The investigation into the unsolved murder of 72-year-old farmer Jack Nicholas was formally concluded this week but his widow says for her there is no closure.
Coroner Warwick Holmes at a Napier inquest ruled that Mr Nicholas died of gunshot wounds inflicted by an unknown person or persons.
Mr Nicholas was shot dead on his farm at Makahu in the Kaweka Ranges foothills on August 27, 2004.
After an eight-week trial this year, Murray Foreman, 50, of Haumoana, near Hastings, was found not guilty of murder. Police have not charged anyone else with the killing.
Mr Holmes conveyed his condolences to the family over their "protracted and horrible experience".
If any new facts came to light the investigation could be opened again, he said.
But Agnes Nicholas said her family would never have closure about that day.
"The questions we have still in our minds and hearts have not been answered," she told Hawke's Bay Today.
She would never forget finding her husband shot in the chest outside their farm.
"I keep looking at his pictures, of the smile on his face, and I can't get it out of my mind how I felt that morning.
"I keep asking myself why would anyone want to do this?"
