35 Facts About Jill Dando

Jill Wendy Dando was an English journalist, television presenter and newsreader.

Jill Dando spent most of her career at the BBC and was the corporation's Personality of the Year in 1997.

Jill Wendy Dando was born at Ashcombe House Maternity Home in Weston-super-Mare, Somerset.

Jill Dando was the daughter of Jack Dando and Winifred Mary Jean Hockey, who died of leukaemia aged 57.

Jill Dando was raised as a Baptist and remained a devout follower.

Jill Dando was educated at Worle Infant School, Greenwood Junior School, Worle Community School, and Weston College Sixth Form, where she was head girl, and completed her A-levels.

Jill Dando then went on to study Journalism at the South Glamorgan Institute of Higher Education.

Jill Dando was a member of Weston-super-Mare Amateur Dramatic Society and Exeter Little Theatre Company, with whom she appeared in plays at the Barnfield Theatre.

Jill Dando was a volunteer at Sunshine Hospital Radio in Weston-super-Mare in 1979.

In early 1988, Jill Dando moved from regional to national television in London to present BBC television news, specifically the short on-the-hour bulletins that aired on both BBC1 and BBC2 from 1986 until the mid-1990s.

Jill Dando presented the BBC television programmes Breakfast Time, Breakfast News, the BBC One O'Clock News, the Six O'Clock News, the travel programme Holiday, the crime appeal series Crimewatch and occasionally Songs of Praise.

Jill Dando was the subject of This Is Your Life on 8 November 1996.

On 25 April 1999, Jill Dando presented the first episode of Antiques Inspectors.

Jill Dando was scheduled to present the Six O'Clock News on the evening of the following day.

Jill Dando was featured on the cover of that week's Radio Times magazine.

Jill Dando was booked to host the British Academy Television Awards 1999, alongside Michael Parkinson, at Grosvenor House Hotel on 9 May On 5 September, BBC One resumed airing of Antiques Inspectors, the final series to be recorded by Jill Dando.

At the time of her death, Jill Dando was among those with the highest profile of the BBC's on-screen staff, and had been the 1997 BBC Personality of the Year.

From 1989 to 1996, Jill Dando engaged in a relationship with BBC executive Bob Wheaton.

Jill Dando then had a brief relationship with national park warden Simon Basil.

In December 1997, Jill Dando met gynaecologist Alan Farthing, later Queen Elizabeth II's personal physician, on a blind date set up by a mutual friend.

Jill Dando returned alone, by car, to the house she owned at 29 Gowan Avenue, Fulham.

Jill Dando had lived in the house, but by April 1999 was in the process of selling it and did not visit it frequently.

Jill Dando's body was discovered about fourteen minutes later by neighbour Helen Doble.

Jill Dando was taken to the nearby Charing Cross Hospital where she was declared dead on arrival at 13:03.

Richard Hughes, her next-door neighbour, heard a scream from Jill Dando but heard no gunshot.

Forensic firearm examination indicated that Jill 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.

Barry George's trial for the murder of Jill Dando began at the Old Bailey in early May 2001.

The defence suggested that Jill Dando was infact killed on orders of Serbian warlord Zeljko Raznatovic in revenge for her involvement in a charity campaign for Kosovan refugees during the Yugoslav Wars.

The original police investigation had explored the possibility of a contract killing, but since Jill Dando was living with her fiance and was only rarely visiting her Fulham residence, it was considered unlikely that a professional assassin would have been sufficiently well informed about Jill Dando's movements to have known at what time she was going to be there.

Jill Dando's agent Jon Roseman was an initial suspect since he knew Dando was going there to collect faxes he had sent her.

Cold case reviews by the police after 2008 concluded that Jill Dando was killed by a professional assassin in a "hard contact execution".

Immediately after the Jill Dando killing, a number of telephone calls were made to the BBC and other media outlets claiming responsibility for the killing on behalf of Serb groups.

In 2002, journalist Bob Woffinden had advanced the view that a Yugoslav group was behind the Jill Dando killing and, in various newspaper articles, contested all the grounds on which the police had dismissed this possibility.

Jill Dando's funeral took place on 21 May 1999 at Clarence Park Baptist Church in Weston-super-Mare.

Jill Dando was buried next to her mother in the town's Ebdon Road Cemetery.