Sixty-six-year-old Alexander “Sandy” McClelland was a well-liked, unassuming man who had moved around Britain a great deal but had settled on the outskirts of Leeds sometime in 1985. He lived on the Whinmoor Estate, which was around the corner from the home of his stepson Brian Horne and Brian’s wife Elizabeth. Sandy spent a great deal of time with Brian and Elizabeth; they often shopped together or had drinks at the local Pendas Arms pub, and Sandy didn’t appear to have any other close friends.
But on September 5th, 1985, Sandy told Brian that a new friend named Stuart was coming to visit him at his home. Brian and Elizabeth were curious to meet him, and asked if they could come over. Sandy agreed. They both described Stuart as a well-dressed man in his early thirties with light brown hair. Stuart reportedly told them that he had moved to Leeds to find work as a driver, and that he’d recently separated from his wife, with whom he had two children. Nothing about the man seemed particularly unusual.
Everything was normal for the following week. On September 12th, Sandy went grocery shopping with Brian and Elizabeth, and the couple later stated that he’d seemed in a good mood, joking around and acting like his regular self. Sandy dropped the pair off at their flat shortly before eight-thirty p.m. and then headed toward home, but ten minutes later, he drove back to Brian and Elizabeth’s to return a pack of cigarettes that Brian had left in the car. This was the last time Sandy was seen alive.
Nearly a month later, Sandy’s vehicle, a pale green Ford Cortina, was found in a parking lot next to the busy Wheelers Working Men’s Club. Sandy’s body was found in the trunk. He had been stabbed to death.
Bizarrely, when Sandy was found, he was wearing clothes that were too big for him, such as jeans that were several inches too long, and a sweater one size too large. There was an Army-issue balaclava on his head with the faded name Kellett scrawled inside in red ink but it isn’t known if the garment actually belonged to Sandy. There was a blanket in the trunk which was likewise found to have been issued by the British Army in 1961. Whether these items belonged to the killer, belonged to Sandy, or were perhaps purchased from a thrift store, is still unclear.
Police looked into the possibility that Sandy was closeted, and had been meeting men in secret. This hypothesis was mostly inspired by reports of the mysterious Stuart, who had visited Sandy a week before his disappearance. Stuart never came forward, and that line of inquiry seems to have gone nowhere.
The investigation was reopened in 2017, but as of this writing, the strange murder of Sandy McClelland remains unsolved.
Crime Immemorial 