TV true-crime show Crimewatch was first broadcast on June 7, 1984, and at its peak attracted some 14 million viewers.
Because of its huge ratings, the show was able to reach a vast number of potential witnesses, and Crimewatch has been credited with helping solve a number of high-profile cases, including the capture of Michael Sams, who murdered Julie Dart and kidnapped Stephanie Slater, as well as the identification of James Bulger killers Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, and the arrest of killer Kenneth Noye.
But for all its success, there are a handful of cases that the BBC1 show was never able to crack.
As co-presenter Nick Ross picks up a CBE at Windsor today for services to broadcasting, charity and crime prevention, we look back at Crimewatch’s darkest moments.
Suzy Lamplugh
Suzy Lamplugh, a 25-year-old estate agent from Fulham, in south-west London, was reported missing on July 28 1986.
In October of that year, a detailed reconstruction of her last known movements was broadcast on Crimewatch.
It showed how she left her office to show a property in Shorrolds Road to someone she knew as "Mr Kipper".
Although she was officially declared dead in 1993, her body has never been found, and her killer has not been brought to justice.
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In a rare and controversial step, the Metropolitan Police named a convicted killer and rapist, John Cannan, as their only suspect.
Cannan, who is currently in jail for other offences but is due for release this year, closely resembles the artist’s drawing made from a witness’s description of “Mr Kipper” which was shown on Crimewatch,
Cannan has hinted that he might confess to the murder of Lamplugh, but only after his mother dies, “to avoid causing her further grief.”
Lloyd Simpson
Twenty-six-year-old Lloyd Simpson worked at his family's waste paper business. Some time around November 5, 1983, attackers burst into his flat in Shoreditch, London, and shot him “execution style” before ransacking the apartment.
It’s believed that a nearby Guy Fawkes’ night firework display may have masked the sound of the gunshots.
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Theories around the murder included gangland involvement, some connection with Simpson’s sideline of buying and selling used cars, and an illegal dogfighting ring.
But despite Crimewatch’s fourth episode airing a detailed video reconstruction of Simpson’s last-known movements that featured his dad, Simpson’s killer was never identified.
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Louise and Robert Goble
Two Sussex children lost their lives in a horrifying arson attack in St. Helens Road in Hastings.
It was in the early hours of February 3, 1985, that a fire stared at the Goble family’s home. Two men were spotted taking an oil drum out of a van outside the house at around 2.45am.
The harrowing Crimewatch reconstruction showed how at least one arsonist broke into the house and started a fire on the stairs, blocking off the family’s sole route of escape.
Firefighters managed to rescue the children’s mother, Lee Goble, and her husband Robert, but for the children, it was too late.
No motive was ever established for the crime, and the killer, or killers, remain at large.
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Jill Dando
Of course, Crimewatch’s greatest mystery is the one that hit closest to home. On April 26, 1999, Nick Ross’s co-presenter Jill Dando was shot dead on the doorstep of her home in Fulham, London.
A huge Metropolitan Police investigation led to the arrest of Londoner Barry George, but after he had served eight years behind bars for murder an appeal court ruled the conviction unsafe and he was released.
As part of the case for his appeal, crusading lawyer Michael Mansfield said in court that there was evidence to suggest that feared Serbian warlord Arkan had hired a hitman to take out Dando, who was a prominent supporter of refugees from Kosovo as well as a “personification and embodiment of the BBC”.
But with Arkan being assassinated less than nine months after Jill Dando’s murder, the trail has gone cold and Crimewatch’s greatest case may never be solved.
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