£13,000 raised for family of murdered teenager Paige Doherty
Fundraising pages set up to help the family of murdered teenager Paige Doherty have collected more than £13,000 in less than 24 hours.
The body of the 15-year-old was found in bushes at the side of a main road in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire, two days after she was reported missing.
The popular schoolgirl had been due to catch a bus to her part-time hairdressing job on Saturday morning but never arrived at the salon.
Two fundraising pages set up on GoFundMe to help her family with funeral costs and other expenses had raised a total of £13,078 by noon on Wednesday.
Family friend Lynsay Smith said: "All the money raised is to help Pamela, her mum, and Andrew, her stepdad, with any funeral arrangements and anything else to ease the pain that they are going through at this time."
Gail Duncan, collecting on behalf of the freestyle disco dancing community, said: "This money will be donated along with money being raised at competitions and will be passed over to (dance school instructor) Isobel through bank transfer. This will then be taken to Paige's mum Pamela."
Detectives are working to piece together the final movements of Paige, who was last seen at about 8.20am on Saturday when she stopped at a shop selling rolls on Fleming Avenue.
She had spent the night at a friend's house and would normally catch the bus from East Barns Street to Glasgow city centre before travelling on to Street Image hairdressers in Kirkintilloch, East Dunbartonshire.
Detective Superintendent Duncan Sloan, of the major investigations unit, said: "Paige was a young, friendly girl with plenty of friends and for her life to be taken away so brutally at such a young age is unfathomable to everyone.
"We are at the very early stages of this investigation, however I am appealing to anyone who may have any information whatsoever about her movements from when she was last seen in the early hours of Saturday morning to when her body was recovered.
"It's crucial that I piece together where Paige went after the sighting at the roll shop and her movements over the course of the weekend and I can only do that by appealing for information from the public."
Paige's body was found at about 12.45pm on Monday at the side of Great Western Road, a busy route connecting Clydebank and Glasgow.
Mr Sloan said: "This is a particularly busy route with lots of cars and buses passing, walkers and joggers on the pavement.
"Perhaps someone saw a vehicle in the area or people acting out of character or acting unusually that could help us in the investigation.
"Any information, however small, may help this investigation."
