How a Red Bull can solved the chilling disappearance of missing dad secretly killed by evil twins
THE VANISHING CYCLIST How a Red Bull can solved the chilling disappearance of missing dad secretly killed by evil twins
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WHEN retired naval officer Tony Parsons set off on a solo charity bike ride through the Scottish Highlands, he had no idea he was peddling straight into the clutches of two evil brothers - and a horrifying cover up that would leave his family in agony for years.
The fit and happy 63-year-old grandfather had recently beaten prostate cancer and was determined to raise money to help others beat the disease.
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Fit and happy 63-year-old grandfather Tony Parsons had recently beaten prostate cancer and was determined to raise money to help others when he was struck and killed and his body hidden for three years
Credit: PA
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Caroline Muirhead planted a Red Bull can to help lead detectives to the body
Credit: PA
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Alexander McKellar had been drunk driving when he ploughed in to Tony Parsons
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Robert McKellar helped his brother cover up the crime
Credit: Police Scotland
So the much-loved husband and father set off on that fateful September morning for the 104-mile challenge from Fort William back to his home in Tillicoultry.
His devastated wife Margaret fondly recalled: 'He was in good spirits," not knowing it would be the last time she would ever see him.
By the end of that day, Tony was gone — last seen by a lorry driver at around 11:30pm that night, before being swallowed by the darkness of the Highlands.
It sparked one of Scotland's most baffling missing person cases.
For years, his devastated family were left with no answers — just anguish, suspicion, and silence.
Despite huge search efforts involving helicopters, dogs and mountain rescue teams, there was no trace of Tony or of his yellow-framed bike.
Speaking in 2023 Tony's son Michael said: 'When he said goodbye and set off on his charity cycle from Fort William that Friday, none of us expected it to be the last time we would be able to see or speak to him."
Then in 2020 — three years after Tony's disappearance — a young woman walked into a police station and told officers something extraordinary.
Caroline Muirhead had been dating a farm worker named Alexander McKellar and as the young couple began to get to know each other she asked if there was anything in his past she should know.
His shocking confession changed the course of her life - and that of the Parson family.
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McKellar told Caroline that he and his twin brother Robert had been drunk behind the wheel of their white Isuzu D-Max, and had struck and killed a cyclist on a rural road.
The pair later told locals they'd hit a deer but in reality it was Tony Parsons.
Earlier that night, Tony was seen sipping a coffee at the Bridge of Orchy Hotel — while the McKellar twins were also in the bar, boozing with a group of German hunters.
In a tragic twist of fate they had left around the same time and encountered each other on the dark road when the collision happened.
Instead of helping, they left him to die then bundled his body into a different vehicle, dumped his bike behind a waterfall and buried him in a pit used for disposing of dead livestock on their parents' land in the Auch Estate near Bridge of Orchy.
Then the McKellar twins simply carried on their lives as normal - hiding the grisly secret from even those closest to them.
Despite an anonymous letter in 2018 urging police to investigate 'the twins', there was no evidence to pursue charges.
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Caroline helped solve the disappearance of Tony Parsons when she dropped a can of Red Bull on his shallow grave
Credit: Media Scotland
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Caroline Muirhead had been dating farm worker, Alexander McKellar when he confessed what he and his brother had done
Credit: Media Scotland
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In January 2021, more than three years after he vanished - police excavated the bog on the Auch Estate - and found Tony Parsons
Credit: PA
However McKellar finally revealed his darkest secret to his new love in 2020.
Shocked and sickened by her boyfriend's confession, Caroline asked to see the grave.
When McKellar took her to the remote spot, she secretly left behind a Red Bull can to mark the spot.
It would be the clue that helped detectives finally find Tony's shallow grave.
In January 2021, more than three years after he vanished - police excavated the bog on the Auch Estate - and confirmed it was Tony Parsons.
Speaking in court, advocate depute Alex Prentice KC told how McKellar was speeding and distracted when he hit Tony: 'He said he was panicking.'
'He needed immediate medical attention. He did nothing to save him."
Mr Prentice said had Caroline not dropped the can of Red Bull, the mystery might never have been solved.
He said: "Such was the location that if Alexander McKellar had not disclosed where the grave was, the remains are unlikely to have ever been found."
After Caroline's quick-thinking actions led to charges, the McKellar brothers, now 34, finally admitted their roles.
Alexander pled guilty to culpable homicide. Both admitted to attempting to defeat the ends of justice. Alexander was jailed for 12 years while his brother received five years and three months.
Now, eight years on the horror-crime is subject of a BBC documentary Murder Case which will hit TV screens this autumn.
Tony's story will feature as the first episode and the second will focus on the murder of Lucretia 'Kiesha' Donaghy.
The mum-of-two, 32, was found dead at her home in Elgin in November 2023.
Kiesha was bludgeoned with a weapon in the fatal attack and her friend Owen Grant, 43, was later arrested.
After murdering the defenceless and unarmed Kiesha, Owen went on a spending spree, spending hundreds of pounds on cocaine.
At the murder trial at Edinburgh's High Court in 2025, the Judge Lord Scott described the attack as 'exceptionally savage, frenzied and brutal'.
Episode one of Murder Case, called The Vanishing Cyclist will tell the story of Tony, the bespectacled keen cyclist, golfer and former submariner, who was beloved in his community for coaching and refereeing local rugby.
Friend and fellow Navy veteran Roger Jones said: 'He was just a nice guy — a really great person.'
Son Michael added: 'As you can imagine, not knowing what has happened to someone, and then the devastating news that we were provided, has taken its toll on all of us as a family.
'It has been heartbreaking for each and every member of the family being unable to get these answers.'
'He was just a nice guy'
DI Fraser Spence, who led the investigation, said: 'These men left the family of Mr Parsons distraught, not knowing what had happened to him for many years.'
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