The daughter of a woman murdered in her home by a man who was not caught for 35 years said she spent decades wondering if there was “a hidden killer” in her family.
Mother-of-11 Mary McLaughlin was strangled with the cord from her dressing gown in her Glasgow flat in 1984.
Her murder remained unsolved until a DNA breakthrough led detectives to convicted rapist Graham McGill in 2019.
He was on the last night of pre-parole leave from prison when he followed Mary home on the night of September 26, 1984.
Her body was found six days later by her son Martin Cullen.
McGill was already back in prison in Edinburgh and did not feature in the original police investigation.
In an episode of BBC Scotland’s Murder Case, The Hunt for Mary McLaughlin’s Killer, Mary’s daughter Gina McGavin says she believed for decades that someone close to Mary was responsible.
She said: “I thought there was a hidden killer within the family. I was sure it was someone close and I knew police had interviewed everyone.
“I voiced my suspicions to the police but nothing could be proved.”
She added: “It’s been a long, hard journey.”
Martin, who discovered his mum’s body, said: “For years you’re looking at your siblings and thinking, ‘Was it one of her own children?’ We were all suspects.”
On the night she died, Mary was said to be happy and had been playing dominoes in her local pub.
She sometimes invited people back to her flat when she had been drinking.
The documentary also hears from forensic scientist Joanne Cochrane and original investigating police officer Detective Superintendent Iain Wishart, who said Mary’s case “stayed with him” long after he retired.
Such was his belief that he had escaped capture, McGill bragged to his ex-wife that he had killed a woman “to see what it was like”.
He was arrested by police in 2019 after a DNA advance at the Scottish Crime Campus in Lanarkshire.
Forensic scientist Joanne used pioneering DNA24 tech to re-examine the dressing gown cord used to kill Mary.
She found evidence of the murderer and victim in an untied knot and identified a DNA match for McGill on a database of sex criminals.
McGill was found guilty of Mary’s murder by a jury in 2021. He was handed a life sentence with a minimum of 14 years behind bars.
Last night, Gina told the Record: “I still believe there are questions needing answered about my mother’s murder. Answers I am unlikely to ever get but I won’t stop hoping.
“McGill might be in prison but I don’t think justice has been done for my mother. I believe someone else got away with their part in her death.”
● Murder Case: The Hunt for Mary McLaughlin’s Killer will be broadcast on BBC Scotland on Tuesday at 9pm.
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