The life of the party.

That’s how Shirley Davidson remembers her little brother Richard “AJ” McEachern.

“He was just carefree. If there was a room and he was in it, you knew he was there,” Davidson said. “At his niece’s wedding, probably the last time most people saw him physically, he was the only guy dancing with all the older women. That was the type of fellow he was.”

McEachern, 38, was shot in the chest while sitting in his car in North York’s Jane-Finch area on the night of Jan. 31, 2000. The Rexdale resident was found by police slumped over in the driver’s seat of his 1977 black Pontiac Parisienne that was stopped against a chain-linked fence on the south side of Yorkwoods Gate. The car had a yellow dealer’s licence plate on the back and a homemade licence plate on the front that read “Black Beauty.”

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McEachern was taken to a trauma centre where he was pronounced dead.

Minutes before McEachern was found mortally wounded, he stopped at the Mac’s convenience store at Jane St. and Yorkwoods to buy cigarettes. According to police, a witness walking in the area heard a single gunshot and saw three black men in their early 20s wearing dark baggy clothing run south across Yorkwoods from the parking lot where McEachern’s car had been parked.

“One of those three males is the actual shooter,” said Det. Wayne Fowler, adding the two others are persons of interest who could help police as witnesses if they come forward.

The McEachern homicide is one of a number of Toronto cold cases that police have recently opened and reviewed.

“The slightest bit of information could help put the final piece of the puzzle together,” Fowler said.

Richard Alan Joseph McEachern was born at Toronto Western Hospital on Sept. 22, 1961. The youngest of five children, McEachern grew up in downtown Toronto.

“He was actually my baby. I changed his diapers and looked after him,” said Davidson, who now lives in Woodbridge. “As we got older, he had a bit of a character and I’d have to settle him down by reminding him in front of his friends that I changed his diapers, so that would be enough to shut him up sometimes.”

McEachern lived in Beaverton and the Jane-Finch area before settling in Rexdale where his car detailing business was also located.

Although police have theories on why McEachern was murdered, no concrete motive has been established. Police declined to disclose their theories.

Davidson also has theories: Her brother always had a lot of money on him, she said, and he may have flashed his cash while in the convenience store. Maybe someone demanded his vehicle.

“Knowing him, there was no way you’re going to get his car,” Davidson said.

McEachern, according to Davidson, was in the Jane-Finch area to try to get back money that he was owed from a man.

“It was a planned meeting, so it’s not as though he went there searching out this fellow. He was supposed to meet this guy,” Davidson said.

The man, according to Davidson, later left a message on McEachern’s business phone saying “I didn’t know that was going to happen AJ.”

Police said McEachern left work about an hour before the shooting and contacted his wife on his cellphone at about 11:30 p.m. to tell her he had “almost arrived at where he was going.”

The murder happened at about 11:50 p.m.

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Davidson said she’s “hopeful” the case can still be solved.

“It’s sad that somebody can just be blown away and no one wants to talk about it,” she said. “There has to be more people who know who did this.”

Anyone with information is asked to contact the homicide squad at 416-808-7400 or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 416-222-TIPS (8477), online at 222tips.com or text TOR and your message to CRIMES (274637).