The distraught mother of a young man who has been missing for more than three months has vowed she will “not rest” until she gets justice for her son.
Shaun Ritchie vanished in mysterious circumstances after a Halloween night out with friends.
His disappearance led to a massive search and police investigation.
Items of clothing worn by the 20-year-old on the night he went missing were recovered from marshland near where he was last seen.
But there have been no major developments in nearly 100 days and searches in remote countryside near Fraserburgh have been suspended.
His mother Carol-Ann has broken her silence to speak exclusively to the Press and Journal – and describe the agonising future she and her family are facing without Shaun.
Last night she said: “I didn’t realise that would be the last time I’d see him, the last time he’d walk out the door.
“It’s the moment when I look at that clock and count the hours, minutes, seconds. It’s disgusting and ridiculous they can’t find him. It’s heart breaking.
“I’ve got no closure, that’s what we want. He’s got a 10-year-old brother, asking every day if he’s coming home.”
Speaking from her Fraserburgh home, sitting beside a portrait of her son drawn after he vanished, she added: “I’m struggling now – worse than when it happened.
“How can someone be missing for three months?”
The 37-year-old’s made her comments about the ongoing police investigation were made as the force confirmed daily searches had been suspended, five weeks after officers were pulled out of a stretch of land near Strichen.
She said: “At the beginning, with the mountain rescue teams and the dogs, I valued what the police were doing. But not now.
“Your local police are supposed to be there for you. I feel helpless. I feel let down by the system.
“But not by the public, they’ve been fantastic and I can’t thank them enough.”
Despite repeated statements from the police that investigating officers have discovered no evidence of foul play in the case, Shaun’s mother says she is determined to find out the truth.
She said: “It’s a massive wilderness out there – I realise that – but somebody knows something. Someone knows something, how can they sit there and know? How can they sleep at night?
“I’m not going to rest until I get justice for my bairn, one way or another.”
A police spokeswoman said: “The inquiry into the disappearance of Shaun Ritchie continues to be treated as a missing person case.
“Whilst the daily searches for Shaun have been suspended, search activity to try and trace Shaun will continue as intelligence and information is received.
“Anyone with information is asked to contact Police Scotland on 101.”
The circumstances surrounding Mr Ritchie’s disappearance have never been fully revealed, but it is understood he was drinking with friends at a pub in Fraserburgh on Halloween.
He then travelled with a small group to the Greenburn area north-west of Strichen.
Mr Ritchie was last seen in the early hours of Saturday, November 1 and the search and rescue operation – which included dozens of friends and family members as well as police dogs, divers, mountain rescue teams and a helicopter – focused on this area.
Volunteers came from as far afield as Stonehaven and Elgin, with many people taking several days off work at a time to search.