- Lamara Bell, 25, and John Yuill, 28, were found in their car on Wednesday
- Their crash in Stirlingshire had been reported to police on Sunday morning
- Officers failed to attend despite having issued a missing persons appeal
- Mr Yuill died upon impact while Miss Bell is fighting for life in hospital
A mother-of-two lay next to her boyfriend's dead body for three days in a car wreckage by the side of the road because police failed to respond to reports of their crash.
Lamara Bell is in a critical condition in hospital after crashing at Junction 9 on the M9 near Bannockburn, Stirlingshire, on Sunday. The 25-year-old's partner, father-of-two John Yuill, died on impact in the accident.
The couple were the subject of a missing persons appeal after disappearing from a campsite where they were staying with friends on Sunday morning at around 4.30am.
On Sunday a passer-by reported a crash at the scene but it was never investigated. Officers eventually discovered the pair on Wednesday after a second call was made reporting the crash.
Today Miss Bell's mother revealed her daughter thought she had only been lying in the wreckage for half-an-hour when pulled out by firefighters three days after the crash.
Victims: John Yuill, 28, (left) and Lamara Bell, 25, (right) were reported missing on Sunday after they disappeared from a weekend camping trip. Officers found them yesterday in a crashed blue Renault Clio
Police Scotland refused to answer questions on its handling of the tragedy today, telling MailOnline any added information could prejudice the outcome of an ongoing investigation into the incident.
The Police Investigations and Review Commissioner is now investigating why the initial call made on Sunday was never followed up.
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It comes as Mr Yuill's father said an earlier response may have given his son's girlfriend a better chance at survival.
She is currently on life support at Glasgow's Southern General Hospital with her family by her bedside.
People lying unattended at the side of the road for days is something you'd be surprised to encounter in the Third World.
Murdo Fraser, Conservative MSP
Speaking of the fact police took three days to reach them, Gordon Yuill said: 'It wouldn't have made any difference for John. His injuries were such that he died on impact. But I feel it may have made a difference for Lamara,' he told The Daily Record.
Earlier in the week he assured friends he was 'sure police will be checking all the information available.'
Mr Yuill's mother, Anita, was too upset to speak at the family's Falkirk home today other than to say: 'At the moment our thoughts are with John.'
Meanwhile Miss Bell's father, Ossie, fumed at police's handling of the incident. 'Lamara was in a field for three days after the accident. She was on her way home. Because of some nice guy that phoned it in and was ignored by the incident room, the messages were never passed on.
'Now my daughter is laying on life support. All I can ask from everybody is help tonight, tell her to wake up.' Miss Bell is understood to have bleeding in the brain.'
Today Miss Bell's mother, Diane, said she was still in a critical condition in hospital.
Speaking at her home in Falkirk, Ms Bell said: 'I think I know about as much as that's on the news.
'I don't know anything other than my daughter is in a critical condition in hospital right now.'
Later she told Sky News her daughter believed she had only been lying in the wreckage for half-an-hour when firefighters came to her aid three days later.
Fallen trees were seen at the side of the road where the couple are believed to have crashed on Sunday
Police marking show the path the couple's car is believed to have taken when careering off the motorway
Mr Yuill and Miss Bell had been camping at Loch Earn in Perthshire with Miss Bell's brother, Liam, his pregnant girlfriend and a friend, Paul Mooney.
They were reported missing by the group after a car was heard starting at around 4.30am on Sunday.
Police Scotland issued a missing persons appeal but did not follow up when a crash on the M9 was reported later that day, miles from their Falkirk home.
It was only when a second call was placed on Wednesday that officers attended the scene.
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, a father-of-two, is understood to have died on impact
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.
Today she would not speak beyond to confirm that her daughter remained in a critical condition.
Local politicians have slammed the police's handling of the incident, with one likening the scenario to something found in the developing world.
'This is a truly shocking incident,' said Murdo Fraser, Conservative MSP for Mid Scotland and Fife.
'People lying unattended at the side of the road for days is something you'd be surprised to encounter in the Third World.
'The circumstances leading to this must be investigated as a matter of absolute urgency.'
A neighbour at Miss Bell's home said said she was 'shocked' it had taken so long for her to be found.
'It's absolutely shocking what's happened. I saw on the news the car was lying there for three days and the police did absolutely nothing about it.
'What kind of country are we living in where the police feel they can choose to ignore a car crash where people are injured,' the neighbour, who did not want to be named, said.
The couple's car was left off Junction 9 on the M9 near Stirling for three days before police found them
'It makes me sick knowing they were they for all that time and she was lying there with his body.
'Thank God they were eventually found. I'll be praying for her. Something still has to be done about the police though. It's not acceptable at all for that to be allowed to go unpunished.
'I hope they get hung out to dry for this. It's as good as manslaughter.'
Outraged Scots flooded the Police Scotland page with complaints of its handling of the tragedy when it posted an update last night.
Siobhan Samson wrote: 'How can this happen? I regularly go to work via the M9 and the M876 and you seem to have plenty of vans to detect speeding and yet this emergency call seemed to have gone unexplored. How is that?'
They were found near the M9 in Stirlingshire (file image above) on Wednesday morning after three days
Jackie Martin added: 'Absolute disgrace that these people have lay injured and dying for 3 days.'
A spokesman for the Scottish government said: 'Our thoughts are with the families of the couple concerned at this very difficult time.
'This matter has been referred by the Crown to the Police Investigations and Review Commissioner and will be taken forward appropriately.'
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.'
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