PORT HADLOCK — A year after Skip Smith was gunned down at his tow truck business, emotion still runs high for the people whose lives were shattered by the murder.

Coping with his death is easier some days than others, son Rick Smith said Wednesday.

“We’re hanging in there,” he said while sitting at his father’s desk in the Smith’s Services office.

“It’s been a difficult year.”

Frank M. “Skip” Smith Jr., 63, was shot 25 times by his former son-in-law, Ryan Neil Sorensen of Utah, around 3:30 p.m. last April 29.

The shooting stunned community members, many of whom knew Smith as a kind man who would go the extra mile — literally — in his tow truck for customers.

Sorensen was sentenced in November to 84½ years in prison after pleading guilty to first-degree premeditated murder.

Jefferson County Prosecutor Juelie Dalzell said state guidelines prohibited her from seeking the death penalty.

Sorensen has appealed his prison sentence, maintaining that it should be shorter.

The appeal is an obstacle preventing complete closure for family members and prosecutors alike, Dalzell said Wednesday.