Twenty-year-old Ann Ballantine lived alone in a flat on Yeaman Place in Edinburgh, Scotland. According to her family, she was a “happy-go-lucky” young woman who would visit her parents often for meals and to do her laundry.
However, when Christmas of 1986 rolled around, Ann was notably absent from the annual family celebration, and her mother Isobel realized she hadn’t seen her daughter for several weeks. Concerned, Ann’s parents reported her missing.
In January 1987, the family’s search came to a tragic end. Ann’s nude body was found in a canal only one hundred yards from her home. She had been raped and strangled, and her remains were then wrapped in a carpet.
Her clothing, purse, lighter, and two keys were missing from her person, and when police searched her residence, they found that a photo album and a camera had also been taken, presumably by the killer.
Forensic analysis determined that Ann had likely been murdered shortly after she disappeared in November of 1986, and her body was then kept somewhere for a time before being dumped. Her remains had only been in the water for a few days.
Ann’s father Graham was convinced that he knew who had killed his daughter, stating that jealousy was the likely motive. He told authorities that he had a photo of Ann and her ostensible killer, but never named the possible suspect publicly.
Detectives, though, theorized that Ann may have been an early victim of John Taylor, also known as the Beast of Bramley. Taylor was convicted in 2002 for the slaying of sixteen-year-old Leanne Tiernan, who went missing in November 2000 and whose remains were discovered in August 2001. Just as in the Ann Ballantine case, it was believed that Leanne had been murdered almost immediately after being abducted and then kept on ice for months before being dumped.
John Taylor also pleaded guilty to two additional rapes and is also a suspect in the 1992 murder of Yvonne Fitt in Bradford, West Yorkshire.
The investigation into the rape and murder of Ann Ballantine remains open and unsolved as of July 2024.
Crime Immemorial 