Who killed Jill Dando? Hopefully the killer will finally be brought to justice

24 April 2024, 14:53 | Updated: 3 May 2024, 15:18

On Friday it will be 25 years since Jill Dando was murdered on her doorstep in a crime that shocked the nation and even now remains one of Britain's biggest unsolved killings.

It was a spring morning on April 26 1999, Dando was attacked by an unknown assailant outside her home and killed with a single gunshot.

She was just 37, at the peak of her career and had only recently got engaged.

The investigation that followed and the eventual wrongful conviction of Barry George captivated the nation. However, there have been no breakthroughs since.

Now there are dozens of theories swirling around about who could have killed the journalist. Dando’s brother Nigel, for example, told The Times that his “personal feeling is it was somebody looking for a kick and for notoriety”.

Because Dando presented Crimewatch, many people believe was hunted down by somebody who was related to something she had spoken about on the show.

Another theory is that Dando was the unlucky victim of mistaken identity. Theorists alleged that a high-profile French businessman, who was being investigated for rape and sexual assault in the Eighties and Nineties, hired a hitman to kill one of the women who was accusing him – a woman who also happened to be blonde, in her 30s, live in Fulham, and also worked as a journalist for the BBC.

Lawyers are now urging investigators to re-open the case after a fresh line of inquiry found ties to a convicted Serbian hitman. A facial comparison expert has uncovered similarities between Milorad Ulemek, a twice-convicted killer serving 40 years in Serbia, and a man seen near the crime scene.

Speaking five years ago Detective Hamish Campbell, who led the initial murder investigation, said: “Do I think somebody will come back to court? Probably not, no. Sometimes I felt we were a day away from solving it. And other times, I thought, no, we’re a long way away.”

Will we ever find out who did it and - to be frank - does it still matter?

I remember being in a newsroom that morning as the tragedy unfolded. These were the days before mass social media and a public clamouring for information had to watch or listen to the news or wait for newspapers.

In a cruel twist of fate stunned BBC colleagues were left reporting her death on the news bulletin she had been due to present that night.

Everyone had their own theory about who had committed the crime. Vengeful crimelords? Secret lovers? A “hit” gone wrong?

Now, with advances in DNA techniques and new technology is it possible that we will see the crime finally solved.

Since 1999 advances in technology has seen the killers of Rikki Neave and the Babes in the Wood brought to justice.

Familiar DNA identified mild-mannered veteran hospital electrician David Fuller as the killer of Wendy Knell, 25, and Caroline Pierce, 20, in Tunbridge Wells, Kent, in 1987.

And while investigating those crimes police uncovered Fuller's dark history of necrophilia and mortuary sex attacks when they raided his home.

There is no doubt that catching Dando's killer would be a major feather in the cap for the Met. The UK's second biggest homicide hunt is famed for drawing a blank.

But behind the statistics there are people.

Jill's brother Nigel and fiancee Alan Farthing are still alive.

One can only hope they finally get closure and Jill's killer is put where he belongs...behind bars