FOR 24 years, the cold-blooded murder of Jill Dando has baffled everyone from homicide detectives to her neighbours.
The BBC Crimewatch presenter, 37, was assassinated by a single bullet to the back of her head as she walked to her front door in Fulham, West London.
Her killing on the morning of April 26, 1999 outside 29 Gowan Avenue sparked the biggest Met Police murder inquiry ever and the largest manhunt since the Yorkshire Ripper.
Barry George served eight years for Jill's murder but was later acquitted, meaning a killer has never been brought to justice.
Now, following the release of a three-part Netflix series about the presenter's murder, neighbours on the road have told their stories, some for the first time.
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A number of them told The Sun they believe Jill was the victim of a case of a mistaken identity with another blonde journalist, a claim submitted in bombshell French court documents.
Luis Carlos Lopes, 61, was helping out Richard Burt, 86, with some gardening when they spoke to The Sun.
Both were on the street the day Jill was shot dead, but they have two polar opposite theories as to what happened at around 11.32am that day.
Luis, who has lived in Fulham for 38 years, was tiling a veranda at number 13 with a colleague that fateful morning.
Asked what he believed happened, he immediately rules out criminal efforts to silence her, adding: "If that was the case, somebody would know, the police would have followed that.
"If she [Jill] knew something, somebody else did. That person didn't come to kill her, it was for someone else."
One of the mistaken identity theories alleges Jill was murdered by a Russian hitman on contract for French Elite model agency boss Gerald Marie.
'I WENT TO THE SHOPS, IT HAPPENED IN THAT HALF HOUR'
Marie was accused of sexually assaulting undercover reporter Lisa Brinkworth when she posed as a model to expose his firm after he was accused of raping several women in 1998.
Marie wanted Brinkworth "dealt with" in revenge for her exposé, the papers allege, but the assassin went on to kill the wrong target.
The theory has been denied as false by Marie and rejected by the Metropolitan Police.
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Jill's lifeless body was discovered by a neighbour about 14 minutes after being shot dead.
Recounting the morning, Luis, whose sister lived at number 36, added: "I didn't see anything, I didn't hear a noise.
"I got in the car, went to Hitchcocks merchants to buy some stuff, and when I came back the road was closed.
"It took me about half an hour, and it happened in that half an hour.
"They were not waiting for us to go out, they were waiting for her to come home, that is what it is."
But his pal Richard, who has lived on Gowan Avenue for 47 years, has his own theory and thinks Jill may have "upset" someone with her journalism work.
He told The Sun: "Whoever was down here was waiting for her, they must have been waiting for her to come home.
"It was just somebody laying in wait surely, they must have known a bit of her routine to catch her like that.
"I think she trod on somebody's toe, she upset somebody, It's possible she found out something she shouldn't have done."
Richard says he developed a fun relationship with Jill, regularly exchanging pleasantries in the street.
Whoever was down here was waiting for her, they must have been waiting for her to come home
Richard Burt, resident
He said: "I would leave at 5am every morning and would bump into her when I was on early shifts as an engineer.
"She was on Crimewatch and I used to joke with her 'you're not looking for a bald-headed man are you?' and raise my hat.
"She would say 'no, you're safe this time', and we would laugh."
Other theories surrounding Jill's murder have ranged from Serbian hitmen to underworld gangsters fearful of being exposed by Jill's journalism.
Some even suspected Jill's partner Alan Farthing, her ex and BBC editor Bob Wheaton and agent Jon Roseman - neither of whom are guilty.
But in May 2000, cops turned their attention to Barry George.
George - who lived half a mile from Jill’s home and had a history of stalking women - was wrongly convicted, serving eight years for her murder before being acquitted in 2008.
A neighbour who did not want to be named worked with Jill's gynaecologist fiancee Alan Farthing at Charing Cross hospital at the time of her death.
She told how Jill's murder cast a shadow over the community before saying how she had grown tired her the story being repeatedly "dug up".
A few doors down, a mother and her grown up son remember "rollerskating" Jill as a "lovely" person who was popular with neighbours.
But after years of going over and over Jill's murder, they now firmly believe her "execution" was intended for someone else.
'GOT THE WRONG PERSON'
Speaking anonymously, the mum told The Sun: "I knew Jill Dando, she was lovely, she was just getting married, had a lovely engagement ring and was looking forward to her wedding.
"I think it was someone paid to do it but got the wrong person. I've always thought it was for somebody else.
"I don't know who they [the killer] were looking for, but I don't think she was the one. She was only coming in to pick something up which makes me think she wasn't the target.
"They didn't know when she was coming, it was only on the off chance, she was in the fish shop. It's a tragedy.
"I think she was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
She notes how the public believed that as Jill worked on TV, somebody was out to get her for her investigative work.
But she suggests the nature of Jill's "execution" appeared more like a "hitman" than a crazed lone-wolf.
She added: "Our neighbour, who has since died, was in the garden, she didn't hear the gunshot, but she saw the body being picked up and all, blood everywhere, it was awful, awful, awful.
"For a whole year afterwards it was dreadful, a whole coach came with the jury, they all had to come out and go in."
Her son told the Sun: "I spoke to her a few times. I left for work at 5am, came back and it was all blocked off.
"I was never interviewed for what I may have seen. But you'd see all the camera crews outside, then flick on the TV on and see our house."
Another man on the street told The Sun he had been watching Who Killed Jill Dando? on Netflix and developed a keen interest in the case.
But he noted how many residents from the time had since moved on or passed away.
Despite more than 2,400 statements, the tracing of 1,200 cars and the investigation of 2,000 potential suspects and a string of conspiracy theories, the killer remains on the loose.
A spokesperson for the Met told The Sun: "The investigation into the murder of Ms Dando was moved to an inactive phase in 2014.
"The decision was taken by a case closure panel.
"While the case has not been formally reopened and is therefore not subject to routine reviews, detectives would consider any new information provided to the Met to determine whether it represented a new and realistic line of enquiry."
