A mechanic murdered in his home may have known his attacker through friendship, business or through a person he had been introduced to through work.
Police Scotland officers investigating the murder of Brian McKandie in Rothienorman have again appealed for anyone with information that may assist to get in touch, describing two men and a vehicle of particular interest.
Mr McKandie was attacked at his home at Fairview Cottages, Rothienorman, Aberdeenshire, on Friday, March 11, or Saturday, March 12 and was found dead there on the Saturday.
Detective Chief Inspector Iain Smith said: "We are now almost three months on from when Mr McKandie was murdered and we would like to repeat our appeals to the public for assistance.
"House to house enquiries are almost concluded with over one thousand people seen who live within a few miles of Mr McKandie's home.
"Sightings of various makes and models of vehicles have been reported along with descriptions of drivers and callers to Mr McKandie's address on Friday March 11 and Saturday March 12 and investigations continue to identify the individuals concerned but a number remain unidentified.
"There is some consistency among some witnesses throughout Friday of two males seen speaking to deceased at his address."
He added: "Also there is some consistency among some witnesses throughout Friday of a burgundy or maroon coloured 'boxy' estate car at the locus, with one of these witnesses describing it having a different shade on the rear passenger side panel.
"These two males and the car remain unidentified, as do a number of other persons who may have attended at the address to speak to Mr McKandie.
"A large customer base that used Mr McKandie's services as a mechanic has been identified during the enquiry, but we believe others have not come forward to date."
One of the men was described as possibly 30-50 years old, heavy build and the other possibly 20-30 years old with a thinner build.
Mr Smith added: "Whilst they may not necessarily think it is beneficial or relevant to the investigation, please report it and let us make that judgement."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here