Jill Dando's neighbour relives horrifying moment she discovered newsreader shot ... trends now

When Jill Dando's friend and neighbour found her dead outside her home, she was left with traumatic memories that still haunt her.

Twenty-five years ago today, on April 26, 1999, the much loved presenter of Crimewatch was shot dead by an unknown gunman.

TV producer Helen Doble, now 64, who lived just two streets away from her friend in Fulham, West London, had spotted Ms Dando's car outside her home and so made a point of looking at her door to see if she was there to chat.

Ms Dando, who mainly lived with her fiancéAlan Farthing at his home, had called in to her own house in what is believed to have been a spur of the moment decision - and was shot dead by an unknown gunman. 

'Taking in the horror, it took me a few seconds to realise that the person slumped on the doorstep and sprawled on the tiny path was actually Jill herself because she looked like… that,' Ms Doble told MailOnline.

'Many details are too graphic, but instinctively I knew she was dead.'

She added that Jill's 'beautiful engagement ring' - which she said represented the 'hope, dreams and optimism for her future - was still on her finger.

Ms Dando's mobile phone - which was lying on the ground - kept ringing and Ms Doble wanted to answer it in the belief that it might be her fiancé, but knew that to do so would be to disturb the blood-covered crime scene.

It was therefore bitterly ironic that, in their efforts to save Jill's life - despite it being apparent that she was dead - it was paramedics who destroyed vital evidence by entering the scene to try to resuscitate her. 

Ms Dando's murder prompted a huge investigation led by the Metropolitan Police which resulted in Barry George - a local loner and fantasist who had already served a prison sentence for attempted rape - being convicted of her murder in July 2001.

The evidence against him had included a seemingly damning photograph that was found in his home.

A man that police were convinced was George was seen menacingly dressed in a leather jacket and gas mask, with a blank-firing pistol in hand.

The image was found with thousands of other photographs of hundreds of women George had stalked on the streets of West London.

Officers also found a single grain of gunshot residue in his coat pocket.

But he was granted a retrial on appeal and was acquitted by a jury in August 2008.

Ms Doble is still haunted by what she saw, but in an effort to keep Jill's memory alive, she agreed to talk about what she experienced.

She said: 'With one step, everything changed on that dreadful day 25 years ago.

'One moment I was walking my usual route along a lovely leafy residential road in Fulham, and the next moment, with no time to prepare, in broad daylight, I saw the most terrible scene.'

'Back then I'd only ever seen one person soon after what was a peaceful death in a hospital setting,' she continued. 

'Here, I was first on the scene, a violent scene, and I was subsequently told that I got there almost a quarter of an hour after Jill had been murdered, and it's grim but suffice to say a lot happens in that elapse of time.

'Things don't happen like in the movies, I didn't scream, I got my mobile out of my bag, put in the pin and dialled 999.

'I thought Jill had been stabbed due to the amount of blood – which explains those early reports.

'Processing what I was seeing, I knew it wasn't a robbery, Jill's handbag was still there amongst other things, but most poignantly her beautiful engagement ring – full of hope, dreams and optimism for her future – was still on her finger.

'Whoever murdered Jill had shut the gate when they left.

'I didn't open it to go to her, it was clear to me that it was already too late.

'It's a tiny distance from the pavement to her front door, I could see without disturbing the desperate scene.

'Again instinctively I believed the scene should be protected, made harder still when Jill's mobile rang and each time I wanted to rush in and answer it in case it was her fiancé Alan Farthing or her family who should have been able to know before the news broke.