Farming community rocked by brutal murder of 67-year old gentleman

Persistent drizzle cloaks the surrounding patchwork of rich, green hills and newly ploughed fields.

A row of four small, grey semi-detached homes stands silent. Not a soul enters or leaves Fairview Cottages. No-one is out swapping gardening tips or chatting over fences.

And there are few comings and goings from the nearby red sandstone care home that bears the community’s name and was once its much-loved school.

Quiet hangs heavy on this little hamlet, broken only by passing tractors and cars on the B9001, linking the village of Rothienorman two miles away to the bustling market town of Huntly.

The mood of this close-knit farming community is sombre. People are stunned by events so horrific, few can bear to speak of them.

One of their own has been murdered in the home that was his safe haven for 64 years.

It is the home in which Brian McKandie, 67, was raised with his three siblings and where the kindly bachelor with a dry sense of humour cared for his mother until her death.

The slaying of this unassuming and private man has shaken this community to the core.

In this affluent agricultural area – where many still leave house and car doors unlocked – there is a subtle but palpable change. Keys are turning in locks, windows are snibbed and vehicles secured. Nothing is the same.

Brian – a former pupil of the old Badenscoth School and Turriff Academy – was a skilled electrical engineer.

He had worked for many years with the Clydesdale electrical firm in Turriff and Aberdeen before becoming self-employed, working from home, rarely venturing far or taking holidays away.

He was the man the community would always turn to when their car or washing machine broke down.

Speaking to The Sunday Post, Brian’s only brother William McKandie, 75, reveals: “I was on holiday in Australia when I got the news. I got the first available flight home.

“The circumstances of his death make it very stressful. We cannot understand why anyone would want to do this to him. He did not deserve this.”

Remembering happier times, he adds: “I used to see Brian every three or four weeks. I always went to visit him because he was so busy.

“He was always working and would always do his best to help people. He never married, he rarely had time off. Cars were his hobby.”

William is clearly keeping a lid on his unbearable emotion – but bear it he must. It is what his brother would have expected.

“We just have to get on with it,” he says. “Brian would not want us to mourn for long.“The police are trying hard to get answers and we, Brian’s family, would ask anyone out there who knows anything, or who has seen anything, or was involved themselves and is wrestling with their conscience to come forward.

“The only thing that can help us now is to know why this happened and to have justice.”

One of the last people to see Brian alive on Friday, March 11, was good friend Philip McIntosh, for whom he sometimes worked at the Templeford Garage in nearby Largue.

“I saw him that afternoon,” says

Mr McIntosh in his Doric lilt.

“I’ve known Brian for 25 years. He was always his own self and did things in his own way. You couldn’t get anyone better. “

Reliving their final moments together he says: “He seemed normal. When I heard he’d been found dead I thought it was a heart attack – that would have been easier.

Then I was told he had been murdered. I still could not believe it.

“Something must have happened out of the blue. Someone must know something – it is a terrible ending.”

Police have 40 officers on the case and are combing fields, roadsides and ditches for a “blood-stained heavy implement” which they say they are confident is the murder weapon.

Mr McKandie’s was a humble home, and there are many more luxurious properties in the area, so can an opportunistic robbery be ruled out? The police say every possibility is under scrutiny.

Alan Rosie, 78, is an elder at nearby Auchterless Church where quiet-living Brian was a member, and had known him since the 1950s.

He says: “Brian’s murder has rocked the community. We are in a state of horror and disbelief.

“It was total shock in the congregation on Sunday morning.”

He adds: “I always used to say that this community was safe.

“Never in our wildest dreams did we think something like this could happen here.”

One farmer, a friend of the victim who wishes to remain anonymous, says: “I saw Brian on the day he died. He seemed his usual self and was quite happy.

“Although I’ve known him since I was a boy I have never crossed the doorstep of his house.

“I would go up to see him with a tractor or a car and we would stand and blether in his garage.

“It’s unlikely he would let strangers into his home – no chance.”

And then he adds: “My house door would never be locked and my keys would never be out of my car. All my life I have been like that and I am 72. Now I lock up. It’s sad.”

As the community tries to understand the evil that descended on an ordinary day in spring, it looks to its minister for comfort.

Rev Steve Potts says: “I see so much care and concern between the people of this area. If I had only one word to describe them it would be ‘lovely’. The people here are lovely.

“I only met Brian a few times but I could see that he embodied the characteristics of so many people I have met in the north-east – he had that same gentleness and helpfulness.

“Since learning of the manner of his death there is both shock and bewilderment.

“How could this happen here to one such as Brian?

“At this moment our thoughts and prayers go out to his family and friends.

“I am sure that the people of this community will support them in any way they can.”

Anyone with information can contact police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.