Football fans asked for help 43 years after taxi driver killed with cheese wire

Football fans are being asked to help solve a notorious murder that remains unsolved more than 40 years on.

George Murdoch, 58, was killed on September 29, 1983, in Aberdeen beside his cab, with the suspected murder weapon – a cheese wire garrotte – was found nearby.

Mr Murdoch was killed on Pitfodels Station Road, on the outskirts of Aberdeen, after telling his control room he was heading to Culter.

He turned onto the road, near the Deeside railway line, where he was attacked at around 8.45pm and died at the scene, but his family remain determined to try to identify the killer, even if they have since died.

In a public appeal on the 40th anniversary of the murder in 2023, police said advancements in forensic analysis had enabled a DNA profile from the scene to be identified.

A list of 200 possible genetic matches to the profile from the scene has been compiled by Police Scotland and the National Crime Agency, which it was hoped could be used to establish any family links.

On Sunday, Aberdeen FC’s matchday programme will appeal for new information that could be passed to police.

Mr Murdoch’s nephew urged the public to “give us the answers we desperately want” even if it meant putting forward the name of a deceased relative.

Previously, a £10,000 reward was offered by the family for a relevant DNA swab.

Mr Murdoch’s widow, Jessie, died in 2004, and the couple were described as “a brilliant married couple” by their nephew.

Robina McKay, Mr Murdoch’s niece, told STV News: “I would really be happy if we had a name, that’s all I want.

“I don’t care if he goes to trial, gets convicted or whatever – he would be close to being in his 70s. He wouldn’t serve much time.

“I just want somebody to come and tell us definitively who it is.”