Police probing the murders of Renee MacRae and Andrew MacRae 43 years ago are to drain a flooded quarry.
Officers are to carry out an investigation Leanach Quarry near Inverness in the search for their remains.
READ MORE: Renee MacRae 'murder': Fresh bid to solve 42-year mystery of missing mother and toddler
Renee MacRae, from Inverness, and her three-year-old son Andrew, disappeared on November 12, 1976. It is thought their remains could be buried in the 100ft quarry.
The 36-year-old's car was found on fire in a lay-by on the A9 south of Inverness later that day.
At the height of the investigation, hundreds of police, military personnel, and volunteers took part.
READ MORE: The disappearance of Renne MacRae: A timeline of events
Canberra bombers with heat-seeking devices flew over the Highlands hoping to pick up a reading which could indicate a body.
Divers and specialist underwater camera equipment were used to search lochans and flooded quarries.
READ MORE: It’s incredible Renee McRae’s killer is still out there, says sister
A team of detectives have been working to "identify new lines of inquiry and develop any existing lines of inquiry".
A Police Scotland spokesman said: "Detectives investigating the murders of Renee MacRae and her son Andrew are expected to begin searching an area of interest near Inverness within the coming days.
"We are unable to comment further at this stage."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here