NINE years ago a devoted Long Gully mother went to bed holding her little boy.By 7 o’clock next morning, the same six-year-old was running next door, pleading with neighbours to help wake up his blood-soaked mother.The execution-style murder of Vicki Jacobs, 37, in her Wood Street unit on June 12, 1999, remains one of the most shocking crimes Bendigo has witnessed.On the eve of the anniversary, Victoria Police is again appealing for anyone with information to come forward.Last week also marked the fifth anniversary of the day an unprecedented $1 million reward was posted for information to convict the killer, an offer that still stands.Homicide Squad Detective Sergeant Ron Iddles, who has led the hunt for the killer or killers of Ms Jacobs, yesterday told The Advertiser that police had not given up the hunt.‘‘There is always someone out there who knows the truth,’’ he said.‘‘They could be waiting for the right time or the right circumstances, but we will be waiting there for the call.’’He said last year’s expulsion from the Hells Angels motorcycle gang of a key suspect - 43-year-old Terrence Raymond Tognoloni - effectively removed his gang protection, but had not yet led to a breakthrough in the investigation.‘‘Every two months or so we get something we follow up, but until that happens the case is inactive,’’ Det-Sgt Iddles said.Ms Jacobs had come to Bendigo to start a new life with her son after implicating husband Gerald Preston and the Hells Angels in the 1996 contract killing of two men in a car repair shop in Adelaide.At the time of his wife’s death, Preston was in prison at the start of a 32-year sentence for the double murder.‘‘We’ve had a number of conversations with him and he’d like us to think he knew nothing about it,’’ Det-Sgt Iddles said.‘‘I would probably disagree with that.‘‘But the fact that the little fella was right beside her when she was shot, I don’t think that sits well with him.’’Coroner Phil Byrne delivered an open finding on the case in the 2004 inquest into Ms Jacobs’ death, but suspicion centred on Preston and associate Terrence Tognolini, a convicted standover man from the feared Nomad chapter of the Hells Angels.Ms Jacobs’ husband Gerald Preston shot dead drug dealer Les Knowles in an Adelaide repair shop after accepting a $10,000 contract from a member of the Hells Angels in Melbourne.But Det-Sgt Iddles said connecting Terrence Tognolini to the payback killing of Ms Jacobs had been difficult.‘‘He had this capacity for always being out of the country when something happened,’’ Det Sgt Iddles said.Victoria Police arrested Tognolini at Melbourne Airport on June 15 last year when he returned from London.Tognolini was charged with extortion and making threats to kill.Ms Jacobs left behind her son Ben, who has grown up with foster parents in Bendigo, and a grieving community.The Bendigo community showed its generosity at the time.Along with Bendigo Bank and The Advertiser it raised about $50,000 to help with Ben’s upbringing.Community members at the time described Ms Jacobs as a courageous and loving mother.She had tried to forge a new life without the restrictions that accompanied police witness protection.She was studying a computer course at La Trobe University Bendigo at the time of her death and was described as a model student.Anyone with information on the murder of Vicki Jacobs should contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.