When drink-driver Alexander McKellar hit a father-of-two as he battled through an overnight stretch of a 100-mile charity bike ride in the Scottish Highlands, he could have stopped to help.
Instead, he left Tony Parsons to die. Later, McKellar and his twin brother Robert - who had been in the passenger seat – returned to stage an elaborate cover-up.
The pair buried the former Naval petty officer with an excavator in a remote peat bog where animal carcasses were disposed of - where he lay undiscovered for more than three years.
For Mr Parson's heartbroken family, every hour after his disappearance on 29 September 2017 must have been agony.
But they finally learned his fate thanks to the brave actions of McKellar’s partner Caroline Muirhead, who turned in her fiance after he made a drunken confession in late 2020, after just five weeks of dating.
Caroline Muirhead, the former partner of Alexander McKellar leaves the High Court, Glasgow, following the sentence hearing— (PA)
The quick-thinking forensic pathologist even managed to drop a Red Bull can on the ground when McKellar led her to the burial site, ensuring detectives would eventually be able to find Mr Parson's remains.
McKellar was sentenced on Friday to 12 years in prison at the High Court in Glasgow for killing the 63-year-old, after hitting him in his pick-up truck on the A82 near Bridge of Orchy, Argyll and Bute.
Originally charged with murdering Mr Parsons, the 31 year-old pleaded guilty last month to an amended charge of culpable homicide.
His brother Robert was jailed for five years and three months, having admitted to attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
Mr Parsons, a cancer survivor who loved “nothing more” than playing with his grandchildren, had planned to ride through the night to complete a 100-mile journey from Fort William back to his home in Tillicoultry, Clackmannanshire.
Victim Tony Parsons died after being hit by a car in 2017 (Family handout/PA)— (PA Media)
He travelled north by train on the morning of September 29 2017 to start the journey and was last seen having a drink in the Bridge of Orchy hotel at 11pm.
The McKellar brothers had been drinking in the same bar before they crashed into him on the A82 on their way back home to the 9,000-acre Auch Estate in Argyll.
McKellar admitted driving on the A82 at "excess speed and when unfit through alcohol".
He left Mr Parsons by the side of the road "in a remote location during the hours of darkness and in inclement weather", causing his death.
The court heard in a narrative last month how some time between September 29 2017 and January 3 2021, the McKellar brothers returned to the A82 and moved Mr Parsons's body to the Auch Estate and buried him.
McKellar met Ms Muirhead on Tinder just five weeks before he admitted what he had done. Before that horrifying revelation, the pair had experienced a whirlwind romance, with the deerstalker telling her he wanted to marry her only a few weeks into their relationship.
Ms Muirhead said she was newly single having come out of an abusive relationship, and that meeting him “was like an escape”.
“Looking back, it was so embarrassing but I wanted to have that affection and someone who cared about me,” she told the Sunday Mail.
An aerial view of the Auch estate, where the body of charity cyclist Mr Parsons was moved— (PA)
His confession to Ms Muirhead came after she spotted him appear visibly tense when a police car drove past them.
“I asked him, “What is it? What is going on? What is it you’re not telling me?”,” she told the newspaper.
“I said if we were going to be together and be a team, he needed to tell me what was wrong and I’d support him.
“He started having a panic attack. He was gasping and started wailing. Then he told me what he’d done something that he’d got away with for years.”
Ms Muirhead, from Glasgow, added: “I was in shock, frozen almost. I didn't know what to believe.
“This man I thought I could be with for the rest of my life had just told me he was a killer. I didn't know what to do.”
In court, advocate depute Alex Prentice KC said that McKellar had told his girlfriend that he had been "distracted" by headlights and struck something on the side of the A82, which turned out to be Mr Parsons.
The brothers also hid Mr Parsons's bicycle behind a waterfall on the Auch Estate but this has never been recovered, the court heard.
The two men were arrested on December 20, 2020 and Mr Parsons's body was recovered for forensic investigation in January 2021.
The killer’s brother Robert McKellar, pleaded guilty to attempting to defeat the ends of justice— (PA)
Members of Mr Parsons's family, including his widow Margaret and children Mike and Victoria, were in court for the sentencing on Friday.
In a statement following the brother’s guilty pleas last month, they spoke of the devastating toll his disappearance had taken on the family, adding that justice had been done “at last”.
"As you can imagine, not knowing what has happened to someone and then the devastating news that we were provided has taken its toll on all of us as a family,” they said.
"At last justice has been done and we would like to thank not only the court officials and officers from Police Scotland's major investigation team, Forth Valley Division; and other Police Scotland departments who worked on this case, but all the volunteers and mountain rescue teams who tirelessly searched for him in the earlier stages of the inquiry."
Following the court case, Ms Muirhead said she fears for her safety when McKellar is released from prison, telling Sky News on Friday: “You’re telling me that man is not going to come knock on my door when he gets out?”
She is reported to be considering legal action against Police Scotland over claims she felt pressured into spying on her ex after she alerted them to the grave.
She is also said to have lodged multiple complaints against the force, with the Crown Office referring eight complaints to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner (PIRC).
PIRC confirmed the Crown Office had instructed them to look at the case.
A spokesperson said: "Pirc has been instructed to investigate allegations of criminality in relation to this matter by the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS).
"As this is a live investigation, we are unable to provide further comment."
A spokesperson for Police Scotland said: "It would not be appropriate to comment on these assertions as criminal proceedings have not concluded.
"There are a number of outstanding complaints which will be progressed at the conclusion of all criminal proceedings."
