AN INVESTIGATION into the death of a nurse who burned to death in a fireball car crash nearly 14 years ago has been reopened.
Claire Webster, 32, died after the Daihatsu Sport Track 4x4 her husband Malcolm was driving careered off a road in rural Aberdeenshire, slammed into a tree and burst into flames.
Mr Webster crawled to safety, but his wife was trapped in the wrec
kage. They had been married for just eight months.
Sources at the time claimed that Mr Webster had taken the narrow road as a change of scenery and was startled when a motorcycle came hurtling towards their car and did not stop.
Mrs Webster's death in May 1994 was originally treated as an accident, but the case has been reopened, it emerged yesterday.
While police are understood to be questioning the new owners of the Websters' Aberdeenshire home, there was no official line on the reason for the new investigation.
However, police are also seeking information on another crash involving the same make of 4x4 car in the months leading up to Ms Webster's death.
A spokesman for Grampian Police said: "We can confirm we are reviewing the tragic circumstances surrounding a road traffic collision on 28 May, 1994, where a woman tragically died.
"The review is at a very early stage and, as is usual in such circumstances, the Crown Office procurator-fiscal service is fully aware of the matter."
Mr Webster, a project nurse manager, moved with his wife from Guilford in Surrey to start a new life together in Scotland. They were married at Aberdeen University's King's College Chapel on 3 September, 1993.
The couple, who never had children, bought East Cattie Cottage in Oldmeldrum, Aberdeenshire, and found work at nearby Kingseat Hospital.
In the immediate aftermath of the crash, Mr Webster was found crawling along a grass verge by a passing motorist.
The emergency services were called, but by the time they arrived the car had exploded into flames and they found it impossible to get to his wife.
Mr Webster was rushed to hospital with severe internal injuries, but recovered. He sold the farmhouse cottage in 1996. However, it is believed police have now asked the owners of the house to see the title deeds.
One of the new owners, who asked not to be identified, said: "When we bought the house from Malcolm Webster, he was working abroad in somewhere like Dubai. It was not until he came to visit our neighbours a couple of years later that we met him. We understood he had married again and was living in Aberdeenshire, before emigrating to New Zealand."
Police have also sent out a letter appealing for information about a crash that happened between March and May of 1994. In it, Detective Inspector Phil Chapman wants to find a farmer who helped a young couple when their Daihatsu 4x4 Sport Track left the road. He towed it back on to the road using a tractor. The letter includes a picture of a green Daihatsu said to be similar to the one involved in the crash.
DI Chapman said: "It is vitally important to my investigation that the person involved in retrieving the vehicle, or anyone with information as to the identity of the farmer, gets in contact with me."
Mr Webster, who is now believed to be living in the south of England, could not be contacted yesterday.
The full article contains 580 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
