Jill Dando was killed on her doorstep on April 26, 1999. The late journalist, TV presenter, and newsreader was 37 years old at the time of her death. She suffered a single gunshot wound to the head on returning to her house just after 11:30 a.m.
Twenty-four years on from Jill Dando’s untimely death, a Netflix docu-series called Who Killed Jill Dando? arrived on Netflix on September 26. Since the documentary dropped on the streaming service, viewers have been discussing their own theories of her murder on social media.
Jill Dando’s house
At the time of her death, Jill Dando owned a house in Fulham, London.
Jill’s house was located at 29 Gowan Avenue and she’d agreed to a sale on the property just a couple of days before her death.
A 1999 report from The Guardian reads: “Shortly before her death, she had agreed the sale of her home in Fulham, worth about £350,000, which is due to be completed on July 15.”
Senior Investigating Officer Hamish Campbell said during Who Killed Jill Dando? that he was told there “had been a stabbing in Fulham” on the day of Jill’s death.
He added: “Fulham was a well-to-do wealthy area, so it was very unusual.”
Jill rarely stayed at her home on Gowan Avenue and was more often at her partner’s house in West London. Therefore, Hamish Campbell adds that she must have been followed by someone on the morning of her death.
Newsreader was shot
Who Killed Jill Dando? features accounts from various people including police officers, Jill’s colleagues and friends, her ex-boyfriend, and her family members.
Episode 1 of the series sees BBC newsreader Jennie Bond explain that she reported the news that Jill had died.
Jennie read the news: “Within the past few minutes, police have confirmed that the BBC television presenter Jill Dando has been stabbed to death outside her West London home. She died in the ambulance on her way to hospital, there are no more details at the moment.”
After further investigations took place, it was discovered that Jill had been shot in the head. A bullet and cartridge casing were found on her doorstep. A ballistics expert explained that she was killed by “a single shot to the left side of her head.”
Who Killed Jill Dando? Theories
The 2023 Netflix series explores the different theories that have been considered for the cause of Jill Dando’s death.
The death of the “people’s presenter” is still unsolved. However, multiple theories are explained during Who Killed Jill Dando?.
Hamish Campbell said that key witnesses were identified during the investigations.
He explained: “The postman saw a Mediterranean-looking man just after 10 o’clock on the opposite side of the road to Jill’s house, and a witness claimed he saw a man running across the road, he stopped at the bus stop and he was sweating. There was the traffic warden and she was about to give a ticket to the driver of a blue Range Rover and as she was starting to write the ticket out, he brushed her off and drove away.”
He continued: “I didn’t know at the time whether there was one person involved, or two, or three.”
Jeff Edwards, former Crime Correspondent at The Mirror, later details that a neighbor “heard a scream,” the morning of Jill’s death.
He said: “I had a private conversation with one of the members of the murder squad, he said we cannot find any witnesses, any neighbours, anybody who was in the area at the time who actually heard a gunshot. We don’t have the gun. We don’t have anybody who saw the gun, but the weapon could have had a silencer on it.”
Jeff continued: “Automatically, that suggestion steered us in the direction that maybe this was a professional job.”
More theories include that Jill was killed by a “Serbian hitman,” and that her murder was arranged by criminals because of her work on Crime Watch.
The three men closest to her at the time of her death were questioned by police including her fiancé, Alan Farthing, her ex-boyfriend, Bob Wheaton, and her agent Jon Roseman. However, their names were all cleared.
WATCH WHO KILLED JILL DANDO? ON NETFLIX NOW
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