Jonathan Lessware BBC Scotland news website

The confirmation that the remains of a missing Glasgow accountant have been discovered in the Firth of Clyde has come as a shock to detectives working on a case that has been shrouded in mystery.

Mr Ramsay was abducted from outside his home

When fishermen made the gruesome find of a human skull in their nets off the island of Little Cumbrae last month, the friends and family of Andrew Ramsay were still clinging to the hope that he may still have been alive.

It is unclear how much the discovery will reveal about what happened after the father-of-two was abducted by two men posing as policemen in February 2006.

The case has left Strathclyde Police baffled and frustrated. It has led to a number of theories ranging from alleged sightings abroad to stories that his abduction may have been staged.

The only person to witness what happened to him on the evening of Wednesday 22 February was his girlfriend of eight months, Beverley Sinclair.

Mr Ramsay, who would have been 53 in March this year, was handcuffed and bundled into a car by two men claiming to be police officers outside his home in Berryknowes Road, Cardonald.

Police investigation

The couple were returning from the nearby Quo Vadis pub in Paisley Road West which they left shortly after 1900 GMT.

They then stopped at an off-license before walking towards their home.

The two men used what appeared to be police ID as they took Mr Ramsay, a keen hillwalker who had been unemployed for six months.

Despite a huge international police investigation officers struggled to find out what had happened to him.

Detectives pursued more than 1,000 lines of inquiry, interviewed more than 1,000 people and took more than 300 statements.

Det Supt Prendergast said the discovery was tragic news

The hunt also took detectives to cities in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Belgium to visit the accountant's associates.

Shortly after the abduction Mr Ramsay's brother Stewart made an emotional appeal for information.

The abduction was also reconstructed for the BBC's Crimewatch programme and an appeal was made at a Rangers football match. A �5,000 reward was also offered for information.

Unconfirmed reports of sightings in the UK and abroad also proved fruitless and a year on, the lack of progress led the officer leading the inquiry, Det Supt Willie Prendergast, to describe the case as "one of the most frustrating I have dealt with".

It was widely reported at the time that Mr Ramsay was due to appear in a case at the High Court in Glasgow as a witness in a fraud trial.

Further tests

At a press conference on Wednesday, police said he was interviewed by customs officials before his disappearance but no trial was set in relation to those interviews and they were not linking it to his abduction.

"Andrew had no criminality in his history. He was unknown to police," Det Supt Prendergast said.

The skull's identity was confirmed after DNA tests by scientists.

It is expected to undergo further tests in the hope that further clues will be found.