Four arrests over missing Glasgow financial adviser
Four men charged with murder of Lynda Spence
(about 14 hours later)
Four men have been arrested and charged with the abduction and murder of a financial adviser who has been missing for more than six months.
Four men have appeared in court charged with the abduction and murder of a financial adviser who went missing more than six months ago.
Lynda Spence, 28, was last seen leaving her parents' house in Glasgow Harbour on 13 April.
Lynda Spence, 28, has not been seen since April 13 when she left her parents' house in Glasgow Harbour.
A Strathclyde Police spokeswoman said that four men, aged 45, 41, 40 and 31, were detained on Monday evening before being charged.
Paul Smith, 45, from Largs and Colin Coates, 41, from Glasgow, appeared at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court.
The four are expected to appear at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court later.
Two others, Philip Wade, 40, from Glengarnock, and David Parker, 36, from West Kilbride, also appeared.
It was several weeks before Lynda Spence was reported missing by her parents. The day after she left her parents' house, her mother received a text saying she had travelled to London.
They were all charged with murder, abduction including assault and attempting to defeat the ends of justice.
Mobile phone
It is alleged that, over a two-week period, they assaulted Ms Spence by cutting off her fingers and a thumb, striking her with a golf club, scalding her with an iron and failing to seek medical attention before killing her and disposing of the body.
Police investigated sightings of her car in North Ayrshire and Argyll in late April and early May.
None of the four made any plea or declaration and all were remanded in custody.
On 2 June, a member of the public found a mobile phone belonging to Ms Spence in a wheelie bin outside the Lunchbox shop in Kilbirnie, North Ayrshire.
They are expected to appear in court again next week.
In the days leading up to the arrests, detectives had searched a house in West Kilbride, ten miles west of Kilbirnie on the Clyde coast.
Lynda Spence was also known as Lynda Zefaj, Lynda Palmer and Lynda Reilly.
She ran a business, Fraser Developments, which mainly arranged mortgages.
It is understood that the company had experienced trading difficulties and Ms Spence owed tens of thousands of pounds.
