Jill Dando Wiki – Jill Dando Bio
Jill Dando was an English journalist, television presenter, and newsreader. She spent most of her career at the BBC and was the corporation’s Personality of the Year in 1997. At the time of her death, her television work included co-presenting the BBC One program Crimewatch with Nick Ross.
On the morning of 26 April 1999, Dando was shot dead outside her home in Fulham, southwest London, prompting the biggest murder inquiry conducted by the Metropolitan Police and the country’s largest criminal investigation since the hunt for the Yorkshire Ripper. A local man, Barry George, was convicted and imprisoned for the murder, but after eight years in prison, he was acquitted following an appeal and retrial. In 2012, the Serbian ‘warlord’ Arkan was named as a suspect in the case, although he had died in 2000. No other suspect has been charged with Dando’s murder, and the case remains unsolved.
Jill Dando Age
Jill Dando was born on November 9, 1961, in Weston-super-Mare, United Kingdom.
Jill Dando Family
From 1989 to 1996, Dando dated BBC executive Bob Wheaton. She then had a brief relationship with national park warden Simon Basil. In December 1997, Dando met gynecologist, later Queen Elizabeth 2’s personal physician, Alan Farthing on a blind date set up by a mutual friend. Farthing was separated from his wife at the time. A couple of months after Farthing’s divorce was finalised, the couple announced that they were engaged on 31 January 1999. Their wedding was set to take place on 25 September.
Jill Dando Cause of Death – Murder
On the morning of 26 April 1999, 37-year-old Dando left Farthing’s home in Chiswick. She returned alone, by car, to the house she owned in Fulham. She had lived in the house, but by April 1999 was in the process of selling it and did not visit it frequently. As Dando reached her front door at about 11:32, she was shot once in the head. Her body was discovered about fourteen minutes later by neighbour Helen Doble. Police were called at 11:47. Dando was taken to the nearby Charing Cross Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival at 13:03 BST.
As Dando was about to put her keys in the lock to open the front door of her home in Fulham, she was grabbed from behind. With his right arm, the assailant held her and forced her to the ground, so that her face was almost touching the tiled step of the porch. Then, with his left hand, he fired a single shot at her left temple, killing her instantly. The bullet entered her head just above her ear, parallel to the ground, and came out the right side of her head.
— Bob Woffinden, The Guardian (July 2002)
Forensic study indicated that Dando had been shot by a bullet from a 9mm Short calibre semi-automatic pistol, with the gun pressed against her head at the moment of the shot. The cartridge appeared to have been subject to workshop modification, possibly to reduce its charge. Richard Hughes, her next door neighbour, heard a scream from Dando (“I thought it was someone surprising somebody”) but heard no gunshot. Hughes looked out of his front window and, while not realising what had happened, made the only certain sighting of the killer—a six-foot-tall (183 cm) white man aged around 40, walking away from Dando’s house.
Investigation
After the murder, there was intense media coverage. An investigation by the Metropolitan Police, named Operation Oxborough, proved fruitless for over a year. Dando’s status as a well-known public figure had brought her into contact with thousands of people, and she was known to millions. There was huge speculation regarding the motive for her murder.
Within six months, the Murder Investigation Team had spoken to more than 2,500 people and taken more than 1,000 statements. With little progress after a year, the police concentrated their attention on Barry George, who lived about half a mile from Dando’s house. He had a history of stalking women, sexual offences and other antisocial and attention seeking behaviour. George was put under surveillance, arrested on 25 May 2000 and charged with Dando’s murder on 28 May.
George was tried at the Old Bailey, convicted, and on 2 July 2001 was sentenced to life imprisonment. Concern about this conviction was widespread on the basis that the case against George appeared thin. Two appeals were unsuccessful, but after discredited forensic evidence was excluded from the prosecution’s case, George’s third appeal succeeded in November 2007. The original conviction was quashed and a second trial lasting eight weeks ended in George’s acquittal on 1 August 2008.
After George’s acquittal, some newspapers published articles which appeared to suggest that he was guilty of the Dando murder and other offences against women. In December 2009, George accepted substantial damages from News Group Newspapers over articles in The Sun and the News of the World, following a libel action in the High Court.
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