EXCLUSIVE: Sister of Sandy Davidson wants Madeleine McCann-style task force to find her missing brother 40 years on from his disappearance

Four decades after Sandy vanished his sister Donna Davidson is pleading with Irvine-born Nicola Sturgeon to give the green light for financial backing of a special police investigation unit dedicated specifically to finding Sandy.

Just last month the UK Home Secretary Theresa May granted Metropolitan Police an extra £95,000 to extend the five year inquiry into the disappearance of Madeleine for a further six months.

Madeleine disappeared in Portugal in May 2007 and since 2011 detectives have taken more than 1,338 statements and investigated more than 60 persons of interest in an inquiry which is estimated to have cost £12 million.

Now Donna says it’s time the Scottish Government backed a similar-style police search so she can finally find out what happened to Sandy.

Speaking exclusively to the Times, she said: “Sandy’s case is the longest running case in Scotland of a missing child so I think it would be great if the Scottish Government could intervene.

“The British Government have invested millions to finding Madeleine McCann, which is great, but why can’t Sandy’s case get the same treatment?

“It’s been 40 years. We need answers.”

Blonde-haired toddler Sandy was playing with sister little Donna in their gran’s back garden in St Kilda’s Bank, Bourtreehill, on April 23, 1976 when he vanished. He was just a few weeks short of his fourth birthday.

It is still not known if Sandy, who would now be 43, just wandered off or was abducted.

At the time the entire Bourtreehill estate was a building site with foundations being laid for new homes.

At he time it was suggested that little Sandy had maybe fallen into a ditch or had been victim to an accident.

But as time went on his parents Margaret and Philip began to fear the worst, their fears seemingly confirmed by a neighbour who was working in his garden at the time told police he saw Sandy leaving in a car with a strange man, but the child did not seem distressed, so he thought nothing of it.

But 40 years on his little sister Donna, now 42, says the family still lives in hope he will be found and has released never-before-seen pictures in the hopes they will jog some memories.

She said: “I really believe that some day we will get a resolution and find out what happened to Sandy. 

“My mum believes he is alive somewhere and someone took him in and has been bringing him up as their own. I would like to think that too, but something inside me just thinks that Sandy was abducted and something sinister happened to him. I don’t believe he is still alive, but, either way, we just need to know.

“All these years have passed, but someone must know something.”

Donna, who went on to have three children and is expecting to become a grandmother for the second time this summer, says over the years Sandy’s disappearance has torn the family apart as they struggled to live on without him.

Speaking through tears, she said: “It is still hard to think what would have become of Sandy. I was only two-years-old when Sandy vanished and so I can’t really remember much about him and people will say “How can you miss someone who was never there, but you can, believe me you can.

“I will always wonder what he would have been, would he have had children and grandchildren like me. 

“As a family we have all been robbed of so much. It’s very hard for all of us, but especially my mum.

“This time of year is always difficult but this year especially has been really hard. I have been very down for weeks because it has been in my mind that we are approaching the 40th anniversary.”

Donna has campaigned tirelessly for years to try and find out the truth about what happened to Sandy. She has appeared on national TV numerous times, attended missing people conferences and even travelled to Downing Street to meet politicians to keep Sandy’s case in the public eye.

Donna has also met and befriended family members of other missing children, including the McCanns and Kerry Needham - mother of 21-month-old Ben Needham who vanished from Kos in 1991.

She said: “It’s strange because I have always felt guilty. I’m not sure why. I suppose because Sandy disappeared and I didn’t. I question why him and not me? He could have had the life that I’ve had. So all of that keeps me going and makes me determined to get answers.”

To mark Sandy’s anniversary Police Scotland have issued a fresh appeal to find him and the Missing People charity will use its social media sites to publish Sandy’s pictures.

An SNP spokesperson said: “Sandy’s disappearance was a tragedy for his family, and understandably they still want answers as to what happened to him, especially now that we are approaching the 40th anniversary.

“This is first and foremost a matter for Police Scotland, who would always investigate new information or leads in any case, and we hope that anyone who might have any information at all that could help will come forward.”