It’s him. I’ve No doubt
A KEY witness in the murder of Jill Dando has identified a man she saw running away as ruthless Serbian assassin Milorad Ulemek.
The woman saw our picture of Ulemek on Monday and is certain he is the man she locked eyes with while driving nearby soon after the Crimewatch presenter, 37, was shot dead at her home in 1999.
She told police the day after the killing that the man, wearing a suit, had a startled look on his face. And a month later she picked him out in CCTV footage, police files reveal.
The man, who is still wanted, bears a striking resemblance to Ulemek, a Mirror investigation has revealed.
Speaking minutes after she saw our story on Monday, the woman said: “I said to my other half, it’s him. I’m adamant that is one and the same person that I saw run down the road.”
Asked if she was sure, she added: “Yes, I’ve no doubt... I’m a bit rattled, holy sh**. It was a long time ago but I can remember faces from years and years back. I’m good with faces.”
SWEATING
Her claim comes before the 25th anniversary of Jill’s killing on Friday.
The CCTV was taken from Putney Bridge Underground station in South West London, around a mile from Jill’s Fulham home, on April 26, 1999.
It is near Putney Bridge bus stop, where a man who looked like a police e-fit suspect was last seen. But the Met never released the CCTV image.
The woman, who has asked to remain anonymous, was one of four witnesses who described seeing a man in a suit running down Fulham Palace Road in the direction of the Tube station shortly after 11.30am.
Detectives said he fitted the description of the “sweating man” who got off the 74 bus at Putney Bridge a short time later.
Jill’s neighbour Richard Hughes, who saw the gunman, possibly carrying a mobile phone, said he “looked like” an e-fit the female motorist produced – and Geoffrey Upfillbrown, who lived across the road from Jill and also saw the killer, said it looked “similar”, police notes record.
The woman, a carer in her 40s, told the police she was driving north up
Fulham Palace Road when
SUPPORT PM Rishi Sunak she saw a man running for his life on the pavement.
“He was really motoring, nobody would have caught him,” she said.
“He looked straight at me. He seemed startled on seeing my vehicle.”
She described the man as being in his 30s, “quite good looking”, around 5ft 11in and of slim build. He was carrying a mobile phone and wearing a dark suit, a light shirt and a tie, she said.
His dark brown hair was about 2in long with a parting on the left, and the witness would “recognise this man if I saw him again”, the statement said.
The woman was asked to return to look at CCTV stills from Putney
Bridge Tube station on May 24, 1999 and was shown images of passengers passing through the ticket barriers.
She said: “The guy looked like he had a travel card or something, put it in, walked through the barrier, walked about three steps maybe, stopped dead, looked straight up at the CCTV camera and walked straight back out of the Tube station.”
She said it “looked very, very bizarre, really stood out” but said the detective was “very dismissive” and was not interested.
She said in her 1999 statement: “I am sure that this man in the suit is the same man that I identified to police yesterday, and also that he is the same person I saw running.”
The documents show actions were
I said to my other half: It’s him. It is the same person I saw running. I am rattled FEMALE MOTORIST WHO SAW MAN RUNNING NEAR THE SCENE
»»Key Jill witness backs Mirror probe
»»She wants star’s family to get closure
raised to “trace, interview and eliminate” the man, known as N6814, but he was never found.
The woman said she is willing to talk to police, adding: “Her family... they need closure, her fiance, he needs closure, her friends, you know, they need some kind of closure.”
When Jill died, the Yugoslav war was raging and UK planes were Serbia. She made an appeal for Kosovan refugees. Within hours of her murder, the BBC got a call claiming the death was in response.
Facial comparison expert Emi Polito said the man on CCTV and Ulemek have a similar shaped mouth, chin, hairline and right sideburn, while the general shapes of their noses and right ear were the same.
His report concluded: “Within the imagery limitations, no differences were found.”
But he could only give limited support to their being the same person because of a lack of detail in the blurry CCTV image.
Ulemek’s lawyer Aleksander Kovacevic said his client, who is serving a 40-year jail sentence for two assassibombing nations in Serbia, did not wish to comment when asked if he murdered Jill. He wrote: “My client is not interested in participating.”
Prime Minister Rishin Sunak voiced hope that the TV presenter’s killer will be found. His spokeswoman said: “The Prime Minister would always welcome anything to provide solace to the family. The PM will always want families to receive justice.”
Scotland Yard said in a statement: “The investigation is now in an inactive phase. However no unsolved murder is ever closed and detectives would consider any new information.”