The devastated wife of Dundee murder victim John McMurchie has appealed to members of the community to help police find her beloved husband’s killer.
Donna McMurchie’s life came crashing down around her six months ago when 50-year-old John was killed on a night out.
He was found fatally injured on a Whitfield Street and died a short time later in hospital.
Tayside Police arrested a 63-year-old man shortly afterwards but he was later released without charge. Despite an intensive police investigation, no one has been charged in connection with the murder.
Donna (40) has appealed for anyone who knows what happened that night to bring her husband’s killer to justice.
She said: “Just do it. Please come forward. It would give us so much comfort to find his killer.”
John was not even supposed to be out on the night he died. He thought he was working as a security guard at a car showroom in Dundee, only to realise he had gotten his shifts mixed up when he arrived for work.
Donna revealed they both went out instead, ending up at a friend’s house in Whitfield. Donna went home early but John never came home.
A much-loved family man, he had three children with Donna Kristopher (22), Jamie (18) and 16-year-old Jon.
They also had legal guardianship of Stephen (7) and John had two daughters from a previous relationship, Leanne (26) and Carrie (24).
Donna said: “Thinking about that night is so hard. John had been so happy when he found out he wasn’t working. I so wish he’d just gone to work…
“I got a phone call at ‘stupid o’clock’ and drove to pick John up. By the time I got there, the area was cordoned off.
“I stopped the car and waited. I wasn’t sure what to do, I was just hoping everything was OK.”
Tragically, it wasn’t and Donna’s and the family’s lives changed forever.
“If it wasn’t for my kids, I don’t think I’d have coped,” she said.
Donna, from Errol, says talking of John helps to keep his memory alive.
“We speak about him every day. He was just so goofy, our family joker. A great big family man.”
Son Kris said: “We have such great memories of him and it’s a comfort when we talk about him.
“But when we stop, we realise we aren’t going to make any more of those memories with him.”
For Donna, her rock has gone.
“We were together for 23 years. I have diabetes and he’d phone me every day from work at the same time, without fail, to tell me to check my blood level.”
Police have revealed that John was involved in a “physical altercation” the night he died.
Donna says that isn’t the man she knew.
“That was completely out of character for him. He’d never go looking for trouble, never.”
As well as coping with her own grief, Donna worries about her boys, too.
“Well, of course they haven’t been the same. They’re all young and it’s awful for them to lose their dad and in such a terrible way,” she said.
“And John’s girls, Leanne and Carrie, have struggled too. Although he’d split up from their mum, he was a dad to them in every way he saw them all the time.
“It’s a huge loss.I miss absolutely everything about John and every single day I wake up, I feel lost,” she said.
“He was the love of my life and I just wish he was still here. I’d give anything to have him back.”