COPS have launched a fresh probe into the shocking unsolved murder of the adored TV star Jill Dando.
Detectives are re-examining CCTV of a mystery man who they believe could hold the key to cracking the 27-year-old case.
The Met is now using modern technology to enhance original footage from Putney Bridge Tube station, reports The Mirror.
It shows an unidentified man spotted around a mile from Jill’s Fulham home shortly after she was callously shot on her doorstep.
The force said: “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.”
The man, known as Man X, was filmed around 20 minutes after Jill was shot outside her home in Gowan Avenue, South West London, on April 26, 1999.
Cold-case officers are understood to have spent the past ten months finding and digitising the original footage.
It was believed to be buried among 223 boxes of material in police storage.
Now detectives hope clearer images could help establish who Man X was — and whether he was linked to the killing.
The footage is also being examined for possible links to Milorad Ulemek, a notorious Serbian paramilitary commander known as Legija.
Ulemek, a former French Foreign Legionnaire, led a unit involved in assassinations during the rule of former Serbian president Slobodan Milosevic.
A facial comparison expert previously identified similarities between Ulemek and Man X.
He said they had similar mouths, chins, hairlines and right sideburns.
Their noses and right ears were also said to be similar in shape and size.
A dent on Ulemek’s nose was also highlighted as matching one shown on a police e-fit released after Jill’s murder.
Two key witnesses have also said Ulemek resembled men they saw near the murder scene.
One woman was driving along Fulham Palace Road when she saw a man in a suit “running for his life”.
A month later, she picked out Man X in CCTV as the man she had seen.
But detectives dismissed her evidence, saying her original description did not match Man X.
Both men, however, were said to have been wearing suits and ties and had similar heights, builds and hair colour.
Jill’s neighbour Richard Hughes saw the gunman and believed he may have been carrying a mobile phone.
He said the killer “looked like” an e-fit produced by the female witness.
Another neighbour, Geoffrey Upfillbrown, also saw the killer and said the image looked “similar”, according to police notes.
A second key witness later said he was “80%” sure the man he saw near the scene was Ulemek.
Jill, 37, was ambushed from behind as she approached her front door.
She was killed instantly by a single bullet to her left temple.
At the time, Britain was bombing Serbia and Jill was one of the country’s best-known TV presenters.
She had fronted BBC shows including Crimewatch and Holiday.
Within hours of her murder, the BBC received a call claiming it was linked to a NATO attack on a Belgrade TV station.
There were also fears Jill had been targeted because she fronted a BBC appeal for Kosovan refugees 20 days before her death.
Nearly a year later, detectives focused on local man Barry George.
George, now 65, spent eight years behind bars after being convicted of Jill’s murder.
He was cleared at a retrial in 2008.
The case was moved to “inactive” in 2015 following a forensic review.
Ulemek is serving a 40-year sentence in Serbia after being convicted of helping to plan the assassinations of former Serbian president Ivan Stambolic in 2000 and prime minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003.
George is currently facing trial over historical sex charges.
The Met investigation into Jill’s murder remains ongoing.