A new probe has been launched into the unsolved murder of BBC presenter Jill Dando.
Detectives from the Metropolitan Police are examining CCTV of a wanted man who matches the features of Milorad Ulemek, an infamous Serbian assassin.
Former Crimewatch presenter Ms Dando, 37, was one of the BBC’s highest-profile stars when she was shot outside her home in Fulham, west London, on April 26, 1999.
Ulemek is currently serving a 40 year sentence in Serbia after being convicted of helping plan the assassinations of former President Ivan Stambolić in 2000 and of Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić in 2003.
He was known as part of an infamous paramilitary whose units were responsible for atrocities in the Yugoslav wars.
Nicknamed Legija, the 58-year-old was first identified by The Mirror in connection with the murder in 2024, after a facial comparison expert found he had similar features to Man X.
Man X was captured on CCTV at Putney Bridge tube station, about a mile from Ms Dando’s Fulham home, around 20 minutes after she was killed.
Eyewitnesses previously told the Mirror that they believe it was Ulemek who they saw running close to murder scene.
The 37-year-old broadcaster was shot dead outside her Fulham home in April 1999 | GETTY
Man X was first flagged to Met Police detectives by a key witness who came forward on the day of the murder.
She had been driving on the Fulham Palace Road at around the time of the shooting when she saw a man in a suit “running for his life”.
About a month later, the eyewitness picked out Man X in the CCTV as the person she had seen sprinting.
However, Met Police detectives dismissed her evidence, saying the description she had given of the running man did not match Man X.
A widespread appeal was launched into the murder
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Milorad Ulemek, pictured during his trial in 2003
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A forensic expert pointed out Man X and Ulemek have a similar shaped mouth, chin, hairline and right sideburn, while the general shape and sizes of their noses and right ear were the same.
However, he pointed out a dent on Ulemek’s nose that is not visible in the CCTV image but is evident in a police e-fit of a suspect released in 1999, which he had not seen.
A spokesman from the Metropolitan Police said in a new statement: “In the 27 years since Jill Dando’s murder, the investigation has been subject to numerous reviews, aiming to identify whether matters could be progressed with advances in technology and forensics.
“Recent advancements in CCTV enhancement technology have provided investigators with the opportunity to re-examine original footage from Putney Bridge train station. This remains ongoing.”
Jill Dando was shot outside her west London home in 1999
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At the time of the murder, British warplanes were bombing Serbian military and infrastructure targets as part of Nato’s Operation Allied Force in 1999.
Ms Dando was one of the most well known presenters on British television, hosting the BBC’s Breakfast Time, Crimewatch and Holiday when she was ambushed as she was entering her front door.
Within a few hours of her murder, the BBC and other media outlets received a series of phone calls, claiming the murder was in response to a Nato attack on a TV station in Belgrade.
Experts have suggested Ms Dando’s outspoken support for Kosovar Albanian refugee charities could have attracted the attention of hardliner Bosnian-Serb groups.
Jill Dando was murdered as she entered her west London home
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During the 90s, Ulemek was the leader of a particularly infamous unit that carried out assassinations for late Serbian dictator Slobodan Milošević.
Ulemek’s former spy master has previously admitted to dispatching assassins into Europe at the time Ms Dando was killed.
Local man Barry George was arrested on suspicion of murder in 2000, a year after Ms Dando was killed.
He was convicted in 2001, but the conviction was quashed in November 2007 by the Court of Appeal and he was cleared by a jury in August 2008 after a retrial.
Mr George currently is facing trial over historical sex charges.