A devoted father. A gentle giant. An ordinary family man.
Alistair Wilson was described as many things in the weeks and months after his death. And his memory lingers in the heads and hearts of those who knew and loved him.
But for two young boys, then aged four and two, the killing meant they were robbed of the opportunity to find out for themselves what kind of man their dad was.
On the first anniversary of Mr Wilson’s death, detectives released a video of the heartbreaking moment when his elder son, Andrew, learned his father was dead.
Detectives hoped that by taking the unusual step of releasing the film they might finally spark a guilty conscious into giving them the concrete lead that would unlock the murder inquiry.
In the video, Andrew is shown telling a child psychologist he believes his father is still in hospital.
As he sits on his mother’s knee, the specialist takes him back to the night his “daddy was shot”, when he heard “the big bang”.
“What do you think has happened (to your father) now?” she ask.
“Still in the hospital and I think he’s okay,” Andrew replies.
“Do you think we should ask Mummy if he’s okay? Do you want to know if he’s okay?” she asks.
Andrew nods.
“Sweetheart, you need to come and sit and have a cuddle with Mum because Daddy isn’t okay,” she tells him.
“You know when you said you heard the big bang? And that Daddy was shot?”
Andrew replies: “Yes.”
“Well Daddy’s not going to come back,” she says.
“Why?” he asks.
“Because the shot made him dead,” she replies.
Peter MacPhee, the detective chief inspector leading the investigation, said he would “defy” anyone who watched the footage not to be moved.
“My hope is that if there is somebody out there who has information for us, that they find the courage to come forward and give us the information that we need,” he said.
Mr Wilson’s widow, Veronica, also spoke of her heartache at having to tell their son what had happened.
“It was awful,” she said.
“His little face crumpled. He didn’t understand that someone wanted his daddy dead and was scared that the bad man would come back.”
After three weeks away from the family home, she decided to return to the house where her husband had been killed.
Mrs Wilson said: “As I opened the front door, I didn’t scream or break down. The boys ran into their playroom, picked up their toys and started playing contentedly. It all seemed strangely normal.
“I decided to stay at home. Of course I was worried that the killer might return but the fears we would face there we would have to face anywhere.
“Part of convincing the kids that the bad man wasn’t going to come back was to not let it hamper our lives.”