Jill Dando - Murder

Murder

On the morning of 26 April 1999, Dando left the Chiswick home of her fiancé, Alan Farthing. She returned alone, by car, to the house she owned in Gowan Avenue, Fulham, West London. 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 14 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 9 mm calibre automatic pistol, with the gun pressed against her head at the moment of the shot. Richard Hughes, her next door neighbour, heard a surprised cry from Dando "like someone greeting a friend" 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 6 foot (1.80 metre) tall white man aged around 40 years old, seen walking away from Dando's house.