The luxury house at Helenslee Place, Kirktonhill, Dumbarton, to which police were called on Thursday afternoon. Picture by Bill Heaney
By Bill Heaney
Police swooped on a £1 million house in an exclusive estate in leafy Kirktonhill, Dumbarton, after the death of a man there on Thursday afternoon.
Detectives and Police Scotland personnel in white forensic suits were at the house at 2 Helenslee Place in the grounds of the old Keil School, once a private boarding school, for 48-hours, only leaving late on Saturday afternoon.
One resident on the estate, which has spectacular views of the River Clyde and Renfrewshire Hills above Langbank, said: “It was like something out of the television drama Line of Duty. The police were everywhere and there were lots of them.”
Mystery surrounds the identity of the 67-year-old man who was discovered dead at the house.
The family who live there only moved in a short time ago and were said to be renting until a new house which they were having built for them was finished.
A number of VIPs and celebrities live at the very expensive houses on the exclusive estate.
The dead man’s name was not disclosed in an official statement released by Police Scotland on Sunday afternoon.
The statement said: “Police were called around 3.15pm on Thursday, 25 April, 2019, following the sudden death of a 67-year-old man at an address in Helenslee Place, Dumbarton. There are no suspicious circumstances and a report will be submitted to the Procurator Fiscal.”
Neighbours of the family in Kirktonhill were alarmed when the police arrived in numbers.
One told me: “It’s looking like there is a murder in my street. The police are apparently going to be there all weekend and a different department are going to be joining them later.
“We don’t know the name of the 67-year-old man. The couple were just renting the house until their new house was built.
“The neighbours said they hadn’t seen him about for a couple of weeks”
The house at 2 Helenslee Place, which was purchased in 2009 for £850,000, is believed to be the biggest of all the Manor Kingdom houses on the estate.
The resident I spoke with added: “No one knows anything about the family who live there, not even their next door neighbours.
“They are a mystery. There were ambulances there and loads of men in white suits.
“Then a private ambulance came about ten o’clock at night.
“The Kirktonhill residents’ page on social media has been wild with speculation as to who the couple might be.”
The neighbour added: “The CID are there and taking away bags of turf.”
Keil School opened as a technical college in 1915. It later became an independent school for boys, mainly sons of farmers and land owners in Argyll. It later became co-educational before closing in 2000. It was founded by Sir William Mackinnon.