• The 32 year-old was a talented geneticist at Aberdeen University, and had been supplementing her income by working as an escort
• It reveals how Dr Page’s sister knew she was “terrified” of her ex-husband, and her colleague details how she was worried about being killed
• Over 40 years after her death, the case remains open

Over 40 years after her death, podcast, Reporter - Black Gold, investigates the murder of Dr Brenda Page. It is the anticipated second season of Wireless Studios’ true crime podcast series, Reporter.

One of the most controversial cases in Scottish legal history, it still remains open. 

The case, which shook the city of Aberdeen, is a mixing pot of cutting edge science, a big oil boomtown and sex, with multiple potential motives ranging from the corporate to the personal.

A pioneering research scientist by day and an escort by night, Dr Brenda Page was last seen at 2am on July 14, 1978, when she left a hotel in Aberdeen where she had been entertaining two clients.

She was found hours later in her home by a university colleague who had become worried when she failed to turn up for work. Dr Page had been bludgeoned almost 30 times on the head and face, in what police described as a frenzied attack.

A damaged window suggested that her flat had been broken into, but nothing had been stolen.

The podcast season – presented by Scottish Sun journalist Ruth Warrander and produced by Wireless Studios – features interviews with Brenda's family and friends, and people connected with the investigation into her murder. 

A killer is yet to be found, despite 75 policemen and detectives working on the case when it was first opened, subsequent DNA analysis, and renewed calls for information in both 2015 and 2018.

The Reporter podcast’s second season looks at many people involved in Dr Page’s life – from her ex-husband, who was given a restraining order, to corporate crooks in the oil industry, to her escort boss, who features in the podcast – in the most in-depth exploration of the case so far. 

It reveals how Dr Page’s sister knew she was “terrified” of her ex-husband, and kept a file which tracked his behaviour for symptoms of schizophrenia. It uncovers her roster of escort clients, which included an olympic swimmer and oil magnates, and unfurls her top-secret work for the Department of Energy on the danger of deep sea diving.

She had also feared her own murder, once saying to her colleague at Aberdeen University, “If ever I'm found dead and it looks like suicide, don't believe it.”

The first episode is released today and available via Apple Podcasts, Acast and Spotify. It is the second in the Reporter season by Wireless Studios, the first season covered Murder in the Graveyard, exploring the unsolved murder of Wendy Sewell.

Ruth Warrander said: ”This gripping podcast will take listeners on a journey of discovery. Searching for answers to this 40 year-old mystery, it begins to make sense of a complex life and a timeline of events that led to an untimely and unresolved death.”

Each episode is around 35 minutes long.