Man who was metres away when Jill Dando was murdered shares what he remembers of that day
The murder of TV presenter and journalist Jill Dando has been a crime that's baffled the British public since 1999.
Dando, who presented on BBC's Crimewatch and Wish You Were Here, was a much-loved broadcaster and has previously been likened to Princess Diana.
Her shock murder on the doorstep of her home in London's Fulham was front-page news and sparked a manhunt to discover her killer, with the person who assassinated her never being identified.
Now, a new Netflix series titled Who Killed Jill Dando?' has revisited the murder of Dando in April 1999, including speaking to those that knew her, those that worked on the case, and those that could have potentially witnessed it.
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The documentary explores the theories surrounding her death as part of one of the biggest homicide investigations in British history.
In the three-part documentary, one suggested motive was that her presenting role on Crimewatch put her in a vulnerable position because the criminals featured on the show may have held a grudge against her.
And yet, those who were on her street, Gowan Avenue in Fulham, are unsure whether that's actually the case.
One of Dando's neighbors, Luis Carlos Lopes, was just metres away gardening on the street with another neighbour when Dando was shot. He told The Sun: "I didn't see anything, I didn't hear a noise.
"I got in the car, went to Hitchcocks merchants to buy some stuff, and when I came back the road was closed. It took me about half an hour, and it happened in that half an hour."
Another neighbor, Richard Burt, who also lived on Gowan Avenue where Dando lived and was shot outside her own front door, has different thoughts about why she was shot that day in April 1999. He spoke to The Sun and said: "Whoever was down here was waiting for her, they must have been waiting for her to come home. It was just somebody laying in wait surely, they must have known a bit of her routine to catch her like that.
"I think she trod on somebody's toe, she upset somebody, it's possible she found out something she shouldn't have done."
The mystery of who killed Jill Dando has never been solved. At one point, a local man named Barry George, who had previous convictions and a history of stalking women, was arrested for Dando’s murder almost a year after her death.
He was convicted of her murder and served seven years behind bars, before he was later acquitted due to unreliable forensic evidence.
As a result, no killer has ever been identified as the assassin who shot Jill Dando.
Police collated more than 2,400 statements, traced 1,200 cars and investigated 2,000 potential suspects, but have still been unable to find Dando's murderer.
Who Killed Jill Dando? is available on Netflix now.
Niamh Spence