For the first time in forty years, the police officer who discovered the bodies of three murdered soldiers in a remote Scottish valley has spoken publicly about the chilling experience. PC Bill Anderson followed a trail of blood in thick snow in the Pentland Hills for almost two miles before finding the bodies of Staff Sgt Terrance Hosker, Pte John Thomson and retired Maj David Cunningham. He told BBC Scotland News he was alone with the bodies for almost an hour as he waited for backup from colleagues, not knowing if the gunman was going to return and kill him.
The so-called Glencorse massacre left him so traumatised he never until now returned to the hills where he played as a child and roamed as a fell runner. Earlier this week he finally returned to the scene to lay flowers, accompanied by former colleague Dougie Allan and a BBC Scotland reporter. The police officer said he felt emotional being there but also felt that he now had a sense of peace from the hills.
Both Mr Anderson, who was 39 at the time, and Allan, then 35, arrived at the beauty spot on 17 January 1985, after receiving a call from a local postman saying a Land Rover was stuck in a ditch. They had been out in their panda car looking for a Land Rover that was late back to Glencorse barracks in Midlothian. It had been used to transport soldiers’ wages picked up from a bank in nearby Penicuik. When they found the vehicle it was a “bloodbath” – but there was no sign of any driver of passengers.
Another solider, Andrew Walker, was later arrested and eventually sentenced to life for the triple murder. He had hijacked the Land Rover which had been carrying soldiers’ wages and shot and killed two of the soldiers in the vehicle and made Pte Thomson drive into the Pentland Hills to dump the bodies before he was also executed.
A plaque now marks the spot where the soldiers’ bodies were found. Both Mr Anderson and Mr Allan are urging the Army to build a memorial to the murdered soldiers
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