I found Jill Dando’s body... it will haunt me for life
Pal discovered TV star shot dead on doorstep
A FRIEND of Jill Dando’s has told of the harrowing moment she found the TV star’s body after she had been shot dead.
And Helen Doble, 59, said she will be forever haunted by the sight.
In her first in-depth interview since the London murder 20 years ago tomorrow, the mum-of-one added: “That image of her body is burned into my brain. I get flashbacks. You do not get over it.”
WHEN Helen Doble spotted Jill Dando’s car parked outside her home, she took it as a rare opportunity to pop in and see her pal, who was normally at her fiance’s house.
But instead of being greeted by the TV star’s friendly face, she stumbled upon a horrific scene of murder that still haunts her to this day.
Jill’s lifeless body was slumped on her doorstep after being shot at point-blank range, at around 11.30am on April 26, 1999, by a mystery assassin – 20 years ago tomorrow.
In her most in-depth interview since one of Britain’s most infamous unsolved killings, Helen recalls the harrowing moment she found her friend, dead in broad daylight.
Eyes welling with tears, she said: “That image of her body is burned into my brain.
“I get flashbacks, even 20 years on. She was slumped on the doorstep and leaning awkwardly at the bottom part of the door.
“Her legs were stretched out and awkwardly placed. Her hand with her engagement ring on was stretched out, and the hand was blue. It’s one of the images that is still so difficult to deal with.
“That beautiful engagement ring on a very dead hand. That ring was so full of her hopes and dreams, and it was all taken from her.”
TV producer Helen, who lived two streets away from Jill in Fulham, South West London, had spoken to the Crimewatch presenter about her hopes of starting a family.
She knew immediately Jill was dead but did not go to her as she also knew she should not be disturbing a crime scene.
The mum-of-one, now 59, dialled 999 and then had an agonising wait in a quiet, empty street for police and an ambulance to arrive.
And she told how the silence was interrupted only by Jill’s phone continually ringing. Helen, who feared the calls were her friend’s fiance, Alan Farthing, added: “Everything happened so fast. It was so quiet, so eerie, and I was looking at her like that. I was standing there, knowing I could not go through the gate, thinking, ‘Is this really happening?’ It was both surreal yet very real.
“Her phone kept ringing on and off. I wanted to go and pick it up and see if it was Alan. I wanted him to know before the news broke. But I didn’t. It’s a haunting moment that sticks with me.”
Police finally arrived and two officers went straight to Jill’s body.
Paramedics also came and Helen heard them trying to save her pal’s life. And to her shock, she was given hope when she saw that Jill’s blue skin had started to turn back to normal colour.
But then she was hit with a wave of guilt, believing maybe if she had ignored the crime scene rules and started CPR she could have saved her life.
Helen said: “Her hand, her face, she changed colour, and so I thought, ‘There really is hope, but I could have done more.’ At that point I thought it was a stabbing.
“I didn’t know at the time that she had died at the scene, until the coroner’s report came out.
“When I found Jill’s body I didn’t cry or scream, like they do in the films. But I was on the phone to my mum when she told me it had been announced that she had died. I howled, howled down the phone.”
Helen could not have done anything to save Jill, who was already dead. The colour returning to her skin was from the fluids being pumped round her body by paramedics.
Helen told how she desperately tried to contact Alan, who was due to marry Jill in September of that year, hoping it would be of some comfort to him to know a friend had found her body that fateful morning. Her initial efforts through police came to nothing so she wrote him a letter which she asked an officer to pass on. Weeks later, Alan – who lived in nearby Chiswick – found the note among hundreds of others from wellwishers across the country. He made immediate contact.
Helen added: “I went to his house in Chiswick and we had the saddest conversation I have ever had. He was able to tell me things, and he had questions he wanted to ask me. I do feel like it
‘Loved by everyone
JILL’S fiance Alan Farthing last night paid tribute to the star at a 20-year commemoration.
Having rarely spoken publicly about her, Alan said he was unsure when Nick Ross, Jill’s Crimewatch co-host, asked him to talk.
He said: “The trauma of Jill’s sudden and inexplicable death and overwhelming sorrow, the media coverage, the still many unanswered
That image of her body is burned into my brain. I could hear her phone ringing HELEN ON THE HORROR OF FINDING FRIEND JILL’S BODY
was meant that I found her, regardless of how difficult it has been as a result, because Alan was spared that, in that whole tragedy.
“He was sweet enough to acknowledge that it was meant to be that I found her.”
Helen told how Jill had often spoken about Alan, now a gynaecologist to the Royal family.
She said: “She had talked to me about her personal life and about Alan and I subsequently met Alan with her several times, and I could see how happy they were together. Her personal life hadn’t been brilliant, on and off, before that, but she’d found the man it turned out she was going to marry.
“I’m grateful Alan didn’t see her body how I saw it. By the time he saw her at the hospital they had covered her, and the wound, and I imagine she looked quite peaceful.
“Jill wanted a family, she was always really sweet with my daughter. She wanted a place in the country with roses around the front door.” Helen also told how she managed to meet the police chief investigating Jill’s murder, Detective Chief Superintendent Hamish Campbell.
She claims he told her the victim’s fame could have had an impact on the response of the emergency services, who possibly contaminated the crime scene upon arrival.
Helen added: “He said to me things happened at the scene which shouldn’t happen and things didn’t happen which should have, and that sadly who she was had a bearing on that.
“My reading of what he was saying is that paramedics and police would not have rushed in if it hadn’t been Jill Dando. And in doing that the crime scene was contaminated. Any forensic evidence was lost then.
“When the emergency services got there she was moved. No chalk line, nothing.”
Barry George was wrongly jailed in 2001 for Jill’s murder but his conviction was quashed in 2007. He was acquitted in a 2008 retrial and freed. Helen admitted she struggles to let go of the anguish of finding Jill dead at 11.44am, 14 minutes after being shot.
She said: “I will light a candle at 14 minutes past 11.30am, the time when I found her. I do it wherever I am on that day, every year.
“Jill should never be forgotten. Barely a day goes by where I don’t think about her.
“I wish I could let it go. A lot of people would say I should because it’s 20 years later but I cannot. I just care that somebody decided to take her life when she had everything to live for.
“I’m speaking out now because I hope maybe someone will come forward with information that tells us who and why, and then perhaps justice cane be done.”
A Met Police spokesman said: “The investigation into the murder of Ms Dando remains open. We will always explore any new information.” ■ No payment was made for this interview.