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Search for Dando video breakthrough

Police believe their prime suspect may have fled to Putney Bridge tube station following a bungled attempt to escape by car.

On Wednesday, detectives revealed that a bus driver, who picked up a passenger resembling the E-fit of the suspect, remembered dropping him off near the station.

Police are now hoping to isolate security camera pictures of the man and a possible accomplice who was seen driving a blue Range Rover away from the scene of the murder.

But Detective Chief Inspector Hamish Campbell, who is leading the investigation, said the "unascertainable" motive for the popular presenter's murder was hindering progress in the inquiry.

He made another appeal for further help from the public and urged people to come forward no matter how insignificant the information they have may seem.

Mr Campbell revealed fresh leads in the case at the inquest into Ms Dando's death, which opened and adjourned on Wednesday at Hammersmith and Fulham Coroner's Court in west London.

He told the inquest a man resembling an E-fit of the suspect was seen getting on a number 74 bus at 1145 BST - just after the former Crimewatch presenter was shot near her west London home on 26 April.

The man was reportedly sweating heavily and speaking into a mobile phone when he boarded the bus on Fulham Palace Road.

The bus lead came as police made contact with several people who were standing at a bus-stop minutes after the shooting and near where her suspected killer was spotted.

Another witness described a man "running for all his life" from near Miss Dando's home on Gowan Avenue to nearby Bishop's Park.

He was reportedly almost hit by a van on his way across Fulham Palace Road.

Police have been distributing leaflets near Miss Dando's home in an effort to jog people's memories.

Detectives are still trying to trace her movements on the morning of the day she died.

They want to know what she did between shopping on Fulham Road and the Kings Mall shopping centre in Hammersmith, west London, and the fatal shooting on the doorstep of her home.

Security camera footage shows the 37-year-old wearing a beige raincoat, red button-up jacket, black trousers and boots, and carrying a white carrier bag in her left hand, with a black handbag over her right shoulder.

Relevant Stories

Sophie 'under guard' after murder (05 May 99 | UK)
Dando pictures bring 'stream of calls' (03 May 99 | UK)
Dando 'may have known killer' (02 May 99 | UK)
Dando police 'examine second murder' (01 May 99 | UK)
Clues to the Dando murder (30 Apr 99 | UK)
Police reveal Dando suspect (30 Apr 99 | UK)
BBC presenter shot dead (26 Apr 99 | UK)

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