Teenage girl lured her ex

Release time：2024-04-25 08:29:57 Source：Planet Pulse news portal

The horrifying story of how a teenage girl plotted to kill her ex in a remote nature reserve in Scotland has been exposed in a new Channel 4 documentary. 

Steven Donaldson, 27, from the Arbroath area of Angus, was brutally murdered in June 2018 - after being stabbed 26 times. 

His ex-girlfriend, 19-year-old Tasmin Glass, had lured him to the remote Loch of Kinnordy in Kirriemuir near Dundee - where her new boyfriend Steven Dickie and his friend Callum Davidson attacked him in the middle of the night. 

The nail-biting hunt for Steven's attackers has now been exposed in Channel 4's Murder Case: The Digital Detectives - showing police outsmart the suspects by tracking the digital trail they thought they'd wiped from record. 

It has since widely been reported that Glass was pregnant with Mr Donaldson's child, though this was not mentioned in the documentary.  

Tasmin Glass (pictured), 19, lured Steven Donaldson to a remote Scottish nature reserve where he was brutally murdered 

The killers had left little forensic evidence for police to go on by setting their victim's car on fire, meaning officers couldn't look at usual obvious clues, such as his phone and clothing. 

Eventually investigators found out the shocking truth: Glass had owed Mr Donaldson £1,000 for a car she had written off and he had been hounding her for payment. 

She led Dickie and Donaldson to his whereabouts in Peter Pan park in Kirriemuir, while they took him to the nature reserve to kill him. 

In May 2019, Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson were given life sentences, while Glass was given ten years in prison. 

DC Nicola Annan, who worked on the case and interviewed Glass, said in the documentary: 'I'd been a police officer for 18 years and what I saw at the crime scene was probably one of the most shocking scenes I've ever seen in my career.' 

A forensic pathologist who examined the body said Mr Donaldson died after his spinal cord was cut by repeated blows to the back of his head or neck with a weapon like an axe or machete. There were also signs he tried to defend himself, possibly as he sat in the car. 

The young man seemed like an unlikely murder victim and was known to have a good social life, a stable job and a loving family. 

His friend Bruce Birnie, who appeared in the documentary, said: 'Stevie D! Everyone knew Stevie D. I met him seven or eight years ago. It was always a carry on with Stevie. 

Glass had been in a relationship with Mr Donaldson (pictured) but wanted him out of the way when he had pestered her to repay him the £1,000 she owed him

The killers had left little forensic evidence for police to go on by setting their victim's car on fire (pictured)

Glass was in a new relationship with Steven Dickie (left), who would eventually murder Mr Donaldson. Pictured right, Dickie's friend Callum Davidson

'Just laughing and joking and taking care of each other. I don't know anyone who would say a bad word against him.'

Glass, a singer and actress who had been a student in Glasgow, initially told police she had been swimming with three friends on the evening of June 6, before going back to their house. 

Going on to describe their relationship, Birnie said: 'I'd known Tasmin since she was in a pram. 

'There was nothing I didn't like about Tasmin, she was sound. Nice, funny - just a 19-year-old lassie from Kirriemuir. 

'They [Glass and Mr Donaldson] hit it off really quickly. He obviously fancied her. He was really keen on her. Quite quickly it turned into a boyfriend/girlfriend situation.' 

Glass named the friends she was with on the night of the murder as Steven Dickie and Callum Davidson, as well as his girlfriend Claire Ogston. She said they went back to Davidson's house at Marywell Brae. 

Later on, she was going to meet Mr Donaldson at Peter Pan park in Kirriemuir, which is around a five minute drive from Kinnordy Loch nature reserve. 

Glass claimed that when she went there at around 11pm on the night of the murder, Steven was gone, so she went home and spoke to her mother before going to bed. 

Glass, a singer and actress who had been a student in Glasgow, initially told police told police she had been swimming with three friends on the evening of June 6

Detective Superintendent Andy Patrick from the major investigation team said what they were doing was 'groundbreaking'

This was backed up from evidence from her Wi-Fi router, which showed her to connect at this time after walking in through the door, while her Apple Watch showed her heartbeat to keep a pace consistent with going to sleep. 

Having next to nothing to go on, the detectives looked closer at the phones of Dickie, Davidson and Ogston. 

Call data from the phone company suggested some information had been deleted from their handsets, while significant location details showed Dickie to have passed the health centre in Kirriemuir between 12.39am and 12.51am - a time when he claimed to have been in bed. 

Meanwhile intel from Dickie's health app showed him to have climbed 11 flights of stairs and taken significant exercise - also when he was 'asleep'. 

Reconstructions made by the digital investigation team showed that the distance he had travelled was the same as that between Davidson's house and the site of the murder.  

After reviewing CCTV footage for ten hours a day, detectives spotted Davidson cycling through Kirriemuir at two in the morning. When his bike was analysed by forensics, they found blood on the handlebars matching Mr Donaldson's. 

Meanwhile, data downloaded from Glass's phone revealed messages showing she owed Mr Donaldson £1,000 for a car he had given her and that she hadn't paid him the money she owed from the insurance payout. 

This was the final puzzle piece, showing that Glass had arranged to meet him at Peter Pan park, before she went home to bed, leaving Dickie and Davidson to commit their abhorrent murder.  

Steven Donaldson's father Bill told the documentary that it was an 'absolutely horrendous time and I would never wish it upon anyone'

Steven Donaldson (pictured) was known to have a good social life, a stable job and a loving family

Steven Donaldson's father Bill told the documentary: 'It was an absolutely horrendous time and I would never wish it upon anyone.

'It was amazing to see the work the police had done in finding them, but deep down I felt it didn't really matter because I've lost Steven and I'll never replace him. 

'We usually go to Steven's grave around once a week. On special occasions - his birthday and the date of the murder, we go to the loch.

'We're never going to see him again. I just want to remember him as the kid who gave us lots of enjoyment and great times and great memories.'

It was the first time in UK legal history that detectives had outsmarted by tracking the digital trail the suspects had thought they'd wiped.  

Detective Superintendent Andy Patrick from the major investigation team said: 'What we were doing was groundbreaking and nobody else had done this within the UK.'

He added: 'In a case like this, the digital team is crucial.' 

In November 2019 Dickie was found dead in HMP Perth. 

However, Glass is due to be considered for parole and could be released as early as next month after serving just half of her sentence. 

Mr Donaldson's family has written to the Parole Board to demand she stays behind bars.  

Related articles