Alesha MacPhail was reported missing from her grandmother’s home in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute at 6.25am on Monday.
Her body was found in woodland on the site of a former hotel in Ardbeg Road by a member of the public around two-and-a-half hours later.
Following the results of a post-mortem examination on Tuesday, police confirmed they are treating the schoolgirl’s death as murder.
The island community has been left in shock by the murder of the girl, who was a few days into a three-week break to visit family.
Rev Owain Jones has opened his United Church of Bute in Rothesay to allow people to visit at any time.
He said: “We’re all absolutely staggered, we have no words for this and it’s beyond any power of words to express. “We’re all just really sitting in a kind of shared stunned silence just trying to uphold each other.
“Bute is one of these places that is incredibly safe, you take all sorts of things for granted here and don’t panic if you forget to lock the house or whatever.
“It’s not a remote island in the classic sense – it’s only 90 minutes to Glasgow – but even so it is an island and we all know each other at least by sight, and it’s an extremely safe place and there is no context for this.”
Police said they have had a “very good” response to public appeals and are pursuing a number of lines of inquiry. Islanders have been warned to be vigilant about the…
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