The never-solved mystery of the crime of the BBC's most beautiful and famous journalist

Record of the call to 999 (British emergency number) on Monday, 26 April 1999, at 11.44 am:

- I'm walking down Gowan Avenue. Looks like someone broke down... Confidentially, it looks like it's Jill Dando and she broke down. There is a lot of blood - says in a broken voice a woman who will later identify herself as Helen Doble.

- Can you come over and check for me if the lady is breathing? — asks the operator.

-Doesn't look like he's breathing. Blood comes out of his nose. His arms are blue...

I just need to know if he's breathing. The lady's chest goes up and down?

- Oh, my God, no, I don't think she's alive! I'm sorry...

A few minutes before the 999 call, BBC news anchor Jill Dando had parked her BMW very close to her home, in the upscale Fulham neighborhood of southwest London. She came from doing some shopping — sole, milk — after spending the night at the house of her boyfriend, gynecologist Alan Farthing.

When he arrived at the gate of 29 Gowan Avenue, he leaned the packages on the floor to get the keys out of his wallet. The very moment she was going to open, a stranger grabbed her from behind with his right arm and pressed her face against the entrance step. At the same time, he put on his temple a 9-millimeter pistol with a silencer that he held in his left hand and fired. The shot went right above the woman's left ear and went through her head.

Jill Dando, host of CrimeWatch — one of the most watched on British television — and host of Six O'Clock News, was officially pronounced dead at 13.03 at Charing Cross Hospital.

The face of the BBC

Tall, blonde, expressive, intelligent, of an inconcealable resemblance to the ill-fated Lady Di - died in August 1997 -, at the age of 37 Jill Dando was the best known face of the BBC.

Born into a family of journalists — her father and brother were — she began her career in a medium in her hometown, The Weston Mercury, and later went on to read the news for BBC Radio Devon.

In 1994 she moved to London and there she staggered successes as the host of the journalistic programs Breakfast Time, Breakfast News, BBC One O'Clock News, Six O'Clock News, and the travel magazine Holiday. Since 1995 he also hosted, together with renowned journalist Nick Roos, the program CrimeWatch, one of the most watched on British television. In addition, the network announced that it would be the lead host of the BBC special on 31 December 1999 to welcome the new millennium.

The chimentos programs and society magazines followed it step by step. Jill Dando's private life was always news. Her engagement to doctor Alan Farthing continued like a soap opera, whose happy ending — or, at least, one of her milestones — would take place on September 25, when they finally got married after the groom obtained a divorce from their previous partner. The place they would choose for the honeymoon was one of the debates of the moment.

But Jill Dando was not just a pretty face of television, she also presented research and took a stand: on pedophilia networks, the bombings in Kosovo or the underworld of the London underworld.

Therefore, the investigation into his murder opened up in a wide range of possibilities, but without any certainty.

The Overcoat Killer

Because of the relevance of the victim and the public shock that led to his death, the investigation into the murder of Dando mobilized the London police, who assigned a team of 45 officers under Inspector Hamish Campbell for “Operation Oxborough”.

About the alleged murderer, the officers only got a few facts. Neighbor Richard Hughes saw a white man, about 6 feet and approximately 40 years old, walking serenely away from the journalist's house. He wore an elegant overcoat and wore sunglasses.

Two other witnesses saw a man in a coat running out of 29 Gowan Avenue. They described him as having plenty of dark hair and glasses. A neighbor spoke of a man in overalls who ran “sweating abundantly and with a twitching gesture”.

Over the next few months, the group led by Inspector Campbell, answered some 80,000 phone calls about the case, interviewed nearly 5,000 people, took 2,500 testimonials, analyzed 14,000 emails and reviewed 191 street surveillance cameras, whose recordings showed that no one had followed Dando in his journey to the house. The conclusion was that the killer was waiting for her and that, because of the way she committed the crime, she was a professional.

The list of suspects amounted to more than two thousand, but none of them could prove anything.

The hypotheses

“We didn't rule out any clues. We will analyze both the private life of Jill Dando and any possible link with the program of events she presented, Crimewatch,” said Inspector Campbell around the time.

As in any crime, part of the police team focused on the victim's inner circle. The boyfriend, Jill's brother, her agent, her co-workers were investigated. Their alibis were checked and rechecked until it became clear that none of them had been on Gowan Avenue at the time of the crime. All their relationships, their economic situation, and those of their relatives and contacts were also reviewed. The result was null.

Another line of the investigation pointed to the possibility of revenge. In CrimeWatch, Jill and her partner Nick Ross analyzed unsolved crimes and asked for the collaboration of citizens to find the culprits. They thought of a resentful criminal and also of a trafficking ring they had denounced, but they were all dead ends. In addition, Jill only presented the cases and the one who really investigated and pointed out possible culprits was Ross. If it was a revenge, the target should have been him and not her.

The hypothesis of “the Serbian connection” was also considered. Investigators could not rule her out because a few days before her death, Dando had conducted a BBC special on Kosovo refugees. The NATO intervention in the former Yugoslavia and a bombing of a Serbian television channel had killed 16 workers. The murder of the most famous face of the BBC could be a retaliation.

The possibility that the crime was the work of a stalker was thoroughly investigated, although the killer's modus operandi pointed more to a professional than an unbalanced one. Three years earlier, Dando had received — first in the BBC offices and then in his own home — a series of letters from an admirer who intended to go on a date with her. The police identified the stalker, a 60-year-old man who apologized and did not bother her again. After the crime, investigators found about 140 people who had shown an unusual interest in Dando and also questioned well-known celebrity stalkers. The culprit wasn't found there either.

Months passed and the case, despite intensive investigation, was still bogged down.

Blaming a “parsley”

The broken plates of police impotence ended up being paid by Barry George, a mentally challenged man who lived near Dando. And he paid dearly for them.

The police arrested him on 25 May 2000. George had three characteristics that placed him as a promising suspect: he physically resembled the alleged murderer described by Jill Dando's neighbors, he had a criminal record of harassment and modesty attacks and was obsessed with guns, who knew how to handle very well.

The man did not have a firm alibi for the day of the crime, which made him the ideal scapegoat for a case that questioned the efficiency of the police.

Investigators presented alleged scientific evidence that seemed to link George to crime: a microscopic particle of what was said to be gunshot residue, along with evidence of the character of a fiber found in his clothing. The defense argued that the presence of armed officers in his arrest could have been responsible for the gunshot residue.

On 29 May — barely four days after his arrest — he was charged and on 2 July 2001 he was sentenced to life imprisonment by a jury that found him guilty in a split ballot.

After losing an appeal against his conviction in 2002, Barry George succeeded in having his case reviewed in 2007, resulting in a new trial.

George's lawyers focused their defense on new evidence that raised doubts about the gunpowder residue attributed to a firearm that was found in his coat at the time of his arrest.

In August 2008, the court found him not guilty and ordered his immediate release.

“This is no time to celebrate. Barry George, an innocent man, has spent eight years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. Those eight years could have been better spent in the search for the real killer,” said his lawyer, Jeremy Moore, at an impromptu press conference after the trial.

Standing next to him, Barry George only managed to say, “I'm overwhelmed. I want to thank my family and my legal team.”

Un “cold case” para CrimeWatch

The ruling that released Barry George did not conform to the prosecution, much less the police: the investigation into the murder of Jill Dando had ended in failure, with the aggravating factor of imprisoning an innocent man for eight years.

The passage of time, on the other hand, made it more difficult to identify the true culprit.

Alan Farthing, the man who was going to marry Jill, and his CrimeWatch partner Nick Ross, created an academic institute named after him. The BBC opened a garden in their tribute and instituted the “Jill Dando” scholarship, aimed at funding journalism studies for one student per year at Falmouth University.

Almost 23 years after the murder, the case is still open without even a promising lead. It has become a “cold case” worthy of CrimeWatch, the unsolved crime program hosted by Jill Dando herself.

KEEP READING: