Hi, and welcome back to The Unseen Podcast, a podcast dedicated to missing
people, unresolved cases, and UK true crime. Today we're going to be
exploring the murder of Helen Kine in Edinburgh in nineteen seventy. Helen was a
twenty five year old mother of four and she did not deserve what happened to
her. Helen's murder is still unsolved over fifty years later, and we were
all still wondering what happened. This episode contains descriptions that some listeners may find
distressing, including the brief description of the murder of a child, so listener
discretion is advised. Greendike's Terrace is located around four miles from the center of
Edinburgh in Scotland. It's located in the Nidrie area of the city, which
was and still is a residential suburb outside of the city. Nidri has had
its fair share of problems over the years with crime and anti social behavior.
These issues were more prevalent during the nineteen eighties to two thousands, and the
crime rate has come down since then with redevelopment plans being put into place.
The western side of the area is also known by the name Craig Miller and
is sometimes referred to as this. Joe and Helen Kine lived in Greendike's Terrace
in nineteen seventy with their four children, aged six, five, three,
and ten months old. Joe was twenty seven years old at the time and
was working as a porter a Deaconess hospital, while Helen was twenty five years
old and spent her time bringing up her young family. By all accounts,
Helen was a dedicated mode who lived for her children and loved to be involved
in all aspects of their lives. On the weekend of the twenty third of
May nineteen seventy, Helen and Joe were celebrating their wedding anniversary and they decided
to go out with some of their friends and neighbors to enjoy themselves. The
couple took their four children round to helen sister Janet's house for the evening and
they headed out with two other couples, Rosemary Cook and her husband Brian,
and Jim and Betty Whitehead. The group had a plan to visit the Duel
Miners Club, which was located around one and a half miles away in Nidry.
The group met up and headed out to the club after seven pm.
When they arrived, however, Rosemary Cook stated that they weren't able to get
into the club that night after all. Rosemary said that it was at this
point that they decided to leave Helen and Joe and the other couple. She
told the Aberdeen Evening Express at the time, we couldn't get into the club
and Brian and I left mister and Missus Kane and the other couple at seven
thirty pm. They said they were going to Leith, but I don't know
exactly where they were going. That was the last time I saw Missus Kane.
Rosemary Cook and her husband thought nothing of this exchange and decided to go
home. It was only the next day that she would discover, as she
described it, the tragedy. A man named Christopher Holmes had been walking his
dog named Dougal south of Arthur Street in the area of Leith, not far
from the center of the city. He passed a shallow excavation pit located on
a building site that was on the street, and as he did he noticed
something very unusual. He spotted the body of a woman. She was nearly
nude and was covered in blood. It was clear that something had happened to
this woman and that she must have been attacked. Police and emergency services were
called out to the scene and they discovered that the woman was indeed deceased.
It was clear from her severe head injuries that her death had been the result
of foul play. In fact, it would later be hypothesized that she had
been hit with a paving slab. This brutal attack and murder was horrific,
and the police now had to try and figure out who would have killed this
woman and also who this woman was. They were able to eventually identify her
as twenty five year old Helen Kine. The fact that Helen was the victim
of a murder seemed completely incomprehensible to those that knew her. She was not
someone who put herself in harm's way. I was a high risk victim.
As far as those that knew her understood. Rosemary Cock stated that she was
an attractive, quiet person who lived for her children. She was not someone
who anyone could imagine this awful tragedy happening to. Police now knew who their
victim was, but the question was how had she ended up on this building
site and what were her movements Before this point, officers began by tracking down
where she went that evening and discovered that she'd been out with two other couples
that night, and speaking to Rosemary Cook, they found that Helen, her
husband Joe and Jim and Betty Whitehead had apparently been heading towards Leith after being
unable to get into the Dual Miners Club in Nidery. They also had some
information that they may have been heading towards Doccer's Club on Academy Street in Leith.
This was an important piece of information given that it was in Leith that
Helen's body was found. In an article published just a day after the discovery
of her body, police were already trying to appeal for witnesses who may have
seen something that night. Detective Chief Inspector Alistair Morrison stated that they believe the
victim may have taken the number twelve bus from nid Remains with another young woman
around seven forty five pm, just after they realized they couldn't get into the
Dual Miners Club, they were heading towards Leith. He said. They are
believed to have got off the bus near the foot of Leith Walk. We
are anxious to trace this young woman who was with the victim and any other
persons traveling on that bus. This statement implies that this woman was perhaps not
Betty Whitehead, who was the other woman with them. However, nothing has
been elaborated on in relation to this. Detective Chief Inspector Morrison also stated that
they wanted to trace any taxi drivers who may have taken a couple to the
Dunbe Dykes area. He said, we want to know if a couple were
taken by taxi to the Dunbe Dykes area between eleven pm that night and two
am the following morning. Initially, it seemed that police were just looking for
as much information as they could get and any witnesses were welcome. By the
next day, the twenty sixth of May, Detective Chief Superintendent Ronald Clancy,
who headed the CID unit, stated that they knew that Helen had been with
friends on that Saturday night and that they had traveled to the Leath area of
the city. He explained that they believed that Helen left these friends at around
eleven twenty five pm, and this was in Duke Street in Leith. He
appealed for anyone that may have been in Duke Street at between eleven pm and
midnight. Who might have either seen Helen alone or with someone else to come
forward with information. A description of Helen was also publicized. She was described
as five feet six inches tall, well built and with dark brown hair.
She was wearing an oatmeal jacket with a dark brown collar and lapels, and
off white skirt, off white nylon blouse, white slingback sandals and carrying an
off white handbag. It was hoped that someone may recognize her and have some
crucial information. It was clear that after Helen left or got separated from the
other people in her company, police were unsure where she went or who she
went with. Detective Chief Inspector Morrison also added some more information from potential witnesses.
He told the Aberdeen Evening Express about eleven forty pm on Saturday, a
man was seen assisting a woman into a taxi cab in Duke Street, Leih.
The man then also entered the taxi cab and it drove towards Easter Road.
We are particularly anxious to trace the driver of this cab. He also
added that around two am, a man and a woman were seen walking in
Holyrood Park on the Arthur's seat side, around two miles from Duke Street in
Leith, where Helen was last seen. Police stated that they wanted to interview
this couple that were seen there. Said officers were making door to door inquiries
in the Leith area hoping to track down some information about Helen. As a
result, they did gain some more possibly important information about a woman that had
taken a taxi to the Royal Park Terrace area from lock End Road at the
junction of Easter Road and Duke Street. Crucially, Helen and the group she'd
been with had been in Duke Street in Leith. This woman was spotted around
eleven fifty pm and it was thought that she could have traveled one of two
ways. She could have walked along Milton Street to Holyrood Park or via Abbey
Hill to Holyrood Road and Dunbe Dyke's Road. It was unclear who this woman
was or if she was Helen or she had anything to do with Helen.
However, police were anxious to trace her. They also wanted to trace a
man who had given a young couple a lift that night. The man was
thought to have had a Vauxhall Crest car and said that he was involved in
civil engineering with the West Lothian County Council. He also talked about living in
Linlithgow. This man gave the couple a lift from Lorriston near Falkirk to their
home in the Niddery Marechale area of Edinburgh. It's unclear the importance or the
relevance of this man giving the couple a lift. However, it's assumed that
this may have been connected to another witness sighting or piece of evidence, or
that this person may have seen something that evening. There was another piece of
evidence that police wanted to find out more about, and that was Helen's purse.
This had been missing from Helen's handbag when her body was found and police
wanted anyone with information or anyone that had seen the purse to come forward.
It was described as being an off white plastic type with a smooth surface measuring
about five inches by four inches with a clasp fastener on the top. It
has a wallet compartment on the side with the press stud fastening. In new
condition, the purse had ten pounds in total in it and this was made
up of two five pound notes. It was thought that releasing this information about
Helen's purse. Someone may have seen it or have seen someone with it,
and they may be able to give the police a tip. It was evidence
that police were getting more and more concerned about Helen's case the longer that it
went unsolved and May turned into June without much progress being made. Helen was
a mother of four and her children and family had been left without any answers
as to what happened to her. In two seventeen, one of Helen's sons,
Michael, would tell the Sun newspaper that this period of time was hard
for the whole family because their father, Joe, left the children with their
mother's sister, their Auntie Janet, shortly after Helen's murder. He stated that
his father left and went to live in Manchester, later having another family.
Janet brought them up and he said, when she was killed, our Auntie
Janet took us in. We called her Auntie Mum, but we never told
anyone that she wasn't our real mum. We didn't want to tell anybody in
case we seem different. We grew up to be streetwise and never really fitted
in at school. The trauma that this whole family must have felt is so
evident, and particularly Helen's children during this time of the investigation, with no
idea what could have happened to their mother or why. It would seem that
police were working under the theory that Helen had become separated from the rest of
the group that she was with and had possibly been seen with other people around
the area at that time. Strangely, however, in my research, I
haven't been able to find any statements or comments made by the other couple or
by Helen's husband, Joe, so the circumstances of how she would have been
separated a largely unknown. Officers were looking into other crimes in the local area
and were trying to see if there were any other connections that could be made.
One of the lines of inquiry that they looked into was that Helen's murder
was very similar to another assault that had happened a month prior in April.
An article in The Scotsman in July led with the headline police on alert to
trap killer. Officers were made aware of an incident that occurred when a woman
was drinking in a pub in Leaf. The woman had been drinking with a
man and she was later found alive but with head injuries around half a mile
from where Helen had been discovered. Was of interest to police due to the
number of similarities that there were. The woman had been in the same area
and had been found with head injuries. They had both also been out over
a holiday weekend. The woman in April had been out over the Edinburgh Spring
holiday and Helen was out over wit holiday weekend. In this case, as
the woman was alive, she was able to give police a description of the
man. He was between twenty five and thirty five years of age, well
built, fair to auburn hair, wearing a green or dark colored jacket.
He spoke a lot of Celtic Football club and claimed to be a Keen supporter.
Detective Chief Inspector Ronald Clancy, leading the investigation, said, there are
similarities in the two cases which we cannot ignore. We were hoping that this
man would come back to the public house the Black Bull, and we had
been keeping a watch on it. This was not the only line of inquiry
in the case. Police had been looking into the idea that Helen's case could
be linked to the Bible John killings in Glasgow. These were the murders of
Patricia Docker Jemima McDonald and Helen Puttock in the city between nineteen sixty eight and
nineteen sixty nine. These murders were known nationally at the time and what on
people's mind, as the man who had committed them had not been apprehended.
The identity of Bible John has still not been found out to this day and
it remains unsolved. I covered these cases back in March last year on the
podcast If You Want to Learn More About Them. The police did reportedly look
into a possible connection with those murders. However, they stated that the link
between them was unlikely. This could of course be due to the location in
another city, and also the mo o was very different. So called Bible
John strangled his victims and Helen has seemingly been hit with a paving. There
was also known sexual assault in the other murders, which seemed to be a
driving force. This was of course a line of inquiry that needed looking into
due to how close in time Helen's murder had happened. The last known Bible
John killing in October nineteen sixty nine. Another line of inquiry that was also
looked into was the possible connection to World's end murderer Angus Sinclair. Angus Sinclair
was convicted of the murders of Helen Scott and Christine Edy in two thousand and
fourteen. This conviction came thirty seven years after the crimes, which took place
in October nineteen seventy seven. Helen Scott and Christine Edy were just seventeen when
they left the World's End pub in Edinburgh. Their bodies were later found the
following day. Christine was found in Gosford Bay, East Lothian, and Helen's
body was found six miles away in a corn field. Both girls had been
found naked, beaten, gagged and tied up. Both girls had also been
raped. The case would hit many stumbling blocks, but police would eventually narrow
down on Angus Sinclair and his brother in law, Gordon Hamilton. There were
several reasons why police had narrowed down on him. In two thousand and four
a DNA hit was made to evidence found at the crime scenes. This DNA
hit led them to Angus Sinclair, and then a second one was made to
his brother in law, Gordon Hamilton. Fibers were also found inside the car
that Sinclair was using, which could be matched to Christine and Helen. Sinclair
was already in prison, having been convicted of murdering teenager Mary Gallagher three years
earlier. This was also a historic crime, having taken place just a year
after the murders of Christine and Helen had also been in prison as a teenager,
having killed a seven year old girl. Sinclair was clearly a very dangerous
man, and police were convinced that he was responsible for the world's end murders
as well. He was taken to trial in two thousand and seven, but
in a shocked decision, the trial was overturned due to a lack of sufficient
evidence. This was a huge disappointment for the girls families who had waited so
long for justice. In two and eleven, the law surrounding double jeopardy was
changed, meaning that people could be retried for the same crime if new compelling
evidence was presented. In two thousand and fourteen, Sinclair was taken to trial
a second time with new DNA evidence, and this time he was convicted of
Helen Scott and Christine Edy's murders, finally giving their families some justice. It
was clear that due to Sinclair's violent background and his proximity to the area where
Helen came was murdered, police were interested in speaking to him about the murder.
In the article in The Sun, Helen's son, Michael pointed to Sinclair
as a possible suspect in his mother's case and stated that he was only living
a mile and a half away from where it had taken place after he had
been released from prison following the attack and murder of the seven year old child.
He stated, I don't think Sinclair will ever admit that he killed my
mum. It might be that if he was dying, he would want to
do the right thing and tell us one way or the other. I don't
know if it was him, but if he was capable of killing those two
lasses, then he would have been capable of killing my mom. I was
only five years old when she was killed. But it's been a shadow over
my whole life. There has never been a time where it has not been
there. I'm sure my life would have been very different if my mum hadn't
been murdered. We always lived our lives thinking that maybe one day we would
find out who had done this to her. We always wanted to find out
and Angus Sinclair could have the answer. Angus Sinclair died in twenty nineteen without
revealing any involvement in the murder of Helen Kine, and it's only reported that
he gave an alibi for the evening, which included family members of his This
in no doubt caused Helen's family even more trauma and despair. Helen's son Michael,
has been very open about how his mother's murder and the fact it still
unsolved, has affected him. He spoke about how it had affected his family
when his father had left them with their Auntie Janet, and how he and
his siblings even speculated as to whether he could have been involved with it.
He said, I don't have much memory of my mum. I know she
was a nice woman and looked after us all. I remember they'd wanted to
split us up because our dad moved to Manchester and had a new family.
We felt angry with our dad. If it was me and your wife died
and you had four kids, wouldn't you want to keep them? But he
just went off to Manchester. He got money after my mum died, some
kind of criminal injuries compensation. My brother Joe called it blood money. When
we turned eighteen, we all got two thousand pounds each. He also discussed
how he and his family had dealt with trauma since his mother's murder. He
himself had nearly died after being hit by a motorcycle and suffering a brain hemorrhage,
and then later being involved in a hundred mile an hour bike crash.
He said his family had also suffered several bereavements when his aunt Janet, his
father Joe, and two of his brothers, Joe Junior and Raymond, passed
away. He had been sharing a flat with his brother Joe in two fifteen
at the time, and he found him and had to try and revive him.
I came back from a night out and I thought he was sleeping.
I started shaking him and I phoned nine nine nine and they told me to
do CPR. It seemed like it took forever for the paramedics to come.
I kept trying to revive him. I was saying, have you got him,
have you got him? He was only fifty one. Janet died suddenly
three weeks after Raymond passed away in nineteen ninety nine. It was a very
tough time. I felt I was never away from the crematorium somebody gave Raymond
methadone, which he had never taken in his life. I don't know why
he was clean living. His trauma is clear, and his mother's murder is
never far away from his mind. He stated that his brother Raymond, had
been fighting to find out what had happened to her before his death. He
stated, my brother had been the one who was always asking questions. He
was determined to find out who killed my mum. Now I don't know if
we will ever get any answers. This idea is so sad and such a
tragedy. Despite the time that has elapsed, Helen's family should be able to
have hope that it will be solved, but sadly, fifty three years later,
no one has been convicted. Police have confirmed that they do have several
pieces of evidence still in storage, including items that were found on or around
her body. Its hope that as DNA technology continues to improve, these items
can be tested and a profile could be found. This is a positive aspect
of the case and means that Helen's murder does still have a chance at being
conclusively solved. There have been setbacks, however, as a move of headquarters
during the nineteen seventies led to the loss of some important evidence like Helen's post
mortem report and a piece of hair that was found in her hair which could
have proven vital. There is hope in this case that the person responsible for
Helen's brutal killing can be identified. A police spokesman for Police Scotland. Dated
unresolved murders are cases that are never closed and Police Scotland is fully committed to
identifying those people responsible for all such cases. Police Scotland works closely with the
Crown Office and procurate a fiscal service and meets regularly to review outstanding unresolved murders
from across the country, working collaboratively as the Homicide Governance Board. The potential
for new investigative opportunities are regularly assessed to maximize the ability to deliver justice for
grieving families, irrespective of the passage of time. We would appeal to anyone
who has information which could assist in such cases to contact Police Scotland via the
one oh one number. Information can also be provided through Crime Stoppers on eight
hundred five one one one, where anonymity can be maintained. Helen's case deserves
to be solved and her family deserve answers for what happened. Children have suffered
enough after her death, and it's my hope that in the future they do
find out what happened to her. Thank you for listening to today's episode.
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that wherever you listen and in the show notes. As always, I'm Caprice
and this has been unseen