Kevin McLeod was in good health when he left his parent’s home at 10pm on Friday, February 7, 1997.
But two days later his body was found in Wick Harbour, having sustained huge internal injuries.
What happened that night remains a mystery – but Mr McLeod’s family are convinced he was murdered.
The 24-year-old had been working near Wick as a labourer for Rockwater Inc.
On the night of his death he had gone out with old school friend Mark Foubister, initially to Carter’s Bar in Wick.
At about 1am, they moved next door to the Waterfront nightclub, and carried on drinking.
In the club Mr McLeod was involved in two altercations, the first with a work colleague which had begun as “good natured banter” but escalated into a “heated argument”.
A later dispute over a pint of beer involved a different colleague from Rockwater, and led to Mr McLeod being punched near his left eye.
However, there was later an apology and the pair made up.
According to the Fatal Accident Inquiry (FAI), Mr McLeod and Mr Foubister left the club at about 1.30am and went by taxi to Loch Street on their way to a party, but instead changed their minds and returned on foot to the town centre.
During the walk, Mr McLeod felt sick, vomited and stumbled. A police car was passing at the time but did not stop.
The pair reached Market Square, where Mr McLeod sat by a shop window while his friend spoke to a taxi driver.
Mr McLeod then walked off towards the Camps area of Wick on a route which would eventually lead to the harbour.
Sharing a taxi with a female, Mr Foubister kept a look out for his friend in the hope of picking him up, but there was no sign.
At 2.45am, a police constable on patrol in his car saw Mr McLeod stagger towards the harbour area, and 15 minutes later a local fisherman and a harbour master reported seeing an unidentified man matching his description crouched on a kerb, near two bollards on the quayside, with his head on his knees and motionless.
When the harbour worker passed the area again at 4am, the man had disappeared.
Later that morning a search was launched after Mr McLeod’s parents discovered he had not returned home.
The body was found at 11am on Sunday, near the quay where he was last seen.
All but one of the buttons of his jeans were undone.
The primary cause of death was established to have been drowning, but it was also found that Mr McLeod had sustained life-threatening abdominal injuries, probably less than an hour before he ended up in the harbour.
The 1998 FAI, which recorded an open verdict, said the injuries were compatible with Mr McLeod having been assaulted with “great force”, such as by “kicking or kneeing”, but also compatible with him having “collided accidently but with great force” against an object, such as the bollards he was seen near.
It was said to be “probable” that, while suffering from the pain and alcohol intoxication, he experienced an urge to urinate but lost balance near the edge of the quay due to diminished blood pressure, and fell into the water.
The death was initially treated as a drowning tragedy, but that changed when the results of the post mortem showed the abdominal injuries, which included a burst liver and internal bleeding.
Upon hearing about the injuries, Procurator Fiscal Alasdair MacDonald told the local police that it was now “potentially a murder inquiry and should be treated as such”.
Two police investigations and a fatal accident inquiry were held, but no criminal charges have ever been brought.