Who killed Jill Dando? 25 years on, the mystery of the British TV’s star’s murder…

26 April 2024, 08:44

The demise of Jill Dando stays one of many largest mysteries in British legal historical past, 25 years on from her homicide.

Ms Dando was shot useless on her doorstep by a single bullet to her head at 11:30am on April 26, 1999. The keys of her BMW convertible had been nonetheless in her hand.

The Crimewatch host was discovered exterior her house in Fulham quarter-hour later by a passer-by and was rushed to Charing Cross Hospital, the place she was pronounced useless at 1:03pm.

Her unsolved homicide turned one of many largest legal investigations in British historical past, with lots of of suspects.

Many years on from her killing, attorneys have urged investigators to reopen the case.

Learn extra: Who killed Jill Dando? The theories behind certainly one of Britain’s largest unsolved circumstances 25 years after her demise

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Barry George, an autistic man with an IQ of round 75 and a historical past of sexual offences, was convicted of her homicide and spent eight years behind bars.

However his conviction was overturned and he maintained he had by no means met Ms Dando in his life.

Different offender theories embrace that it was a former lover, and a Serbian hitman – Ms Dando had been despatched threats after serving to to boost £1 million for refugees within the Balkans.

“Your Prime Minister [Tony] Blair butchered 17 harmless younger individuals,” an unknown caller to the BBC mentioned. “He butchered, we butcher again. The primary one (Jill Dando) was yesterday.”

Different prospects raised embrace that Ms Dando was killed by members of a legal gang that she was trying into in her Crimewatch function, or that her killing was a case of mistaken identification, and the killer meant to shoot one other, similar-looking journalist.

One other chance was that Ms Dando was killed on the orders of Jimmy Savile as a result of she was investigating paedophilia.

This concept has been dismissed as implausible by the investigator who helped expose Savile afterward.