Alistair Wilson murder: Police ‘may have evidence’

Alistair Wilson and his wife Veronica. Picture: Contributed

As the devastated family of Mr Wilson spoke out yesterday on how they are still looking for answers, frustrated police insist scientific advances may provide the breakthrough.

The murder of the 30-year-old banker in Nairn on 28 November, 2004, still remains unsolved.

Yesterday, Detective Chief Superintendent Gary Flannigan, of the Specialist Crime Division Major Investigation Team, revealed they are eight weeks into a re-investigation of the case.

He said they would be scrutinising every piece of information from the night of the murder in 2004.

He said: “History tells us that in these long-running investigations, the answer often lies within. Some small piece of information the significance of which was not seen originally, or that we haven’t recognised the question to ask.

“We want to see if somebody was telling us something that we didn’t appreciate at the time. We have every reason to believe we will be optimistic.”

He added that, in the last 10 years, science had moved on considerably.

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He said he hoped scientific advances would also hold the vital breakthrough, particularly on a single cigarette butt found outside the house after the murder.

DCS Flannigan added: “Over the course of a decade, detectives have worked tirelessly using a wide range of methodologies, seeking expert help from throughout the UK and considering advances in forensic science all in an effort to help detect this highly unusual crime.”

As the police made a fresh appeal for information, Mr Wilson’s widow Veronica, his parents and his sister issued a statement yesterday, saying: “Despite years of searching for answers, the question which always remains is: Why? It is difficult to achieve closure of our grief until we know why Alistair was killed on 28 November, 2004, and who shot him.”

Their appeal came as police announced that a “strategic review” of the murder – the fifth such re-investigation in 10 years – was under way.

Mr Wilson’s family added in the statement: “We are confident that someone, somewhere knows the identity of Alistair’s killer: a man who is still at large.

“He has killed once, he may kill again and cause another family heartbreak we have endured.”

Mr Wilson and his wife had been getting their young sons ready for bed when there was a knock on the door at around 7.15pm.

Mrs Wilson answered the door and was confronted by a man wearing a baseball hat asking for her husband.

Mr Wilson went to the door, was handed a turquoise-coloured envelope, went back into the house and had a short conversation with his wife before returning to the door, where he was shot three times before the killer fled.

The murder weapon was found 10 days later by council workers cleaning out a drain near the murder scene.

More than 4,100 interviews have since taken place. DNA tests on the gun failed to find any information. Details of the contents of the envelope, which was never found, have never been revealed.