Parents' Plea Over Pilley Murder

2 June 2014, 06:08 | Updated: 2 June 2014, 07:10

The parents of a woman who was murdered by her former lover are making an emotional plea for help to try to find her body.

Rob and Sylvia Pilley are hoping an appeal to be shown on Crimewatch tonight will bring fresh information about the whereabouts of their daughter Suzanne Pilley's remains.

The programme also features a reconstruction, showing Ms Pilley, who was 38, getting off a bus in Edinburgh city centre and heading to the office she shared with her killer David Gilroy.

The book-keeper disappeared in May 2010, and while married Gilroy has been convicted of her murder, Ms Pilley's body has never been found.

Her mother Sylvia described her daughter as "always smiling'' but said that she was now "lying somewhere that nobody knows, as if nobody loved her''.

While she said "justice has been done'' with Gilroy's conviction, she added she "felt so sad after it because we weren't going to get her back''.

Ms Pilley's father told how they wanted her body to be found to help give the family some "closure''.

He told the programme: "The door is just ajar, it's not fully closed yet, that's what I'd really like to put closure on it for myself and the rest of my family.''

He described his daughter as being "really happy go lucky'' with "lot of friends'', adding that she "loved the outdoor life''.

Mr Pilley recalled: "I was the last one to see her, she said 'bye dad' and she gave me a wee peck on the cheek and that was it, that was the last I seen of her.''

Detectives who investigated the case believe Gilroy killed Ms Pilley in the basement of the Edinburgh building where she was working, before taking her body in the boot of his car and burying it elsewhere in a secret grave, believed to be in remote Argyll.

Mr Pilley commented: "You wouldn't think a workmate could actually do that in her workplace, and go back upstairs and be sat working again with his colleagues, knowing Suzanne was lying down in the garage.''

Mrs Pilley said: ``I used to worry how she would survive without us, but I never thought we would have to survive without her.''

Gilroy, who was the first convicted killer to have his sentence filmed for British TV, was ordered to spend at least 18 years in jail for murdering his former lover and disposing of her body.

Passing sentence in April 2012 Judge Lord Bracadale said he hoped the killer would reveal where he left the murdered woman's remains.

He told Gilroy: ''It seems that you are the only person who knows where her body is. I hope that a day will come in your life when you will feel able to disclose that information and that might bring some comfort to her bereft family.''