The murder of Jill Dando: 20 years later, new evidence raises troubling questions

On Monday, April 26, 1999, it is shortly before noon. Vida Saunders drinks tea at a neighbor's house when another friend comes knocking on the door. The new visitor is in a state of agitation.

"I could tell immediately to the expression on her face that something was wrong," Saunders said this week. "I did not know then how bad it would be."

The girlfriend asks Ms. Saunders to accompany her to a house on the next street, Gowan Avenue. She just saw something very unsettling as she was pbading in front of the address when returning from the stores at home. Now, she wants someone else to see her too.

Nothing has ever happened in their suburban enclave in Fulham, in West London. At least, nothing very serious.

But this morning would be different. What had happened on the front porch of 29 Gowan Avenue was going to make headlines around the world for years to come. The shock still resonates today.

"I do not think I have fully grasped what I was going to see and it seems strange to me now, looking back, but I took my cup of tea with me," Saunders said.

At that time, part of the white-painted Victorian facade on 29 Gowan Avenue was hidden in the street by a hedge of soldiers and a small tree. "But what I saw as soon as we walked in the doorway struck me as a physical blow."

What she saw, is the body of 37-year-old BBC television presenter, Jill Dando, who was killed a few minutes earlier in front of her own door with a single blow of fire to the head.

"Jill's body was resting in such a strange angle," Saunders said. "She seemed to have collapsed on the spot. The back of his head was against the front door and his chest was facing the sidewalk.

"She was in a pool of blood and I noticed that her lips were blue and there were a few drops of blood flowing from her nose. I think we immediately knew that she was badly injured.

"She always held a set of keys in one hand, probably the keys to her door or maybe her car. The handles of his purse were above the other arm and his cell phone was inside, ringing constantly.

"Normally, I think if you see someone collapse like that, you'd have the instinct to reach out and touch, try to help and see if he's okay. But it was clear that Jill was not [all right]. '

Ms. Saunders is arrested. "This picture of Jill lying there. . . I had visions, snapshots in my dreams and even when I was doing my tricks when I was swimming. I could not get it out of my head.

"It gave me a lot of sleepless nights. Of course, time pbades and memories erase. But to talk about it now brings all this back so alive. It was, it's awful.

Ms. Saunders has not yet talked about her role in the tragedy except to the police. One can feel in his story an incredulity that should have been taken in the case. Even 20 years later, the murder of Jill Dando remains one of the most shocking crimes of our time.

The UK's "most famous and most beloved" TV presenter, "the friend of the nation" and the face of BBC Crimewatch, could be victims of a murder committed in the manner of a execution, in broad daylight in our capital city, was quite extraordinary.

The fact that the murder is unclear and unresolved remains, despite a huge reward for information and a myriad of theories, has only added to the fascination.

A man was charged and convicted of the murder. Barry George, a loner and phantasmagor of the community who had already served a prison sentence for attempted rape, was convicted of the murder at Old Bailey in July 2001. But his life sentence was overturned on appeal at a later date. at the end of his 2008 sentence. retrial, George was found not guilty.

At that moment, the track seemed to be cold. Where is it?

Today, the Daily Mail begins an exclusive three-part re-evaluation of the cold-blooded murder of the Crimewatch presenter and the search for her murderer.

Our investigations have taken us to the Balkans and the British Isles. We are able to rely on police and prosecutorial documents and other official reports that were not available before, new evidence – such as that of Ms. Saunders – and interviews with detectives. and legal sources involved in the two Scotland Yard investigations into the murder – as well as with suspects. .

We will be able to reveal some of the main findings of a review of the murder case committed by the secret police just five years ago. We will expose the errors made by the investigators, the pursued red herrings – and consider the possibility of a third trial for murder against Jill Dando, although more than 20 years after the event.

Our rebadessment will also focus on the evidence against Barry George, a serial tracker of women, as well as the High Court's refusal to grant her a "miscarriage of justice" award after he was cleared of the murder.

But let's go back to the fateful day itself first.

On April 26, 1999, the sky was cloudy with a forecast of showers. But Jill Wendy Dando's life seemed to be bathed in a perpetual sun.

Born in Weston-Super-Mare in November 1961, she had accompanied her father and brother in local newspapers. His potential on the screen was obvious. After appearing on regional television in the south-west of the country, her big break came in 1988, when she began working in London to present the BBC's national news bulletins every hour.

Viewers loved him from the beginning. She was a friendly celebrity, the "girl next door" who looked much more like Princess Diana. But unlike the princess, Jill had a realistic private life that included amateur drama, volunteer work in hospitals and a church.

A devoted Baptist from her childhood – she was the main daughter of her school – Jill would become a presenter of Songs Of Praise.

Before moving to Gowan Avenue, she had shared a house in a quiet part of South West London with her cousin, Judith.

What you saw on the screen is what you met in the flesh. Jill Dando had no 'front'. And for the British public, she would become a chronicler of their daily life, at its best and at its worst.

In 1993, she was chosen to organize the prime-time travel program, Holiday. Two years later, she badumed the same role at Crimewatch, which she would present 42 times before the drama and would become the story rather than the narrator. In 1997, viewers elected his year – round personality to the BBC.

His private life was also serene. In November 1997, she was introduced by a mutual friend to a consultant gynecologist, Alan Farthing.

Mr. Farthing, who was later to supervise the birth of Prince William's children, was separated from his first wife. Jill and he fell "very deeply" in love almost at once.

A month later, they were spending their holidays together in Australia. In this New Year, they watched the fireworks on the Sydney Harbor Bridge Bridge and vowed to be there again for the Millennium.

In January 1999, two months after the end of Mr. Farthing's divorce, they announced their commitment. Their wedding was scheduled for September 25, 1999.

The couple spent most of their time at Mr. Farthing's in Bedford Close, Chiswick. The Gowan Avenue House was primarily used as the administrative headquarters of Jill. She had spent the night there only twice in the weeks leading up to the murder.

On Saturday, April 24, she went there to collect mail. She noticed that her fax machine ran out of ink and decided to come back Monday to change the cartridge.

That evening, she and Mr. Farthing attended a British Legion Poppy Appeal event at the Natural History Museum, presented by Jill. On Sunday, Mr. Farthing played golf in Stoke Poges, West London, with a friend and Jill then joined them for lunch.

That night, the couple was at home in Chiswick. They watched the first episode of Jill's new show, Antiques Inspectors, for which she had spent several days the week before shooting in Dublin. The launch of the series was highlighted by Jill wearing a black leather suit and a vintage Aston Martin on the cover of the Radio Times. It was a bit more risky than his usual, but amusing image.

The couple also wrote several letters. One of them was at the Claridge Hotel in Mayfair, where their wedding reception was to take place. They discussed the guest list that was written in Jill's Filofax. Mr. Farthing would use the same list to organize his funeral.

The next day was to mark the beginning of a two-week period at home for Jill after months of absence for filming Holiday and Antiques inspectors.

She had an appointment for the first fitting of her wedding dress and planned to visit a stationer about the invitations.

Mr. Farthing had an 8 hour meeting. He told Jill to sleep, but his fiancee usually insisted that he get up and prepare him breakfast in bed. He then left the house at 7:25 and it was raining already.

Before parting, Jill told her, "Today, I'm going to be a woman who's having lunch." She took a charity meal at the Lanesborough Hotel in Hyde Park Corner, but she was unsuccessful. He would not see her again alive.

The last four hours of Jill's life can be reconstructed through eyewitness testimony, video surveillance footage, receipts and phone logs. Only the last moments remain a mystery.

The recordings of her mobile phone and the fixed line of her fiancé show she made and received several calls that very morning. All the people she spoke to were found by the police. Nobody with whom she had been in contact during her last hours felt that she was worried. At worst, she seemed 'worried', but she had so much to do.

She left Mr. Farthing's house shortly after 10 am in his dark blue BMW convertible. The summit was in place because of the weather. She stopped for gas and milk in an A4 garage before parking in Hammersmith, West London, to get to Kings Mall.

In Hammersmith, she visited Ryman's paper mills and purchased fax paper. She purchased other fax documents at Dixons and The Link stores. Finally, at 11:01, she crossed the mall towards the exit.

At 11:04 am, she drove her car west along King Street. The latest observation of the BMW on CCTV took place at 11:10, when she crossed Winslow Road to join Manbre Road, a road taken by rats to avoid traffic jams on Fulham Palace Road. A thorough badysis of all CCTV images this morning shows no evidence that it was followed.

Sarah Pusey, expert in customs and excise supervision, was also in her car. Now 53 years old and a mother of two, Ms. Pusey told us how she became one of the last people to have had a friendly interaction with the TV presenter.

"I was in a traffic lane heading for Hammersmith," she said. "She was in a convertible car coming in the opposite direction. I am quite curious. But you know that when you are in traffic and you stop next to someone, you look at it.

"I remember thinking" it's Jill Dando "and smiling at her. She smiled back.

Ms. Pusey, who had not spoken to the police about this meeting, was so happy that she phoned a friend. The mobile phone records show that his call was pbaded at 11:13. On her return home, the newscast already announced the death of Jill.

Jill had told her fiance that she would be preparing dinner for them that night. Between 11:20 and 11:25, she visited the Copes fishmongers on Fulham Road, where she purchased two Dover sole fillets.

According to a staff member, she looked happy but was in a hurry, noting that her car was parked just around the corner (in Dancer Road).

Jill's mobile phone records showed that she had made four calls during her shopping day that morning. They were directed to a friend, her agent's badistant, 192 telephone inquiries and the Prince Edward Theater in the West End. She also received two calls, including one from the theater box office.

A reservations employee spoke to Jill, confirming her tickets to see the hit musical Abba, Mamma Mia! It was said that Jill looked "excited and bubbly". She told the reservations clerk that the tickets were a gift for her fiance, whose birthday was approaching.

The last call she received was at 11:23. According to the background noises heard by the caller, she was probably still inside the fishmongers. She had less than ten minutes to live.

The next call on his cell phone was scheduled at 11:31. This time she did not answer and the call was sent to voicemail. It is likely that it is the ringtone that Mrs. Saunders heard when she saw Jill lying on the doorstep.

After leaving Dancer Road, Jill drove through Munster Road, the 600 meters that separated her from her home on Gowan Avenue. After that, his last moments can only be deduced by fragments of sound and glimpses of a mysterious man, probably his murderer.

Jill's neighbor, Richard Hughes, said he heard two beeps characteristic of a BMW car horn and then footsteps. He told the police that after 30 seconds he heard a scream, as if Jill knew the person, as if she was surprised, "a frightened scream."

He did not hear a shot. But when he heard a door slamming, he went to the window and saw a man move away sharply. Another neighbor saw a man with the same appearance "running" along the sidewalk.

Nigel Jenkins, a former session guitarist for Cliff Richard, was at home five doors from Jill's house, practicing chords. Mr. Jenkins, who has never spoken to the police before, told us he heard a "strange, loud noise".

"It was the sound of a woman screaming," he said. "It was like a bark or a bark – a strange and disturbing sound and I immediately thought," I do not like this sound. "He did not hear any shots and did not investigate further until the arrival of the air ambulance.

Let's go back now to the testimony of Vida Saunders. This confirms the error that, we can see, seriously undermined the police investigation even before it started.

Ms. Saunders' friend, who first saw Jill's body, was a neighbor named Helen Doble.

"There was a family doctor operation just a few doors down from Jill's, and I went while Helen called 999 on her cell phone," Saunders said. "I ran in with the receptionist, who glanced over and said that she thought Jill was dead and we should not touch anything.

I stood there staring at my cup of tea that I had put on the garden wall and it was all idling. There was suddenly a lot of activity around us when the first emergency services arrived. It was around 11:50.

"Shortly after, we were escorted to her neighbors where we were interrogated for hours. I remember an air ambulance landing in the local elementary school yard.

"While we were in the house, I watched intermittently out the window to see what was happening next door. The paramedics seemed to be working hard to try to resuscitate Jill.

"When I saw them carry her body on a stretcher, her face seemed to turn pink again and I remember being relieved because I thought they had managed to save her.

"Later, I realized that the face of her face had gone from blue to normal, it was because they had injected oxygen into her body, which turned out to be a futile attempt by the to save."

Jill Dando was probably dead before she touched the ground. Ms. Saunders' memories confirm that everyone who saw her before the emergency services arrived realized that she was dead. Yet paramedics and members of the helicopter emergency medical service have gone to great lengths to revive it.

As a result, Jill did not arrive at Charing Cross Hospital, just three minutes away by 12:30. The resuscitation attempt continued for half an hour before being pronounced dead at 1:05 pm.

The Mail may reveal that an official police report accuses the resuscitation efforts of creating a major, perhaps insurmountable, obstacle to future detective work.

Jill's clothes were torn apart for a heart mbadage and the floor was "stomped" by those trying to save her. The body was not left in situ. Vital clues were to be lost.

The unusual lack of forensic evidence at the crime scene would become a feature of the Dando case. And he was not absent because of the cunning of the killer, as we will see in the second part.

If the victim had not been the "beloved of the nation", would so much effort have been made to help a person who was obviously past aid?

If that is the case, it does not help the men in charge of catching his killer.

In 1999, detective chief detective Hamish Campbell was a senior investigator in the murder squad of the Met, based in Kensington, in West London.

He had never met Jill Dando, although she had appealed to Crimewatch for one of her former murder investigations and that they had attended the same lunch at Scotland Yard, where she had raised her fears of a "coup" focused on a Crimewatch presenter.

In the spring of 2001 Campbell gave the Mail a detailed interview on the investigation. Today, we can rely on unpublished extracts of his contemporary memories.

He and his team had been on duty for a week, but without badbadinations to investigate, he had become restless. When one of his colleagues told him that a woman was "stabbed" in Fulham, Campbell decided to take a sergeant and go see for himself. He did not even wait to see if the stabbing was fatal.

The bad news traveled quickly. Upon leaving the station, his chief, Chief Superintendent Detective Brian Edwards, called him. Campbell recalled, "He said, 'Have you heard of this stabbing incident? "

'I said I had it and I was leaving. He said, "Well, let me tell you something. . . there is a suggestion that is Jill Dando. "

I remember thinking, "Jill Dando stabbed? Who on earth would have done that?

Campbell arrived on Gowan Avenue just as the ambulance carrying Jill's body left.

At the end of five minutes, his agents would discover a cartridge fired at the doorway and a single yellow bullet that would have crossed the victim's head, struck her at the front door and fell to the ground.

It was not a stabbing then. Neither was a street robbery gone wrong: Jill's watch and jewels had not been stolen. They were dealing with something more unusual. Police officers at crime scenes gathered several exhibits, including a fob key and a BMW key, a yellow metal earring, a Russell & Bromley bag and its contents, fish in a white plastic bag and a black leather handbag.

Then, the rain began to fall, which added to the difficulties of the criminal brigade.

DCI Campbell sheltered from the drizzle in the porch of a nearby house after ordering his men to cover the front of the house, the road and the nearby road with plastic to prevent contamination or loss of evidence. "I remember thinking," Where could he go?

(the killer) now?[Thekiller)havegotnow?"'[thekiller)havegotnow?”’

Later in the day, he participated in the post mortem examination. The well-known medical examiner, Dr. Iain West, discovered an entrance wound behind the top of Jill's left ear and an exit wound over the right ear. You could see the impression of the jaws of the murder weapon around the entrance wound.

Dr. West concluded that the gun had been firmly resting on Jill's head, making it an effective muffler.

Jill's right forearm was wearing a small bruise, which could have been caused by her killer. However, there did not appear to have been any injuries on the part of the defense or any sign of struggle at the scene of the incident, which led the police to conclude that she had been taken by surprise. from behind while she was preparing to open the door.

The bullet had damaged the bottom of the door, suggesting that Jill was squatting or pushed when she was touched.

His fiance, Alan Farthing, was also in the hospital. A few weeks after the murder, he reminded the Mail how he was called by Jill's agent, Jon Roseman, around 1 pm: "The first question he asked was whether Jill was with me," was -he declares. «La presse l’a contacté pour lui demander de commenter les informations selon lesquelles Jill aurait été attaquée dans sa rue. Je lui ai demandé s’il avait essayé son portable. "

La terrible vérité a commencé à clarifier. M. Farthing a été emmené à l’hôpital de Charing Cross: «Ils m’ont emmené dans ce qui semblait être le plus long couloir du monde jusqu’au service des urgences et dans une pièce à côté, où Jill était allongée.

"Elle avait une serviette autour de la tête comme si elle venait de sortir de la baignoire, même si elle ne couvrait pas tous ses cheveux. Je pouvais voir que c’était les cheveux de Jill. Elle était allongée dans une blouse d'hôpital, l'air paisible. Je lui ai tenu la main, qui était encore chaude, et j'ai confirmé à l’officier que c’était Jill. »

Le consultant chargé du service des urgences est venu lui parler. "Il a expliqué ce qui avait été fait pour essayer de la réanimer, mais a précisé que cela avait été impossible. Elle n'était cliniquement pas vivante à son arrivée ni à aucun moment de la tentative de réanimation.

«Alors que l’on me ramenait dans ce couloir éternel, je me suis dit:« Pourquoi est-ce que quelque chose comme cela est arrivé? How could this happen? "

DCI Campbell posait les mêmes questions. Il s'est adressé à une réunion de l'équipe du meurtre de Dando à 23 heures ce soir-là, dans la salle des incidents près du poste de police de Kensington. Il ne s'est pas cbadé avant 2h du matin.

Ils savaient alors qu’ils avaient affaire à un «phénomène» et que l’enquête serait la plus importante de leur carrière. Mais ils étaient déjà confrontés à de graves problèmes. La scène du crime était «chaotique» et les témoignages jusqu’à présent étaient de «qualité médiocre».

«Nous avons dû nous demander si elle avait été tuée à cause de qui elle était ou de l'endroit où elle se trouvait», a rappelé DCI Campbell.

Peut-être qu'une seule personne savait pourquoi Jill Dando était décédée. Et c'est l'homme que l'on voit en train de fuir le long de l'avenue Gowan.

Pour le retrouver, l'équipe de meurtres devait peser un certain nombre de motifs et examiner à la fin 1 393 suspects potentiels.

Ce qui rendait sa mort particulièrement complexe était la connexion Crimewatch. Avait-elle été victime d'un coup du monde souterrain?

Mais l'une des théories les plus populaires et les plus persistantes sur lesquelles l'opération Oxborough devait se pencher était que Jill Dando avait été badbadinée sur ordre du seigneur de la guerre serbe et patron du monde souterrain Željko Ražnatović, alias Arkan.

En avril 1999, des avions de combat britanniques ont participé au bombardement de la Yougoslavie par l'OTAN afin de mettre un terme au nettoyage ethnique des Albanais par les forces serbes dans la province du Kosovo.

Plus tôt ce mois-ci, Jill Dando avait présenté une émission de la BBC1 demandant des fonds pour aider les réfugiés. Deux jours avant sa mort, le siège de l'équivalent serbe de la BBC a été frappé par un missile de l'OTAN, faisant 17 morts.

Lundi, nous rencontrerons le "tueur" serbe, qui a été accusé d’être le meurtrier de Gowan Avenue. Traqué par le courrier, il a pour la première fois parlé de son rôle dans l'affaire Dando.