financial deals.

When it became clear that she had no financial information, they murdered Ms Spence and disposed of her body.

Ms Spence, who was being investigated by the then Strathclyde Police for fraud, had taken an £85,000 investment from Coats, which was all of his money.

Initially Coats, who had a history of violent crime, had hoped for a return of £100,000 but she could not pay and strung him along with the promise of millions from a property deal near Stansted Airport in Essex.

Following the 11-week trial, her parents spoke of their "heartache and pain" over the "terrible ordeal" she suffered at the hands of her killers.

At that time, police appealed for the convicted men to tell them where her body was so her parents could lay her to rest.

Before the trial, Coats had boasted to a cellmate that he smothered Ms Spence, cut off her head and burnt her remains in a furnace.

Coats and Wade are known to have taken her hired Vauxhall Astra on 29 April 2011 to Tighnabruaich, about 20 miles (32km) by road from the site being assessed by police outside Dunoon.

They had asked a friend if they could use his boat, but he refused, saying later he thought "he was being asked to dispose of a body".

Neither the body nor the car has ever been found.