It was Wednesday, December 8, 2004, and police hunting for Alistair Wilson’s killer were confronted with a trail that had already gone cold.
Officers were still concentrating their inquiries in the seaside town of Nairn, and the question “why?, as much as “who?”, was baffling them.
There was no obvious motive for the cold-blooded murder – and at that point no sign of the gun used to shoot the banker.
But a shocking discovery made that day, less than a mile from where Mr Wilson was killed on his own doorstep, led to the most dramatic twist of all in the case – and put Nairn into lockdown again.
While a team of roadsweepers cleared out the town’s deep gullies in preparation for the winter’s wet weather, a small gun was sucked from the drains below.
It turned out to be the weapon that was used to shoot Mr Wilson, and had been dumped just streets away from where the murder happened.
To this day, the unusual pistol remains the most crucial piece of evidence discovered, and at the time it gave the town hope that Mr Wilson’s killer might, one day, be caught.
Roadsweeper Charles McLachlan says he will never forget the day he ended up playing a major part in one of the country’s biggest murder inquiries after the gun rattled out of his drain cleaner.
The 62-year-old had travelled from his home at Elgin to Nairn that day to clear out the gullies for Highland Council – a job he had done countless times.
“It was common to find shoes, money, mobile phones and watches down them, but I had never seen a gun before. It was surreal,” he said.
“It started off like any normal day. We got our map and started making our way round Nairn. There was nothing special about the job at all.
“We got to this one particular drain and that’s where we found the oddest gun I have ever seen.
“It was tiny, no bigger than the palm of my hand. We were later told that it was the type of gun Russian prostitutes used, as it was small enough to hide in their tights.
“We just looked at each other. It was a weird and surreal feeling holding a gun.
“We called the police to report what we had found, but none of us clicked what it was.”
The discovery of the pistol at around 3pm was followed quickly by the arrival of a fleet of police vehicles at the scene near Nairn Old Parish Church.
Northern Constabulary commandeered Mr McLachlan’s road sweeper, and insisted he travel around the town with them as they cleared and re-cleared every single drain.
“I had just been doing my job – I didn’t expect to wake up that morning and be thrown into a murder case,” he said.
“The officers needed someone who knew what they were doing with the sweeper – and that person was me.
“The gullies were about four foot deep, filled with rubble, leaves and dirt.
“Had the police tried to search them themselves, I doubt the gun would ever have been found.
“It was pure luck we cleaned them out when we did, and it was pure luck the gun wasn’t sucked right up the pump. It would have never been found again.
“From there on, everything was taken to the council bay and drained through a giant sieve.”
At the time, police were asked why Seabank Road had not been included in the search area, to which the force replied it was “outwith the search parameters” of the crime.
“It wasn’t a case of the police missing anything,” a spokesman said.
As rumours started to circulate Nairn that the murder weapon might have been found, Mr McLachlan and his workmates were thrown into the media spotlight.
“We were all sworn to secrecy,” he said.
“We couldn’t breathe a world of what we had found or what we were up to.”
After two weeks, the job was done – every gully had been cleaned and re-cleaned numerous times, and Mr McLachlan had to return to normal life.
A decade later, he still works for the same firm which was contracted by Highland Council that day 10 years ago, and he still does the same job.
But finding the gun used to kill Alistair Wilson and becoming a part of the case is an experience he will never forget.
“As soon as we found the gun we thought that was the case solved, that it was over. We all thought someone would be nailed for the crime,” he said.
“Ten years on, there’s still nothing. I feel heartfelt sorry for his boys – no child should have to grow up knowing what happened to their dad.
“It’s frustrating to say, but I don’t think the case will ever be solved.”