Police search the Quartermile areafor clues to the killing of Lee Duncan
POLICE have mounted fresh searches around the scene of an Edinburgh man’s death to find the weapon which killed him five months ago.
The body of former heroin addict Lee Duncan, 31, was discovered his flat in the city’s Lauriston Place by his girlfriend on February 25.
But his killer remains at large.
The case is now the only active murder investigation in the Lothian area within the last year.
Police have so far not revealed how Mr Duncan was killed or the type of weapon used.
But acting on intelligence yesterday, nine officials in hard hats and high-visibility vests could be seen combing gardens around the city’s Quartermile district and the grounds of the former Edinburgh Royal Infirmary.
Police were also searching Middle Meadow Walk, a large footpath near the scene and construction sites in the Quartermile in an operation expected to last at least two days.
A Lothian and Borders Police spokesman said officers were conducting targeted searches in the vicinity of the crime scene.
In April, Mr Duncan’s sister Melanie Purdie spoke for the first time about the death of her brother, describing the 31-year-old with learning difficulties as a
“vulnerable’ man who had no enemies.
She said he had turned his life around after years of battling heroin addiction.
She appealed directly to his killers to turn themselves in and told how Mr Duncan had began using heroin when he was around 20 after falling in with the
“wrong crowd,’ but had been on a methadone programme for the last six years.
Police have approached GPs and drugs counsellors to report anonymously any information gleaned from patients.
More than 500 people have been questioned since the inquiry was launched in February and police are now preparing to re-interview significant witnesses.
A police spokesman said:
“Police have carried out an intelligence-led search of an area of ground close to Lauriston Place, in connection with the murder of Lee Duncan.
“Police continue to appeal for any information regarding his murder. “
