On Saturday October 15, 1977, Helen Anne Scott (born June 5, 1960) and Christine Eadie (born February 21, 1960) were out drinking in the centre of Edinburgh, Scotland. Later that night, they were both murdered.
According to the police, they spent part of the night in the Royal Mile Centre Bar in the High Street in the centre of Edinburgh's Old Town. Later they moved on to the World's End pub, still in the High Street. This gets its name from its location at the historical boundary of the city of Edinburgh, but it acquired darker meaning from the events of that night.
They were seen inside the bar talking with two men, both in their late 20s, and there were various possible sightings after that of two girls fitting their description in a drunken state trying to get home from the centre of town. However, on a Saturday night in Edinburgh, two drunk girls would hardly be unusual, and police were unable to trace their movements after they left the World's End.
Their corpses were found the following day a few miles apart in East Lothian, about fifteen miles east of the city centre. Eadie's naked body was found by a passer-by around 2.30pm at Gosford Bay on the Firth of Forth coast near Longniddrie. Scott's body was found half-naked in a field near Haddington at 6pm. Both had been raped and then strangled.
The murders remain unsolved to this day. In 1999 police re-investigated the case using the technique of DNA fingerprinting, checking against hundreds of possible suspects, but no positive results were found. The case remains open, and Lothian and Borders Police are still awaiting further evidence that may lead them to the killers.
References:
Lothian and Borders Police website: http://www.lbp.police.uk/prevention/enquiries/world/WORLDS.htm
Scotsman newspaper online (requires registration): http://lifestyle.scotsman.com/families/headlines_specific.cfm?articleid=585