On the evening of October 7th, 2002, David Draycott, a forty-year-old businessman and father of two, pulled up outside his home on Woodlands Way in Sutton-in-Ashfield, Nottinghamshire. It was around nine fifteen p.m. Moments later, he was shot multiple times—reports indicate as many as ten shots—in what appeared to be a targeted attack. Despite sustaining severe wounds to his chest and abdomen, David managed to stagger to a neighbor’s front door, where he received first aid before being rushed to King’s Mill Hospital. He fought for his life but succumbed to his injuries four days later on October 11th.
David had spent that evening at the home of his estranged wife, Andrea. The couple’s children had seen him off after what she later described as a “lovely night.” His final words to her over the phone, after the shooting, were filled with urgency as he confirmed he had been shot and wanted to see her and the children.
David Draycott was known locally as a businessman. Investigations and media reports over the years have suggested that his killing may have been linked to financial difficulties. Some accounts point to possible debts and connections within the criminal underworld, with speculation that he was targeted by hitmen.
The nature of the attack—multiple shots fired at close range as he arrived home in his black Mercedes—pointed strongly to a professional or semi-professional hit rather than a random act of violence.
Nottinghamshire Police launched a major investigation into the murder. A significant reward was offered for information leading to the identification of the killer(s), but despite extensive efforts, no one has ever been charged.
Over the years, several arrests were made in connection with the case. For example, in December 2010 and January 2011, a fifty-four-year-old man from the Basford area (arrested at HMP Whitemoor) was questioned multiple times but ultimately released.
And in 2015, Robert Dawes, a Nottinghamshire man then living on Spain’s Costa del Sol, was arrested on a European warrant. Dawes, described in some reports as a suspected international drug lord, was later convicted in France on drug trafficking and smuggling charges and sentenced to twenty-two years. Andrea Draycott expressed hope that this development might yield new leads on her husband’s murder.
Despite these lines of inquiry and renewed appeals, particularly on anniversaries and in 2012, 2018, and 2021, the case remains unsolved more than two decades later.
Crime Immemorial 