In March 2004, Anton Hyman from Acton was preparing for Sixth Form college.
The 17-year-old was set to study music engineering, giving him a chance to pursue a strong passion of his.
He had family who loved him, friends he was popular with and a possible career in music on the horizon - life was on the up.
But tragically, the former Acton High School pupil's mother was forced to phone the college to tell staff he had died and he would not be attending.
"I rang them them the Wednesday after (his death) to tell them (the college) that I had buried him on Friday," said his mother, Vanessa Hyman.
It has now been 13 years since Anton was shot, beat and stabbed to death in Ealing the day before Mother's Day that year (March 21, 2004), detectives believe.
Now Mrs Hyman and her family are renewing their appeal in a desperate attempt to get anyone with information to come forward.
A reward of £20,000 has been offered by detectives for information which leads to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible.
In an interview with getwestlondon , Mrs Hyman said: "Anton was just a funny boy, he made me laugh all the time. He was well loved by the girls.
"The last time I saw Anton was the Saturday morning, he came into my bedroom and he said 'mum are you okay?' I said 'yeah', he said 'cool, cool'.
"And he left the house, and something came over me I don't know what it was.
"I jumped out of bed, and I watched him walk down the road from the window and that was the last time I saw him.
"Even if you think it's not important, it's important to us, and you can speak anonymously as well so just call police or Crimestoppers.
"Call anyone, just get information out there so we can put this to rest. I need justice, and it's just horrible, it's not something that any mother should have to go through.
"We've had no choice but to cope to be honest with you. My daughter, she was very, very close to him. It's just a massive, massive void."
Anton's last movements were caught on CCTV at around 8pm on March 20 and detectives investigating believe that he was killed that night.
He was last seen between Greenford Avenue and Brent Valley Park in Hanwell.
Police said someone answered a call from Anton's phone that evening, at a time when officers think Anton would have already been dead, but efforts to trace that person have been unsuccessful.
His body was found in the River Brent, Greenford, at 11.10am on March 21 with multiple stab wounds and a gunshot wound in his back.
To date, no one has been charged in connection with the murder.
Detectives believe that there are witnesses and friends who have important information that would lead to a breakthrough in the case.
Anton was black, 5ft 6in and of slim build, and officers believe he was wearing distinctive bright multi-coloured gloves, blue and white Timberland boots, dark jeans, dark grey fleece, a green t-shirt and a green shirt with "Iceberg" written on the breast pocket.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Incident Room on 020 8785 8244 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.
Keep up to date with the latest news in west London via the free getwestlondon app.
You can even set it to receive push notifications for all the breaking news in your area.
Available to download from the App Store or Google Play for Android now!
