A twisted killer who kept his victim’s body in a wheelie bin for more than a year at his home in Edinburgh has died in prison following a bout of pneumonia.
Robert Chalmers was jailed for a minimum of 23 years for the gory murder of Samantha Wright after police found the victim’s partially dismembered body.
The 69-year-old - who had already spent one conviction for murder - was thought to have been in poor health for some time but was rushed to hospital from Saughton prison last week after being found with severe chest pains and shortness of breath.
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Bosses confirmed to the Daily Record that Chalmers had died on Monday.
Officers believe Samantha, 24, was killed in the summer of 2008, only for callous Chalmers to hide her body in the bin outside his home in Magdalene Drive.
At his trial in 2011, it was revealed he had used air fresheners and fly spray to hide the smell of her decomposing body.
It came after Samantha, originally from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, was reported missing by family members on what would have been her 25th birthday in January 2009.
Chalmers had already served nine years of a life sentence imposed for a murder in Renfrewshire in December 1973.
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He had stabbed drinking friend William White, 47, after a row in William's home in Beech Road, Johnstone.
After his release, the handyman and labourer, moved to Edinburgh.
A spokesman for the Scottish Prison Service said: "We do not comment on individual prisoners."
It is understood efforts are underway to trace next of kin.
