THE DETECTIVE in charge of investigating the murder of Dunfermline man Duncan Banks said it's likely that his death is connected to drugs.

DCI Keith Hardie also believes that Mr Banks was killed in a two-hour window between 9.30am and 11.30am on Sunday, September 27 and hopes that somebody will come forward with information.

"I think the lifestyle Duncan found himself in was a factor in his death and I think it probably is related to drugs is some way, shape or form," he said. "I don't suspect for one second it's a random attack."

Although the investigation is still in the "fairly early stages", DCI Hardie believes that significant progress has already been made.

“We're two weeks into the enquiry and in my experience we resolve this type of murder, or any type of murder, very quickly, though there are the longer-term ones," he said. "We've certainly taken a number of steps forward and I'm fairly confident now we're looking at Sunday morning between about 9.30am and 11.30am as the time when Duncan was murdered. That in itself is a massive step forward to allow us to concentrate on a fairly short period of time of about two hours."

Crimestoppers is offering a reward for up to £10,000 for information that leads to the arrest and conviction of whoever is responsible and DCI Hardie hopes the financial reward will encourage people to talk.

"Because Duncan was involved in the drug community and drug abuse, sometimes money is more attractive to them as an incentive to come forward if they are hiding something from us," he said. "Sometimes money can be that incentive to get them to come forward and tell us what they know or who they think is responsible."

He added: "We've already spoken to a number of people who are openly speaking about being involved in the drugs fraternity. I don't want to demean that problem or minimise it but my number one priority is identify the person responsible. Even within the drugs community people have happily spoken to us and admitted drug addiction and they seem to be of the same mind as us – let's lay it aside and find out what happened to Duncan."

Mother Dorothy Banks this morning made a heartfelt plea for information about the murder of her son and DCI Hardie thinks someone in the community knows what happened.

He said: "I'm convinced that the answer lies in the community and I think somebody within the community is aware of what happened to Duncan but more importantly, who was responsible for Duncan's murder."