Six years to the day Andrew Gilchrist’s friends Oliver Martin and Dylan Ellis were shot dead outside his apartment, the 31-year-old died in his sleep. It was the first June Friday the 13th since the random, unsolved killings.

“It shakes you up,” said Martin’s stepfather, Alan Dudeck, who watched the three young men, who met in elementary school, grow up together. “For (Gilchrist) to not wake up that same morning, on Friday the 13th, is sort of inexplicable.”

Gilchrist, known to close friends as “Gilly,” called Dudeck just after midnight on June 14, 2008, to deliver life-changing news: Martin and Ellis had been gunned down as they sat outside his apartment, at the corner of Richmond and Walnut Sts., in a Range Rover belonging to Ellis’ father.

The young men had gone back to the building to return a set of keys belonging to Gilchrist.

His best friends were dead, Gilchrist told Dudeck.

“Gilly, he felt it. It was deep. But he was getting through it,” Dudeck said over the phone from Prince Edward Island on Tuesday, where Martin’s family and friends gathered to celebrate the young Rosedale man’s 32nd birthday, an annual tradition since his death.

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Dudeck was shocked to receive a similar call this June 13, from a mutual friend of the three young men, who told him Gilchrist was dead.

“That was the same morning, six years later,” said Dudeck, who remained in touch with the young man after his son’s death.

According to Toronto Police, Gilchrist was found in his apartment near Bathurst St. and Davenport Rd. and died of an apparent drug overdose.

Gilchrist, who worked in sales while pursuing a career in improv on the side, was one of a kind, said Keesha Williams, a childhood friend of his younger sister, Katie. She and Gilchrist reconnected about five years ago after running into each other at a bar.

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“It’s hard. Someone that was so essential to so many people’s lives is just gone, just like that,” Williams said. “It’s hard to swallow.”

The two became best friends after their chance run-in, seeing each other weekly, Williams said. They were planning to visit improv comedy club Second City in Chicago together to take some classes.

Gilchrist talked about Martin and Ellis as if the three were thick as thieves, Williams said.

“It was hard for him to talk about sometimes. You could tell it really had affected him — how could it not? It’s a traumatizing experience to go through.”

The shooting, Williams said, is where it all went wrong for Gilchrist.

“Not a day went by, not a minute went by, where it wasn’t looming in the background, over his head.”

Friends approached him with gentle concern but trusted he would be OK. Gilchrist would never purposefully harm himself, Williams said.

“Just a lot of party and not enough rest, I guess.”

Martin and Ellis’ deaths, two of the most shocking murders in Toronto’s recent history, remain unsolved. Det. Sgt. Gary Giroux, who led the homicide investigation, told the Star in 2012 that detectives were still seeking a motive for what appeared to be a random killing.

“(Police) don't know what type of person we are dealing with,” Giroux said. “The motive is unclear, which is what makes this unique. There was no angry exchange.”

While those close to Martin and Ellis want justice, Martin’s stepfather said he is wary at the prospect of a trial.

“There is no closure when you have a loss like this. It’s part of you forever,” Dudeck said. “If someone is arrested and charged and convicted, that’s not closure, either. Justice should be done, but it’s not very high on our emotional list of things that really matter.”

What does matter now, Dudeck said, is remembering the love for life Gilchrist, Martin and Ellis shared.

““They were outstanding young men who were just at the cusp of moving on, to maybe getting married, having families — you name it — and got cut short.”