UK UK - Jill Dando, 37, Fulham, London, 26 Apr 1999

[Hexe]

She didn’t need to be closely associated with coverage of the war, though. If anything that’d be a little too on the nose. If you were a nation with a reputation for carrying out assassinations on foreign soil

Excuse me? Since when Serbia has such a reputation?

 

[rvlvr]

Just to add, I’ve long wondered where the Mirror got Milorad Ulemek’s name from? It’s not one you could just pluck from thin air imo, few people in the UK must’ve been aware of him prior to 2024. Who tipped them off, and why?

The paper seems to have some sort of contact at the Met with a connection to the case, imo the CCTV still of the man at Putney Bridge station who was never traced and in particular the name given to this man by police - N6814 - is material and knowledge only someone with access to the case file could know. Few people who were close to JD seem interested in pushing for the police to have a look at the case again but, JMO, someone inside the force has reason to want to keep it alive, at least in the public’s mind.

 

[rvlvr]

Excuse me? Since when Serbia has such a reputation?

Technically, the nation was Yugoslavia. I referenced some of their crimes in a post last week:

R

UK Post in thread 'UK - Jill Dando, 37, Fulham, London, 26 Apr 1999'

Jun 26, 2025

Just to expand on the Serbia angle, I feel like one issue people have with it is that the timeline seems too tight - the BBC’s Kosovo appeal, fronted by JD, took place just 20 days before she was killed. Imo, three weeks seems fairly ample time to plan an attack, but this assumes the Serbs only began making plans immediately after the appeal, when the reality is they could’ve been preparing for much longer.

The Yugoslav wars had been raging since 1991, and by the end of the 1990s the Serbs had lost the propaganda battle. International threats of military intervention were becoming...

• rvlvr

• 

I listened again last weekend to the podcast I referenced in that post (the whole thing is worth a listen and only about 90 minutes long) and one of the Scottish police officers interviewed in (I think) episode 3 referenced a book he read in an attempt to try and make sense of the crime he was investigating, called Assassinations Commissioned by Belgrade: Documentation about the Belgrade Murder Apparatus. Seems it’s long out of print now but I’d imagine it makes for fascinating reading.

 

[dotr]

Fwiw..

YUGOSLAVIA: Throwback to Assassination?

Serbia was the traditional Land of Assassinations. Most famed: the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Serajevo, the prelude to the World War. Most atrocious: the murder in their royal night...

time.com

'Serbia was the traditional Land of Assassinations. Most famed: the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Serajevo, the prelude to the World War. Most atrocious: the murder in their royal night clothes of King Alexander and Queen Draga of Serbia in 1903 by Serbian officers in the pay of Imperial Austria. Last week it seemed that although small Serbia no longer exists, having become large Jugoslavia, there has been a throwback to old-style Serbian assassination at Belgrade.''

. . .2024

As Serbian Journalist’s Murder Goes Unpunished, Verdict Comes Under Scrutiny

BIRN’s analysis of the controversial acquittal verdict in the trial of four Serbian State Security operatives for the assassination of opposition journalist Slavko Curuvija shows how troublesome issues with evidence and witness testimony led the court to clear the defendants.

balkaninsight.com

Balkan Criminals Planned Murders Using Encrypted Phones from Canadian Start-Up Sky Global

Sky phones were a favorite tool for criminals to discuss logistics. Now, it turns out that some of Sky’s most prolific “resellers” were Serbian criminals affiliated with organized groups that have been wreaking havoc in the Balkans.

www.occrp.org

 

[Hexe]

Fwiw..

YUGOSLAVIA: Throwback to Assassination?

Serbia was the traditional Land of Assassinations. Most famed: the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Serajevo, the prelude to the World War. Most atrocious: the murder in their royal night...

time.com

'Serbia was the traditional Land of Assassinations. Most famed: the shooting of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Serajevo, the prelude to the World War.

The assassin was a Bosnian Serb, aiming to free Bosnia from the Habsburg rule, but ok...

Most atrocious: the murder in their royal night clothes of King Alexander and Queen Draga of Serbia in 1903 by Serbian officers in the pay of Imperial Austria.

That one...

Last week it seemed that although small Serbia no longer exists, having become large Jugoslavia, there has been a throwback to old-style Serbian assassination at Belgrade.''

. . .2024

As Serbian Journalist’s Murder Goes Unpunished, Verdict Comes Under Scrutiny

BIRN’s analysis of the controversial acquittal verdict in the trial of four Serbian State Security operatives for the assassination of opposition journalist Slavko Curuvija shows how troublesome issues with evidence and witness testimony led the court to clear the defendants.

balkaninsight.com

Balkan Criminals Planned Murders Using Encrypted Phones from Canadian Start-Up Sky Global

Sky phones were a favorite tool for criminals to discuss logistics. Now, it turns out that some of Sky’s most prolific “resellers” were Serbian criminals affiliated with organized groups that have been wreaking havoc in the Balkans.

www.occrp.org

...and that were done in Serbia. So where's that alleged Serbian tradition of assassination done on foreign ground? As much as Serbia has bloody history, this claim is nonsense.

 

[dotr]

The assassin was a Bosnian Serb, aiming to free Bosnia from the Habsburg rule, but ok...




That one...




...and that were done in Serbia. So where's that alleged Serbian tradition of assassination done on foreign ground? As much as Serbia has bloody history, this claim is nonsense.

Just some quick links, not in the Serb hit man camp, but was willing to explore it a bit, fwiw.

 

[rvlvr]

“A former spy chief has revealed that one of his officers was responsible for an attack abroad at around the time TV presenter Jill Dando was killed.

“Serbian security service member Dragan Filipović was behind a "secret reprisal action" in the spring of 1999, which caused "great confusion in Europe".

“Filipović admitted he had sent several of his special forces officers into Europe to carry out revenge killings for the bombings, which had began on March 24, 1999.

“A source with knowledge of the Serbian security services told the Mirror he believes Filipović's claim to be true.”

Source: Revelation from spy chief blows open mystery of Jill Dando's murder

I mean, take this claim with a pinch of salt if you like, I’m not qualified to comment on its veracity, but this is straight from the horse’s mouth stuff.

 

[WestLondoner]

Just some quick links, not in the Serb hit man camp, but was willing to explore it a bit, fwiw.

So 100 years ago Serbians shot political targets inside Serbia.

In 1995 Serbs may have shot a non-political target outside Serbia, which is obviously exactly the same.

 

[dotr]

So 100 years ago Serbians shot political targets inside Serbia.

In 1995 Serbs may have shot a non-political target outside Serbia, which is obviously exactly the same.

Not great links admittedly, please disregard.

 

[tigerlily96]

I still can’t wrap my head around that nobody knew she was going to be at that house at that time, so how did the perpetrator get it so ‘right’

 

[Hexe]

I still can’t wrap my head around that nobody knew she was going to be at that house at that time, so how did the perpetrator get it so ‘right’

If the perpetrator knew about the contract documents faxed to Jill's flat, all they had to do was to watch said flat.

 

[davidt]

I still can’t wrap my head around that nobody knew she was going to be at that house at that time, so how did the perpetrator get it so ‘right’

Either whoever it was got very lucky from their point of view, or someone knew to expect her. According to the Netflix documentary phone records suggest she only told three or four people. Doesn't necessarily rule out calls being intercepted or JD having told someone in person.

 

[WestLondoner]

Or someone with nothing else to do, no job to go to and too dim to get bored of hanging around did so for so long that he was sure to get lucky.

 

[Hexe]

Or someone with nothing else to do, no job to go to and too dim to get bored of hanging around did so for so long that he was sure to get lucky.

Someone so dim yet did not leave any forensic traces behind? Do not buy it.

 

[rvlvr]

I still can’t wrap my head around that nobody knew she was going to be at that house at that time, so how did the perpetrator get it so ‘right’

Indeed. Even on this issue though, there’s a lot of contradictory evidence.

It’s generally accepted that in April 1999 JD was living with AF at his home in Chiswick. According to the Daily Mail: “The Gowan Avenue house was used largely as Jill’s administrative headquarters. She had only stayed there overnight twice in the weeks before the killing.”

According to the Guardian in 2001, when summing up evidence given at BG’s first trial by JD’s neighbour RH: “[RH] said Ms Dando came to her home once a week, usually on a Monday between 10am and 12pm.”

But this wasn’t set in stone. The Mail stated JD visited Gowan Avenue on the Saturday before her death - on this occasion she notices that the ink in her fax machine needs replacing, hence her return on the Monday - while in 2000 the Independent reported Hamish Campbell as saying: “We know Miss Dando's movements on the previous two Mondays and she wasn't there.” If her fax machine had been working on the Saturday, would she have been at Gowan Avenue on the Monday that she was murdered?

The argument against this being a hit - and it’s a perfectly fair one - is that how could anyone have known she’d be in Gowan Avenue on that Monday morning? Why not kill her in Chiswick, or while she ran errands in Hammersmith? Too risky, perhaps - AF’s home was in a quieter, suburban area, and an unfamiliar face might’ve stood out more in that location, compared to on the narrower, car-lined streets of Fulham. And in Hammersmith there’d be CCTV and many more witnesses.

But it doesn’t fit the obsessed stalker theory either. How can you stalk someone you never see? Not only was she an infrequent visitor to Gowan Avenue, but it seems her visits weren’t even as regular and pattern-like as is often claimed.

Jill Dando's murder: 20 years on, fresh witness accounts

New dramatic eye witness accounts detail the moments after BBC presenter Jill Dando was killed on her doorstep in Fulham, London.

www.dailymail.co.uk

 

[Yellowbelly]

She didn’t need to be closely associated with coverage of the war, though. If anything that’d be a little too on the nose. If you were a nation with a reputation for carrying out assassinations on foreign soil and wanted to strike against the British political-media establishment, and in particular the BBC, then imo you’d find someone with the right blend of news background plus status and profile - who also happens to be gettable.

Imo, it’s difficult to think of a better fit than the newsreader, Crimewatch presenter and BBC ‘golden girl’, living a relatively regular, security-free life that, geographically, was contained, neatly and routinely, between Fulham, Chiswick, and the BBC.

You’re not expecting this to change the course of the war, revenge is your primary motivation, and in that regard the attack is a success. You don’t claim the attack officially because that would only harden public opinion against you further - but unsettling a media organisation that you despise and leaving the Met stumped are definitely part of a satisfying ripple effect.

Imo as a theory it’s simple, and works as well as any other. The problem is a lack of supporting evidence - though sadly that’s true of all the other theories too.

Doesn't the theory as to 'why Jill Dando' from a Serb perspective run something like this -

Ethno-religious civil war in Kosovo

The West takes the side of the Kosovo Albanians

The Serbs don't get the hint

NATO starts bombing Serbia as a result

One of the targets hit is the studio of the Serbian equivalent of the BBC

The Serbs know they can't take on NATO militarily, but they're looking for revenge

The UK is one of the prime movers in the bombing campaign against them (Tony Blair is a hero to this day for the Kosovars)

Jill Dando had fronted the DEC charity appeal on behalf of the displaced Kosovans

'She'll do', think Milosevic's henchmen

 

[WestLondoner]

Someone so dim yet did not leave any forensic traces behind? Do not buy it.

Any he left were comprehensively erased when the ambulance folk arrived.

 

[Interested_But_Confused]

Any he left were comprehensively erased when the ambulance folk arrived.

Most of it, yes. Regardless of who did it, they couldn't have been much "luckier" than to have the paramedics destroy the scene before the police ever got there.

Even so, there was a fibre matching a pair of trousers owned by BG and also the GSR on Jill matching what was found in BG's pocket. The fact that the GSR was later ruled unreliable and inadmissible due to a technicality doesn't mean it wasn't there.

There WAS minimal forensic evidence, and such as it was it linked the crime to the prime suspect.

 

[rvlvr]

Mark Webster, a forensic scientist, said at BG’s trial that the fibre evidence was unreliable.

“A single grey polyester fibre is not in my view significant evidence. It is not something you should rely on.

"If you see evidence as rungs on a ladder, this one is going to give way under weight."

Dando killer was expert marksman

A ballistics expert told the Old Bailey today that the method in which Jill Dando was shot was technically near perfect, supporting the defence team's contention that she was killed by a professional hitman.

www.theguardian.com

 

[rvlvr]

Someone so dim yet did not leave any forensic traces behind? Do not buy it.

So much of the case against BG (the actual evidentiary case that is, not just ‘reasons why he’d be high on a list of suspects’) is like this: full of holes and often contradictory.

He’s a loner with an intellectual disability who’ll habitually harass women in the street, except for the one woman he’s meant to be ‘obsessed’ with, who - despite her no longer living in the neighbourhood - he stalks over days/weeks/months in such a stealth-like way that she appears to have no idea of his existence, until the moment he very skilfully (like a professional hitman), or perhaps accidentally (like a fool), puts a bullet through her head and kills her, for reasons that are never explained.

He’s dumb enough to shoot her dead in broad daylight, but smart enough (or perhaps lucky) that no one sees him doing it. And crucially, he’s careful to dispose of all evidence in the flat he doesn’t care for, where bin bags and cardboard boxes pile high in every room.