James Brodie has not been seen since Mrs Bates died

James Roger Brodie, 21, is wanted for questioning over her death but police have not been able to track him down and believe he may have been killed.

Peter Williams, 18, of no fixed address, was found guilty of her murder on Monday.

His trial heard the man who shot the Mrs Bates in her shop in Arnold on 30 September 2003 has never been found.

"The identity of the gunman remains uncertain. There is some evidence that it was a man called James Brodie but he has disappeared and cannot be found," the jury at Stafford Crown Court was told during the trial.

Gregory Dickinson, QC, told the court how two raiders wearing crash helmets entered the Time Centre with the gunman threatening Mrs Bates' husband Victor.

Despite extensive police inquiries we can find no trace of him Det Supt George Frame

He said Marian Bates put herself between the gunman and her daughter Xanthe in "an instinctive act of bravery by a mother - but it cost her life."

The gunman then aimed at her husband Victor Bates and Xanthe, but the gun misfired.

Det Supt George Frame, of Nottinghamshire Police, said in a statement in May 2004: "We very much want to hear from James Brodie or anyone who can tell us of his whereabouts.

"He has not been seen since shortly after the murder (of Marian Bates) and has not, to our knowledge, made any contact with family or friends in the area.

"This is a man who, until the week of the murder, frequented the Bestwood and Bulwell areas of Nottingham and was in regular contact with a number of associates.

"There now appears to be a complete absence of contact with anybody we would have expected him to have been in touch with and, despite extensive police inquiries, we can find no trace of him."

Speaking after Williams was found guilty of murder, Det Supt Frame said James Brodie may have been killed.

He said: "We have information and intelligence that would suggest that he has been murdered.

"But that is not evidence and until we have conclusive evidence, he is still a missing person and enquiries are on-going to trace him."