A couple who has been missing were found in a car crashed, the man was dea'd and the woman critically injured they were found in a crashed car – three days after the accident was reported to police.
Lamara Bell, 25, and John Yuill, 28, were reported missing on Sunday after they disappeared from a weekend camping trip.
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Officers found them yesterday morning in a crashed blue Renault Clio. Mr Yuill was dea'd while Miss Bell was last night fighting for her life in hospital after suffering serious injuries.
Police Scotland admitted that it had received a call regarding a crashed car on Sunday, but had not followed it up. Last night, Miss Bell's family were by her bedside in hospital while Mr Yuill's family were too distraught to speak.
The couple were last seen at a camping trip at Loch Earn, Perthshire, with Miss Bell's brother, Liam, his girlfriend and a friend, Paul Mooney.
The group had reported the two missing after hearing a car start at around 4.30am on Sunday.
Police Scotland launched an investigation to find the pair, but neglected to follow up a crash on the M9 near Stirling, just miles away from the pair's home in Falkirk, Stirlingshire.
Miss Bell has two children, a daughter aged nine, and a son aged five, while Mr Yuill was a father of two young boys. The couple had recently moved into a new home.
Mr Yuill had custody of his two sons who had been staying with their mother in Edinburgh.
Earlier this week, Mr Yuill's father, Gordon, told the Scottish Daily Mail he 'feared there has been an accident and they are lying there'.
He added: 'He's in contact with his family every day, he comes here every day. This is not like him at all. Lamara dotes on her kids, they wouldn't just leave them.'
Mr Mooney, who had been camping with the couple, said that they had heard the car early on Sunday, but thought the engine had been turned back off. The group then woke at 9am and noticed Mr Yuill and Miss Bell were gone.
On Monday. Mr Mooney said: 'We haven't slept at all, we are just waiting for the police to call. We're in shock.'
Miss Bell's mother, Diane, had also urged her daughter to come home and said she too feared the worst.
Last night, a neighbour said she was at hospital with her daughter and was 'heartbroken'. The neighbour said: 'it's absolutely terrible that they just left them lying there.'
An investigation into the circumstances is to be carried out by the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner.
Assistant Chief Constable Kate Thomson of Police Scotland said officers had been called to the M9 southbound near Junction 9 at about 9.50am yesterday. That followed a report of a one-car crash involving a Renault Clio which had left the road.
The man driving the car had been pronounced dead at the scene, while the woman passenger was taken to the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow, where she is in a critical condition.' She added: 'We believe that this is connected to the ongoing missing persons search for John Yuill and Lamara Bell.
'As part of our investigation into this incident, it has come to light that a call was made to police late on Sunday morning regarding a car which was reported as being off the road. For reasons currently being investigated, that report was not followed up at the time.
'A full investigation is currently under way to establish the full circumstances of the incident.'
A PIRC spokesman said: 'The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service has directed the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner to carry out an independent investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of a 28-year-old man and serious injury of a 25-year-old woman following an incident at the M9 southbound near Junction 9 at Bannockburn on July 8.'