The woman who played a vital role in bringing Renee and Andrew MacRae’s killer to justice has died.
Retired nurse Val Steventon was Renee’s best friend and confidante – and when the Inverness mum and her boy disappeared, Val knew a crucial secret.
She told police the building company owner’s estranged wife was having a secret
affair with her husband’s company accountant.
Decades after the 1976 disappearance, Val’s evidence helped convict and jail double murderer Bill MacDowell in 2022.
But now, Val has died at the age of 85 – just two days after the 48th
anniversary of the disappearance of Renee and Andrew.
Renee and Andrew MacRae: How did Val Steventon help get justice?
In November 1976, Renee, wife of businessman Gordon, and Andrew failed to return home to Inverness from a trip south.
The twist in the missing persons case was that it was a hush-hush trip away with her lover MacDowell.
Val was the one who told police that MacDowell was the other man in Renee’s life and he may have done her harm.
So began a four decades long search for the missing mother and son.
They have never been found – but justice eventually caught up with MacDowell.
In September 2022, he stood trial for killing Renee and Andrew. A jury convicted him of the murders.
Val’s evidence was key to the prosecution, led by advocate depute Alex Prentice KC.
He described Val as “a very important witness in this case – to the extent I doubt there would be a case without her evidence.”
Det. Chief Inspector Brian Geddes was the senior investigating officer who finally brought the case to court.
On learning of Val’s death, he said: “Valerie’s evidence and steadfast support of her friend over the decades was pivotal in ensuring that justice was ultimately delivered for Renee and Andrew MacRae.
“My thoughts and sympathies are with her family and friends.”
How Val Steventon’s words convicted a killer
Despite Val’s desperation to see MacDowell stand trial and point the finger personally at him sitting in his wheelchair in the dock, she was unable to take to the witness box due to ill health.
But her statements were read to the jury, her voice was heard and proved crucial to the conviction.
Val Steventon: A life before and after Renee MacRae
A retired nurse like Renee’s sister, Morag Govans, Val then worked in a silversmith’s shop in Inverness’s Victorian Market before retiring with her husband, Eric, affectionately known as “Steve”.
He died in 2022 and Val’s own health deteriorated in her last few years.
She was cared for by her daughter Kellie, grand-daughters Anna and Martha and latterly in the Lynmore Nursing Home in Grantown of Spey.
She is also survived by her older sisters, Joan and Patricia.
Kellie paid tribute to the staff there and to her mum who died there in the early hours of November 14.
“The care they provided mum was second to none. We were all grateful for that as she deserved it. We watched the documentary about the trial with her over her last few days so we could see her – a wonderful lady, strong, sassy and gorgeous.
“She’s with Dad now and at peace. I can’t quite believe that she is gone.”
DCI Geddes, however, has not given up hope.
This winter, he will meet with some members of his cold case team, review possible sites where they may have been hidden by MacDowell with the hope that the cop will place that final piece of the jigsaw, allowing “Case Closed” to be placed on the file.
David Love: How Val and I somehow became friends amid the tragedy
David Love, the author of this story, covered the Renee and Andrew MacRae case for decades. From the saddest of foundations, he and Val became friends in a fight for justice.
Val and I became good friends over the years as cold case reviews came and went and as searches of earth and flooded quarries proved fruitless.
The pain that Renee and Andrew had not been found was evident on her face.
When MacDowell died a few months after being jailed, there was no pleasure in Val’s face either.
It meant that he took his grim secret of where he had put the bodies to the grave – and she still could not visit their place of rest.
Over the years, Val would conduct her own searches of possible places where Renee and Andrew may have laid.
I will always remember Val as a strong, determined woman who would not allow her best pal or her son to be forgotten.
I admired her unwavering, steely commitment to seeing MacDowell be jailed before she died.
She was remarkable.
Read more about Renee and Andrew
Every twist and turn of the Renee and Andrew MacRae case
Gasps and cries as Bill MacDowell is finally convicted of killing Renee and Andrew
The Renee and Andrew MacRae case is woven into the DNA of Inverness