THE fiancee of soldier David Wilson who was killed in a drunken shooting incident while serving at an air base in Iraq has accepted she will never know exactly how he died.

Michelle Wilson still has unanswered questions about Lance Corporal David Wilson’s mysterious death and says she will never know for certain what happened in the final few moments of his life.

The 27-year-old, who was serving with 9 Regiment Army Air Corps, was found slumped at a desk in the Joint Helicopter Force stores at Basra airbase in December 2008 with a gunshot to his head.

The inquest heard he had been drinking with colleagues and was likely to have fired the gun himself, but botched elements of the MoD investigation meant a full picture of events is unclear.

David’s family strongly believe he did not deliberately shoot himself and horseplay or an accident was the cause, although County Durham and Darlington coroner Andrew Tweddle recorded an open verdict.

“I had nightmares that went into graphic detail about what happened to him,” said Michelle, 31.

“I could see it and smell all the smells and everything.”

The trauma caused her to clench her teeth so strenuously she required surgery to remove part of her skull and jaw.

She feared the coroner would return a verdict of suicide and is relieved with the outcome.

“It has a physical as well as a mental impact,” she said.

“But since the inquest I haven’t had one nightmare. I know in my mind what happened and that now is enough for me to move on.”

The family criticised the investigation into David’s death and the coroner himself wrote to Prime Minister David Cameron to formally register his concerns.

Michelle said: “The first we found out about David’s death was that there was no enemy fire. At that point we didn’t know anything further.”

The following day reports claimed his death was a suicide.

“We didn’t know ourselves what had happened and it came as a major, major shock,” Michelle said.

“The Army wasn’t going to repatriate him as there had been no enemy fire but I was adamant I was going to be there to see him off the plane.

“We have had to push to get everything and there have been so many hurdles along the way. Now it is all over I feel a bit empty.

“It is going to take a long time to readjust. We don’t have anything to fight for any more.

“I think an open verdict is the best possible outcome. There are always going to be questions unanswered. We will probably never know what happened. We can accept that now.”

Michelle and David’s plan to wed at Gretna Green in 2009 was ended by the tragedy, but Michelle, from Spennymoor in County Durham, changed her name from Curry to Wilson by deed poll and focused on bringing up daughter Poppy by herself.

“It has been very tough. It has been unbelievably tough,” she said.

“When she was born, David’s face was beaming all the time, he was just so happy.

“I remember this big person cuddling this tiny baby and he just had so much affection for her. He only had four weeks with her but he was certainly hands-on.

“Poppy is his double and their personalities are exactly the same. Although he is not here with us now, he will always be in our hearts.”