On October 4 1958 a 25-year-old mother of two small children went missing from her home in Spean Bridge, and nothing has ever been heard of her since.
There appears to be no missing person or case file on Penuel Sheriffs, originally from Aboyne.
The search for her went on for 10 days, involving many from the community.
Since then, nothing.
Was it due to indifference by the authorities? Police procedures of the time? Or is it a conspiracy of silence?
Penuel Lawson was born in 1933 in Cluny, Aberdeenshire, a farmer’s daughter.
Her husband, David Sheriffs, was born in Aboyne in 1928.
The pair married in 1954 and their first son, David, was born the same year, followed by Callum, two years later.
At some point the couple relocated to Spean Bridge, where David worked as a railway signalman.
They lived in Auchindaul railway cottages, long since pulled down.
Saturday October 4, 1958: Penuel missing
Constable Douglas Purves was on duty that day, and we have accessed his log book, held in the police archive at the Lochaber Archive Centre.
PC Purves’s entry records David Sheriffs reporting at 8.30pm that his wife had been missing since about 2.30 that afternoon.
With a 60-strong search party including forestry workers and employees of Great Glen Cattle Ranch, PC Purves headed for Auchindaul, Torlundy and the Highland Line quarry and “searched moorland and burns, railway stacks and buildings until abandoned search at 3am”.
The Oban Times reported the story a week later, giving more details about the disappearance.
“Her husband Mr David Sheriffs saw his wife when he got home from duty on Saturday.
“As a shift worker he spent part of the afternoon in bed.
“When he awoke at 3pm his wife had gone.
“At first he thought she had paid a visit to Fort William but when she did not reappear by the evening he became alarmed and contacted the police.”
The whereabouts or wellbeing of the two young children is not mentioned.
Penuel was described as 5ft 2in in height, fair-haired and of slim build, wearing a blue and white striped raincoat, a black skirt, fawn Fair Isle jumper and calf-length wellington boots.
The searches continued, PC Purves putting in long hours and working through the next two Sundays, his ‘rest days’.
Sunday October 5
PC Purves goes back to Auchindaul and searches for Penuel “across moorland etc until 5.30pm when the search was abandoned”.
Monday October 6
Purves looks for her at Auchindaul and “continued this enquiry about the village from 1.30pm to 9pm”.
Tuesday October 7
PC Purves goes yet again to Auchindaul and searches all day “until 4.30pm, when made enquiry re a woman seen on Gairlochy road on Saturday 4”.
Wednesday October 8
The search is widened to Gairlochy, Letterfinlay, Stronaba, Achnacarry and Bunarkaig until nightfall, when PC Purves carries on his enquiries about the village until 10pm.
Thursday October 9
PC Purves spends the afternoon searching the banks of the River Spean, and at 9pm goes to Gairlochy to search a vacant house there until 10pm.
Friday October 10
More searches, with PC Purves coming on duty at 10am and searching the banks of the River Spean and vicinity until 2.30am.
A week after the disappearance
Saturday October 11, the search is extended to Roy Bridge and back to Glenfintaig and Letterfinlay.
Sunday sees PC Purves returning to Auchindaul to search for most of the day.
The search efforts tail off after that, with PC Purves heading to Corriechaille to follow up a report of a woman seen at Spean Bridge on the same evening as Mrs Sheriffs disappeared, and finally heading to Highbridge on Wednesday October 15 – “patrolled re missing woman until 10pm”.
Thereafter the searches appear to have ceased, and the trail went cold.
Interview with Penuel’s mother
Meanwhile, the Evening Express had been on the case, securing an interview with Penuel Sherriff’s mother, Mrs A. Lawson of Kirkton, Aboyne, who had been waiting anxiously by the telephone for news since the disappearance.
Details emerge about Penuel which make the petite 25-year-old seem what would be described in today’s terms as vulnerable.
Mrs Lawson had last seen her daughter during the Aboyne and Braemar Games that summer.
When she came over to stay with me for the Aboyne Games she was very nervous.”
Penuel’s mother, Mrs A. Lawson
“She was a bit nervy then,” said Mrs Lawson and I know that she had been visiting the doctor.
“I’ve been on the phone to Spean Bridge umpteen times but we haven’t heard any news.
“At first I thought my daughter might have gone to her sister in Perth but her sister would have rung me up by now.
“She’s an awful affectionate lassie and was a very good help with the sheep on our farm, but when she came over to stay with me for the Aboyne Games she was very nervous and kept jumping up and down to see that her children didn’t get through the fence to the railway.”
Mother-in-law to Spean Bridge
The paper also reported that Penuel’s mother-in-law had travelled from Aboyne to Spean Bridge on the Monday after the disappearance to look after the two children.
“Their father is a railway signalman and has a lot of night work to do.”
That is the extent of what is publicly known about Penuel’s disappearance.
Today, the reporting would have been far more probing, and family and friends would have hunted for her with missing posters and social media.
Who was interviewed?
We have no record of who was interviewed in connection with the disappearance.
Was David Sheriffs ever interviewed? Anyone else?
The case raises many unanswered questions, not least why Penuel Sheriffs was never officially registered as a missing person.
It’s like the Renee Macrae mystery was the talk of the place at the time, and Penuel Sheriffs deserves to be remembered also.”
David Sutherland
Why was the search dropped after fewer than two weeks, and the case allowed to drift into obscurity?
Some local people still remember the incident.
David Sutherland was 12 years old when Mrs Sheriffs disappeared, and heard a lot of talk about it at the time.
He posted something online to see if he could find out more about the case.
“I have brought this mystery to light again because maybe someone who lived in the area at the time could add to what I have written, it’s like the Renee Macrae mystery was the talk of the place at the time, and Penuel Sheriffs deserves to be remembered also.”
David Sheriffs died in Fort William in 1976, aged 47.
The unusual name of Penuel means ‘face or vision of God, that sees God.’
Watch our documentary Missing from the Broch here