Assassination of Jill Dando: Six Theories Behind the Unresolved Murder of the Television Presenter

With the approach of the twentieth anniversary of the murder of television presenter Jill Dando, her murderer is still at large.

On the morning of April 26, 1999, the 37-year-old presenter from Crimewatch left her father's home in Chiswick and returned home to Fulham.

When she arrived shortly after 11:30, she was seized from behind and shot in the head.

The presenter of BBC Breakfast News was found 14 minutes later and declared dead on his arrival at Charing Cross Hospital.

Over the past week, former chief detective superintendent Met, Hamish Campbell, admitted that the mystery would never be solved, his convicted investigation into the crime culminating in a conviction set aside in 2008.

Traces of shots found on Barry George's coat would be out of order seven years after his incarceration for the crime.

He was released in 2008, renewing his interest in a case that continues to confuse investigators two decades later.

"As a team of investigators, we brought somebody to court and that's what we had to do," Campbell said in BBC One's documentary "The Murder of Jill Dando" , aired Tuesday.

"The result is entirely out of our reach. You are either guilty or not guilty. It's not really what you mean by innocence. "

When asked if he thought anybody would come back to court about it, he replied, "Probably not."

Mr. Campbell also rejected the idea that a new person would be brought to court.

He added: "The media and other circles have always been of the opinion that the police chose Barry George as scapegoat and for lack of a better word, a buddy, for the investigation, because we could not solve.

"It's a bit insulting and completely false, and false. If none of the things [about Barry] had emerged, he would never have been charged. "

As the interest in the case is again on the rise, we examine the six theories about who was behind his death.

Killed by gangs

One of the earliest theories to gain ground is focused on Dando's work in the Crimewatch presentation.

Some have badumed that his visible role in a show that has led countless criminals to be behind bars made them a target.

In 2017, during an ITV program, the fire of the conspiracy had sunk into the fire when an anonymous conspirator told investigative journalist Mark Williams-Thomas that he knew the murderer before refusing to give a name for fear of reprisals.

The nature of the killing, however, casts doubt on the hitman's theory.

The fact that the murderer left an exhausted cartridge on the scene – a visible place with no easy way out – and did not use a silencer, does not scream at professional badbadins.

Pedophile ring

Some have argued that Dando did indeed make enemies in bad circles.

According to an anonymous source who reportedly appeared years after the murder, Dando reportedly attempted to expose a network of VIP pedophiles to the BBC.

The theory is: when the bosses of the company got wind of the situation, they decided to move on to action.

The source said, "I can not remember the names of all the stars and I do not want to involve anyone, but Jill said they were surprisingly tall.

"I think she was very shocked to learn pictures of children and how to join this horrible network of pedophiles was freely available.

"Jill testified that other people complained of bad with her and that some of her co-workers also claimed to have been tested or badaulted.

"Nothing had been done and there seemed to be a policy of turning a blind eye."

The BBC said that there was no evidence to support these claims.

Stalker

The time spent in the spotlight by Dando and the many following led the police to wonder if a member of his fan base had been at the origin of his death.

About 140 people "obsessed" by the star were identified by the police, including those who sent him badually explicit mail.

Shortly before his death, Dando's engagement with obstetrician Alan Farthing had been made public, which suggested that a crazy admirer could have been put out of the way.

This theory was largely ignored when none of the 140 or none of Dando's ex-boyfriends were in Fulham that day.

Kosovo war

In the months leading up to Dando's death, NATO forces bombed Serbia in the context of the Kosovo war.

Three days before the badbadination, a British bomber had hit Serbia radio and killed 16 staff members.

A man with an Eastern European accent who called the BBC headquarters the day after Dando's death confirmed that it was a revenge killing.

His warnings that BBC News director Tony Hall would be next on the list have been taken seriously.

In 2012, Branka Prpa, widow of the famous Serbian journalist Slavko Curuvija, said that Dando had been targeted because she had made a call to support Kosovar Albanian refugees.

Her husband was shot dead outside his home in Belgrade 15 days before Dando's murder, suggesting to Prpa that there was a connection.

The theory was questioned by John Simpson, editor of BBC World Affairs, who explained that Dando's tenuous connection with the conflict probably would not have distinguished him.

He suggested that his work covering the NATO bombings in Belgrade made it a much more obvious target.

Joe the bartender

Another theory finds additional motivation for the murderer in Dando's Crimewatch work.

In 1996, Kenneth Noye was sentenced to life imprisonment for a road rage-driven murder in 1996, following a call from Crimewatch.

According to a report by the national criminal intelligence service, now gone, a bartender named Joe owed money to Noye and might have chosen to settle his debts by targeting Dando.

According to the report: "Joe runs a bar in Tenerife, frequented by big criminals ex-patriots. He is described as a frustrated gangster deemed to have a debt to Kenny Noye. It has been said that Joe wanted to restore his reputation among gangster creditors. "

It does not seem like Joe was ever found.

L & # 39; IRA

A last theory again supports that Dando was targeted for his work Crimewatch, but this time, the establishment found the murderer.

Wayne Aird, who was serving a life sentence for the murder of a man two months after the murder of Dando, would have confessed to having been part of what he termed "concealment against a man." establishment".

He claimed that the IRA was responsible for Dando's death, but had not been brought to justice for the murder, lest it jeopardize the peace process in Northern Ireland.

• The murder of Jill Dando is on BBC One on Tuesday, April 2nd at 9pm.