Who Killed Jill Dando?
July 11 -- She was gunned down in broad daylight outside her London home in April 1999. The crime was shocking for Britain, where gun violence is rare. But the murder was particularly chilling for the country, because the victim was one of Britain's most beloved news anchors — Jill Dando.
Sometimes compared to Princess Diana, Dando, age 37 when she was killed, was a favorite of royalty and commoners alike. Her death left the nation in shock, grief and frustration as police spent more than a year trying to track down her killer without success.
Police pursued several theories — mob hit, deranged fan, former lover — and thousands of suspects for more than a year, to no avail.
Nick Ross, Dando's co-anchor on Crimewatch,a program that helped police capture dozens of wanted criminals, says her life paralleled that of Princess Diana in many ways. "They were both tall, blonde, good-looking women of approximately the same age. They both had that mixture of refinement and absolute naturalness," he said. "I think, without exaggeration, Jill's murder was second only in its shock value to the death of Diana … Jill was so central to just ordinary life."
The high-profile case would prove to be one of the biggest and most difficult in the history of Scotland Yard. After more than a year of investigating moer than 2,000 potential suspects and chasing down hundreds of leads, the pressure was on detectives to find the killer.
It was not until they essentially began the investigation from scratch again that they came upon their chief suspect — Barry George — a deeply troubled local man said to be obsessed with celebrities. George, 41, was convicted of the murder in 2001 and sentenced to life in prison.
But while police collected a sizable body of circumstantial evidence against George, they still lacked a motive, a murder weapon and eyewitnesses. His eventual conviction surprised some observers, who still believe the prosecution never proved its case or provided a satisfactory ending to this tragic story.
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