Columns

Opinion articles written in the style of their author. These texts are to be based on verified facts and must be respectful towards people, even though their actions may be criticized. All opinion articles written by individuals from outside the staff of EL PAÍS shall feature, along with the author’s name (regardless of their greater or lesser renown), a footer stating their office, academic title, political affiliation (if any) and main occupation, or the occupation related to the topic being assessed

Who killed Jill Dando? A 24-year-old murder that remains unsolved

The popular BBC presenter of ‘Crimewatch’ died of a gunshot to the head outside her home in 1999. A Netflix documentary explores how the wrong person was convicted, and why the real killer remains unknown

The British journalist Jill Dando, in a scene from the Netflix documentary.

Ángel S. Harguindey

Oct 04, 2023 - 12:11CEST

To err is human. OK, fine. But when those who make mistakes are the police and the judges, in addition to being human, it is also terrible and regrettable. This much is evidenced in Netflix’s three-part documentary series Who Killed Jill Dando?, about a well-known BBC presenter who was shot in the head outside her home. The crime took place in April 1999 in the London neighborhood of Fulham, two years after the death of Lady Di, with whom she was often physically compared. Both deaths shocked British society even though there were 920 homicides in the United Kingdom that year. Dando’s popularity demanded a broader, more intense police investigation than usual, and naturally the tabloid press was quick to spread misinformation with all kinds of (more or less) imaginative theories as the months passed.

It was that pressure that, more than a year after the murder, pushed the police to arrest, charge and subsequently convict an alleged culprit who, eight years later and after a new trial, was released for lack of evidence. The Netflix documentary does its job adequately, priming the content over the format, with the added bonus that none of those responsible for the investigation avoided contributing to the effort with a personal analysis of their own work and conclusions. What is most interesting is the incredible fact that 24 years after it occurred, nobody has found the person responsible for the murder of Jill Dando, the host of a television show called Crimewatch, which, paradoxically, enlisted the public’s help to try to solve unsolved crimes.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition