Arlene Fraser disappeared without trace on 28 April 1998 from her home in Elgin, Moray, Scotland. The 33-year-old mother of two was last seen hanging out washing around 8:00 AM that morning. After waving her children off to school at 9:00 AM, she made a telephone call to the school at 9:41 AM asking about her son's school trip return time. Within a ten-minute window after that call, she vanished.

What made the case more perplexing: Arlene's car had been burnt and destroyed in her driveway just three weeks earlier—a detail that would later take on sinister significance.

Grampian Police initially treated the disappearance as a missing persons inquiry. But six months later, Detective Chief Inspector Peter Simpson delivered a stark assessment: "The only conclusion that's still left open to us, which I firmly believe has happened, is that something criminal has taken place here and that Arlene has been the victim of a crime. I am of the opinion that she's dead."

The investigation soon focused on Arlene's estranged husband, Nat Fraser. At the time of her disappearance, Fraser was out on bail for attempted murder. One of his bail conditions required him to live away from the family home at 2 Smith Street. Despite this constraint, police determined he had what appeared to be a perfect alibi for the day Arlene vanished.

Two other men became central to the case. Hector Dick, a friend of Nat Fraser, admitted to burning and crushing a Ford Fiesta because he feared it linked to Arlene's disappearance. During the investigation, Dick claimed that Nat Fraser had told him he arranged for his wife to be killed, then disposed of her body by grinding it up and burying it. Dick denied any personal involvement in the crime.

English businessman Glenn Lucas, another friend of Fraser's, was charged with perverting the course of justice in June 2001. The three men had met not long before Arlene's disappearance.