The double tragedy of Mary Duncan, 17, missing since 1976

Police Scotland photo

Of all the cases I have ever read about that are unsolved this is one of the ones that has haunted me. A teenage girl with her whole life ahead of love and a baby daughter she adored at home, Mary Duncan would have lived a full life by now. 

But instead, it seems likely that she was murdered at the young age of 17 in 1976 although her body is still to be found and nobody has been arrested for her murder. 

The young mum who became pregnant at 15 would not have gone quietly. She would have fought to stay with her child. 

I recently read on the news that police were searching the grounds of Vale of Leven hospital in Dunbartonshire in Scotland for the remains of the missing young mum.

The double tragedy of the disappearance of young Mary 44 years ago, is that soon after she went missing, Laura, the young daughter she loved to bits died of natural causes. The bairn hadn't yet reached her second birthday. 

When Mary was last seen she told her family she was going to meet a friend. Of course, being a teenager it has been suggested that Mary upped sticks and left, but this doesn't appear to be in character. 

According to Chief Superindent Calum Young: "Extensive inquiries continue in an attempt to find any indication of where Mary could be. However, due to the fact that she has not been seen or heard from in 44 years, we must consider the option that she may have come to harm."

Looking at pictures of Mary, you see a bright and happy young woman and a loving mum who would never have left her baby. It would have taken something awful to pull her away from her child. 

Hopefully, the police search will finally get some answers so that Mary and her beautiful baby will finally be able to rest in peace together. 

Footnote - Mary and her three sisters'stepfather, Norman Duncan, was jailed for 5 years for historical sexual offences against girls and was spoken to as one of a number of lines of inquiry.

How to stop your Nokia 2.3 phone turning its screen on when not in use

How I avoided doing a Ron Swanson

Needing to update my technology, I recently bought myself a new phone. A Nokia 2.3.

I love that phone apart from one thing. One extremely annoying thing - every single time I put the phone in my pocket and click on the power button switch, which on all the phones I've had has locked the screen and stopped it from working when in my pocket, the phone screen with come back on again.

I would find garbled, nonsensical notes that had been written. It would open my email app. Even worse, it would start to dial up numbers.

At my wits end and ready to do a Ron Swanson and smash the phone to bits or toss it out the window, I did some internet research to try and see how I could solve this problem. 

Most of what I read talked about functions my phone disn't have. The one that it did have was about the ability to turn off the ambient feature. This was accessed through the settings menu and then by going on to display.

Unfortunately this doesn't work. 

Then I was looking through the functions on my phone and I came across the ~ Lift To Check My Phone Function. This was devised to check your notifications, time and and other information by simply lifting up the phone.

I found this on my phone in the SETTINGS - SYSTEM - GESTURES and deselected PICK UP MY PHONE and now when I click on the power button quickly with one press it stops my screen lighting up when it's in my pocket or sitting down on a table.

Problem solved👍 No more risk of butt dialling or of throwing my phone off a bridge. 

The coolest introduction to a book ever for How Kirsty gets her kicks

#BookTalk @ShotgunHoney @Gabino_Iglesias @beaujohnson44 @RonEarl @JenniferHillier @nikkidolson @tracy_reads79 @cinapelayo @JLFoster_ @ToriEldridge @sarahmchen @JTravisGrundon @JamesDFHannah @Curtis9980 @WellReadBeard @SteveGone58 @ItsMarkYall @Jimthomsen @ElizabethHeiter pic.twitter.com/Whv0ld4xUa

— Mark Pelletier (@MPell2137) July 16, 2020

This is the coolest introduction to a book ever. 

Thanks to the awesome Mark Pelletier @MPell2137 and to Shotgun Honey for publishing How Kirsty Gets Her Kicks https://twitter.com/MPell2137/status/1283790631538589696?s=19

What's the book about then?

A tale of skullduggery that plays out on the mean streets of Glasgow…

One-legged barmaid Kirsty is in a shit-load of trouble after she kills one of gangster Jimmy McPhee’s enforcers with a stiletto heel to the head after he gets a bit too handsie.

Now she’s on the run from the gang boss who loves to torture his victims before he kills them, with a safe-load of cash she stole from him and a hot gun. And she has company—a choirboy barman Jamie who just happens to be the only witness.

She needs to survive long enough to spend the cash.

How difficult can it be to catch a “daft wee lassie with one leg?” Glasgow hardman Jimmy McPhee is about to find out. Kirsty’s made a laughing stock out of him and he doesn’t like that one wee bit.

Bring together a one-legged barmaid who’s legged it with a safe load of dirty cash, a spurned gangster’s wife who wants a walking womb for her mail order sperm, a giant birthday cake and a mad chase to the end, and you’ve got How Kirsty Gets Her Kicks: one freaking minute at a time.