Jill Dando murder mystery.

Early life and career
Television presenter and Newsreader

Jill Dando was born in Ashcombe House Maternity Home, Weston-super-Mare, Somerset, and was raised a Baptist. When she was three, it was discovered she had a hole in her heart and a blocked pulmonary artery. She had heart surgery on 12 January 1965.[2] She was educated at Worle Infant School, Greenwood Junior School, Worle Comprehensive School, and Broadoak Sixth Form Centre, where she was head girl, and passed two A levels. She studied journalism at South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education in Cardiff.

Dando was a keen thespian. She was a member of Weston-super-Mare Amateur Dramatic Society and Exeter Little Theatre Company, with whom she appeared in plays at the Barnfield Theatre.

Dando was a volunteer at Sunshine Hospital Radio in Weston-super-Mare in 1979. She started her first job as a trainee reporter for the local weekly newspaper, the Weston Mercury, where her father and brother worked. After five years as a print journalist, she began employment with the BBC when she became a newsreader for BBC Radio Devon in 1985. That year, she transferred to BBC South West, where she presented a regional news magazine programme, Spotlight South West. In 1987, she worked for TSW, then worked for BBC Spotlight in Plymouth.[2] In early 1988, Dando made a move from regional to national television when she moved to London to present BBC television news

At the time of her death she was among those with the highest profile of the BBC’s on-screen staff; she had been the 1997 BBC Personality of the Year. Crimewatch reconstructed her murder in an attempt to aid the police in the search for her killer. After Barry George (see below) was charged with the murder but acquitted, Crimewatch made no further appeals for information concerning the case.

Murder
On the morning of 26 April 1999, Dando left the Chiswick home of her fiancé, Dr. Alan Farthing. She returned alone, by car, to the house she owned in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, West London. She had lived in the house, but by April 1999 was in the process of selling it and did not visit it frequently. As Dando reached her front door at about 11:32, she was shot once in the head. Her body was discovered about 14 minutes later by neighbour Helen Doble. Police were called at 11:47. Dando was taken to the nearby Charing Cross Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival at 13:03 BST. She was 37 years old.

“As Dando was about to put her keys in the lock to open the front door of her home in Fulham, she was grabbed from behind. With his right arm, the assailant held her and forced her to the ground, so that her face was almost touching the tiled step of the porch. Then, with his left hand, he fired a single shot at her left temple, killing her instantly. The bullet entered her head just above her ear, parallel to the ground, and came out the right side of her head.”

— Bob Woffinden, The Guardian, July 2002.

Forensic study indicated that Dando had been shot by a bullet from a 9 mm calibre automatic pistol, with the gun pressed against her head at the moment of the shot. Richard Hughes, her next door neighbour, heard a surprised cry from Dando “like someone greeting a friend” but heard no gunshot. Hughes looked out of his front window and, while not realising what had happened, made the only certain sighting of the killer—a 6 foot (1.8 metre) tall white man aged around 40 years old, seen walking away from Dando’s house.[6]

Investigation
After the murder there was intense media coverage. An investigation by the Metropolitan Police—named Operation Oxborough—proved fruitless for over a year. Dando’s status as a well-known public figure probably brought her into contact with thousands of people, and she was known by millions, so there was fevered speculation about the motive for her killing.

Within six months, the murder investigation team had spoken to more than 2,500 people and taken more than 1,000 statements. With little progress after a year, the police concentrated their attention on Barry George, who lived about half a mile from Dando’s house. He had a history of stalking women, sexual offending and other unsocial and attention seeking behaviour.

George was put under surveillance, arrested on 25 May and charged with Dando’s murder on 28 May.

George was tried at the Old Bailey, convicted, and on 2 July 2001 he was sentenced to life imprisonment. Concern about this conviction was widespread on the basis that the case against George appeared thin. Two appeals were unsuccessful, but after discredited forensics evidence was excluded from the prosecution’s case, George’s third appeal succeeded in November 2007. The original conviction was quashed and a second trial lasting eight weeks ended in George’s acquittal on 1 August 2008.

Dando’s family and her fiancé Alan Farthing did not ask the police to reopen the investigation. George’s family and supporters were jubilant at the outcome, claiming that there had never been any worthwhile evidence against him. This view was articulated by Dando’s former agent, Jon Roseman, who stated that he had doubted George’s guilt from an early stage. After George’s acquittal, a number of newspapers published articles which appeared to suggest that he was guilty of the Dando murder and other offences against women. In December 2009, George accepted substantial damages from News Group Newspapers over articles in the Sun and the News of the World, following a libel action in the High Court.

Potential suspects
Lines of inquiry explored in the police investigation included:

Theories that a jealous ex-boyfriend or an unknown lover had killed her. This was quickly ruled out by the detectives who interviewed all Dando’s friends and acquaintances and checked her phone calls.
A belief that somebody had hired an assassin to murder Dando as revenge for their being convicted as a result of evidence garnered by Crimewatch viewers. After exhaustive inquiries this was also ruled out by detectives.[16]
Various theories relating to Bosnian-Serb or Yugoslav groups (see below).
The possibility that a deranged fan may have killed Dando after she had rejected his approaches. Dando’s brother, Nigel, informed detectives that she had become concerned by “some guy pestering her” in the few days before her death, but this was ruled out by detectives.
A case of mistaken identity. This was judged unlikely, given that the killing took place on the doorstep of Dando’s own home.
Even actions taken by a professional rival or business partner had to be considered. Her agent Jon Roseman stated that he had been interviewed as a suspect by police.
The original police investigation had explored the possibility of a professional killing. But since Dando was living with her fiancé and was only rarely visiting her Gowan Avenue house, it was considered unlikely that a professional assassin would have been sufficiently well informed about Dando’s movements to have known when she was going there. CCTV evidence of Dando’s last journey (mainly security video recordings from the Kings Mall Shopping Centre in Hammersmith, which she visited on her way to Fulham) did not show any sign of her being followed. Her BBC colleague Nick Ross stated on Newsnight on the night of her death that retaliatory attacks by criminals against police, lawyers and judges were almost unknown in Britain. Finally, forensic examination of the shell case and bullet recovered from the scene of the attack suggested that the weapon used had been the result of a workshop conversion of a replica or decommissioned gun. It was argued that a professional assassin would not use such a poor quality weapon. The police therefore soon began to favour the idea that the killing had been carried out by a crazed individual acting on an opportunist basis. This assumed profile of the perpetrator led to the focus on Barry George.

Yugoslav connection
Soon after the killing some commentators identified the possibility of a Yugoslav connection.

At Barry George’s first trial his defence barrister, Michael Mansfield QC, quoted from a National Criminal Intelligence Service report which stated that the Serbian warlord leader, Arkan, had ordered her assassination in retaliation for the bombing of a television station in Belgrade by NATO on 23 April 1999, which had resulted in the deaths of several well-known Yugoslav TV presenters. Mansfield suggested that Dando’s earlier presentation of an appeal for aid for Kosovan Albanian refugees may have angered Bosnian-Serb hardliners. Dando’s picture was on the cover of the Radio Times (edition 24 to 30 April 1999) in the week of her killing.

Despite this, the police did not believe that the Yugoslavs had killed Dando. Since she was merely a TV presenter they did not perceive any obvious motive on the part of the Yugoslavs. Only three days had separated the Belgrade bombing and the killing of Dando. The police reasoned that three days would not have allowed sufficient time for the Yugoslavs to have organised and carried out her murder. Finally, no Yugoslav group ever credibly claimed responsibility for the killing. It was argued that there would be no point in carrying out a revenge killing without claiming responsibility.

The theory still holds great sway with commentators. The former communist regime in Yugoslavia had a history of assassinations directed against its opponents. It has been claimed that between 1946 and 1991 the Yugoslav Secret Service (UDBA) had carried out at least 150 assassination attempts against people living outside Yugoslavia. The victims were mostly Croatian émigrés, although others were targeted. The attacks were usually carried out by small teams consisting of a trigger-man supported by a spotter and were always carefully planned. The attacks were often made as targets entered or left their homes since this was the point at which they were most vulnerable and where a case of mistaken identity was least likely.

The last known UDBA hit in the UK took place on 20 October 1988 when Nikola Stedul, a 51-year-old Croatian émigré, was gunned down outside his home in Kirkcaldy. For various reasons, the attack did not go smoothly. Stedul survived it although he was severely wounded in the head. His assailant was arrested a few hours later at Heathrow airport and identified as one Viko Sindic—a Yugoslav known to Western intelligence services.

Bob Woffinden, a journalist who specialises in miscarriage of justice has stated “Claims of responsibility are made by groups such as the IRA or ETA. In 60 years, there has not once been a claim of responsibility for an assassination carried out by East European secret services”. Woffinden advanced the view that a Yugoslav group was behind the Dando killing and in various newspaper articles he contested all the grounds on which the police had dismissed this possibility.

Discredited links with Yugoslavia include the case in which a West Midlands petty criminal of Serbian descent was said to have boasted of the killing in a bar in Belgrade in September 2001. A jailed former cargo aircraft captain as well as two other witnesses stated they were present in the bar at the time of the alleged confession.

Family and personal life
Dando was the daughter of Jack (February 1918 – February 2009), who died in Weston-super-Mare on his 91st birthday, and Winifred Mary Jean Dando (August 1927 – January 1986), who died of leukaemia aged 58. Her only sibling, brother Nigel (born 1952), works as a journalist for BBC Radio Bristol, having previously worked as a journalist in local newspapers since the 1970s.

Dando was a devout Christian. She never married or had children. She had a relationship with BBC executive Bob Wheaton from 1989 to 1996. She had a relationship with national park warden Simon Basil. In December 1997, she met gynaecologist Alan Farthing; his divorce was finalised in November 1998. Dando and Farthing were engaged from February 1999 until her death. They scheduled their wedding for September 1999. Farthing later married fellow medic Janet Stowell .

Strange one this…who did kill Jill Dando?.