The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
‘I miss her. It hasn’t set in’: son’s pain as mother’s body found
Usa: Tourist Susan McLean ‘helped people get through their problems’
The son of an American tourist found dead almost three months after she went missing said he tries not to think about the family’s trip to Scotland.
James McLean was staying in Aberfeldy with his family when his mother Susan disappeared on May 17.
Human remains were discovered in woodland south of the town on Saturday. Police confirmed they belonged to the 61-year-old and that there are no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death yesterday.
Speaking to CBS 21 News’ investigative reporter Matt Rist at the family’s farm in Boiling Springs, Pennsylvania, Mr McLean paid tribute to his mother.
He said: “She was more social than I could ever be – she could start up a conversation in a checkout line faster than I could. I usually use the self-checkout so I don’t have to talk to anyone but she would start up a conversation with anyone about anything.
“She always loved to teach people riding lessons, horseback riding lessons. She loved working with riding for the handicapped, volunteering her time with them. If it was anything to do with horses, she just loved it.
“She helped people get through their problems.”
Mr McLean added that he initially struggled to deal with his mother’s disappearance.
“It’s been hard,” he said. “I’ve been trying not to remember the trip to Scotland. That night she disappeared, I fell asleep and didn’t deal with it. I watched the news but couldn’t take it so I went for a walk.
“It’s nice to know that they found her but there were weeks in the middle where we didn’t know what was going on, so it was kind of chaotic. I miss her. It hasn’t set in. We’ll make it through – I’ve been making it through so far.”
Volunteer searchers found Susan’s body at 1.15pm on Saturday, just a few feet from a path on the Loch Hoil trail.
Yesterday it emerged police had passed the spot while searching but had not entered the forest at that location.
Superintendent Graeme Murdoch defended Police Scotland’s search operations, saying officers searched nine sq km of open ground and 45km of trails and roads, and had planned further searches, but there was no indication that Susan had entered the forest at the point where she was found.