Tracey Waters

Status:

Open

Jurisdiction:

strathclyde-police

Offense Location:

Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland

Summary:

Tracey Waters left her home on Craigview Avenue in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland on February 14, 1983, and was found dead the next day. Tracey had been beaten and strangled, and police believed that the motive was sexual, but the killer got disturbed. As of October 2022, Tracey's murder remains unsolved.

Vital Statistics

Circumstances of Offense:

On February 14, 1983, Tracey left her home on Craigview Avenue in Johnstone, Renfrewshire, Scotland. There have been three different accounts of why Tracey left her home on that cold Valentine's day evening. The majority of newspaper sources state that Tracey was on her way to a local youth club, located about a half mile away from her home. However, the book, Real Hard Cases: True Crime from the Streets by Les Brown and Robert Jeffrey and also reported in the Herald, states that Tracey left her home in search of her Mother, who was in the local pub. Tracey was reported missing sometime that evening. Again, there are two different versions. One states that when Tracey did not return home from the youth club by 11 pm, her mother reported her missing. The other states that when Tracey's mother returned home from the pub and her daughter was not there, she went out in search of her and then reported her missing. Tracey was found the following day. Her body was found underneath a hedge in the garden of a home on Shanks Crescent in Johnstone, only about a half mile from her home. Tracey had been beaten and strangled. The happy, care-free 11-year-old had just finished writing a Valentine's card for a local boy but never got to post it. In a crime that shocked the community, tragic Tracey was strangled as she came back from a gymnastics class.

Additional Details:

The police had a witness who saw a man running away from where Tracey's body was found. On investigation, the police managed to retrieve a footprint they believed to be that of the killer. Adam McDermott, who was Tracey's uncle was initially charged with her murder in March of 1983. However, Les Brown and Robert Jeffrey wrote that the footprint that police thought belonged to the killer was a size 7 and McDermott was a size 10, leading them to believe that McDermott was not the killer. McDermot was released just two months later due to insufficient evidence. Police are said to have lost vital evidence in the 1980s, making a conviction extremely difficult, even with DNA advances. A free man, Adam McDermott was a divorced father of 3 children. On the morning of October 31, 2001, he told his family that he was going to the post office in Kilbarchan to collect his benefits. He has not been seen or heard from since. Police also wanted to speak to him regarding the murder of 16-year-old Pamela Hastie in Paisley in 1981. In 2020, Margaret Waters, Tracey's mother told the Daily Record that she is convinced that her brother, Adam McDermott killed Tracey. Two years ago officers from the newly formed cold case review team took a fresh look at the quarter-century-old case hoping to find forensic evidence like DNA using tests unavailable in the 80s. Tracey's gravestone is at Abbey Cemetery, in Elderslie.

Case Last Updated:

Sep 13, 2026