A woman serving a life sentence for the murder of schoolgirl Caroline Glachan has died two years into her sentence.
Donna Marie Brand lured the 14-year-old to the River Leven in Renton, Dunbartonshire, where she was knocked unconscious and left to drown.
In 2023, Brand and co-accused Robert O’Brien and Andrew Kelly were convicted of the 1996 murder, a verdict that ended one of Scotland’s longest-running cold cases.
Brand died on Wednesday at the Forth Valley Hospital, near Falkirk, aged 47. She served her sentence at HMP Stirling and is believed to have died of natural causes.
On August 25, 1996, Caroline’s body was discovered on the riverbank. Her killers were all teenagers at the time of the murder. The 14-year-old was ‘in love’ with O’Brien, who was 18 at the time and had been warned by her mother to stay away from her.
Donna Marie Brand died two years after her sentence
Schoolgirl Caroline Glachan was murdered in 1996
She left her home in Bonhill to meet him at a bridge over the River Leven, but after arriving she was brutally attacked.
The evidence of a four-year-old boy, not considered credible at the time but later corroborated by other accounts, was crucial in bringing the three killers to justice.
O’Brien was sentenced to a minimum of 22 years, and Kelly to a minimum of 18 years.
With sentencing postponed due to ill health, Brand was told in April 2024 that she would have to serve at least 17 years behind bars for her part in the murder.
After the guilty pleas, Caroline’s mother, Margaret McKeich, said: “For the last 25 years they’ve lived their lives and had their Christmases and birthdays, and my Caroline was in the ground.”
A Scottish Prison Service spokesperson said: ‘Following the death of someone in our care, Police Scotland is notified and the matter is reported to the Crown Prosecution Service.
“An investigation into fatal accidents will be conducted in due course.”
