Carers of a vulnerable woman, who has not been seen since 1999, allegedly tied her up before killing her and dumping her body.
Margaret Fleming, 36, was reported missing from her home in Inverkip, Renfrewshire, on October 28 last year.
Police were alerted to her disappearance by her carers Eddie Cairney, 76, and Avril Jones, 57, who appeared at Greenock Sheriff Court to face four charges.
They are accused of abduction, assault and murder and fraud worth £182,000 from benefits they claimed.
Edward Cairney, 76, has appeared at Greenock Sheriff Court after being detained on Thursday and arrested last night. He is pictured arriving at court this morning
The carers arrived at court in the same G4s Ford car but at separate times. Cairney is pictured
Margaret Fleming, 36, was reported missing from her home in Inverkip, Renfrewshire, on October 28 last year
The pair were remanded in custody on Friday after their lawyers’ requests for bail were rejected by Sheriff David Hall.
Prosecutors say Cairney and Jones locked Ms Fleming in a room in their former home in Inverkip, bound her arms and wrists with tape and held her hostage between November 1997 and January 2000.
It is alleged that between December 18, 1999, and January 5, 2000, while acting together, they murdered her by inflicting blunt force trauma on her or by means presently unknown.
Cairney and Jones are accused of disposing of the body and illegally claiming disability payments and carers allowance – knowing that Ms Fleming was dead.
Neither Cairney nor Jones made any plea during separate hearings at Greenock Sheriff Court. They will appear at the High Court at a later date.
Officers said they are the only people to have seen Ms Fleming, who has been described as ‘vulnerable’, since a family gathering on December 17, 1999.
Neither Cairney (right) nor Jones (left) made any plea during separate hearings at Greenock Sheriff Court. They will appear at the High Court at a later date
Ms Fleming was reported missing last year after police visited this home with social workers, but the last confirmed sighting of her was in 1999
A search for her was launched after officers were asked by social work officers to visit her remote five-bedroom house, which lies next to the Scottish coast.
Police forensic teams spent months sifting through the house, where she lived with her carers, for any documentation of her life, and a large garden at the property was excavated as part of the search.
The probe extended more than 500 metres into the River Clyde and also into a nearby woodland but her whereabouts remain a mystery.
Before Ms Fleming started living with her carers, she had lived with her father Frederick in Port Glasgow until his death in 1995.
Police have appealed to her extended family based in the USA and contacted every single Margaret Fleming in the UK
She then lived with her grandparents and mother Margaret until moving in with her carers in 1997.
Ms Fleming is also believed to have attended John Watt College in Greenock between 1996 and 1998.
She is described as around 5ft 5 inches in height with a heavy build, with collar length black hair and brown eyes.
When last seen, she was wearing a green coloured tartan fleece or jumper, dark coloured jeans or trousers, wearing ‘Karrimor’ type boots which were dark in colour.
Police have appealed to her extended family based in the USA and contacted every single Margaret Fleming in the UK.
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