Skip to main content

The Investigation

Crime Files

The Investigation

Who Killed Jill Dando

The Dando murder investigation was conducted by the Metropolitan Police and continued for more than a year. It was named Operation Oxborough and led by Detective Chief Inspector Hamish Campbell. The inquiry involved three teams of detectives, and numerous criminologists, psychologists and forensic experts. At the scene of the crime, a single Remington brand bullet cartridge was found. It was of the type used by a rare 9mm semi-automatic Browning pistol. One criminologist working on the case described this to the BBC news on 27 April 1999, as the type of gun used by drug dealers and professional criminals.There was much speculation as to the motive for her murder, not least that, due to her work with ‘Crimewatch UK’, she had possibly angered someone in the criminal underworld. There was also the fact that it was a single shot to the head, favoured by professional assassins. Chief Inspector Campbell made a statement to the press in which he said that the killer could either be a stalker or a hit man. CCTV footage of Dando’s journey to her home on 26 April 1999, suggested that she had not been followed and no one knew what her movements that morning would be.

In a sad twist of fate, Dando’s murder was reconstructed on ‘Crimewatch UK’ in an attempt to help police find her killer. It resulted in the BBC receiving over 500 calls. After a month, the Dando case was re-examined and Chief Inspector Campbell was replaced by Detective Chief Superintendent Brian Edwards. In the last week of July 1999, Campbell made a statement that the forensic experts had discovered distinctive markings on the bullet casing found at the scene of the crime. The markings were thought to have been made in order to both hold the bullet in place and to reduce the sound made when it was fired.Six months into the murder investigation, police had interviewed over 2,500 people and taken more than 1,000 statements but were still no closer to finding the suspect. Rewards were offered for further information leading to the capture of Dando’s killer, with the Sun and Daily Mail newspapers offering £100,000 each and the anonymous telephone hotline ‘Crimestoppers’ offering £50,000.