Duane Bertrand was killed in a case of mistaken identity

SOMETIMES you see a blood-stained crime drama on television, and think how improbable it should be that a gun-blazing gang member coldly kills and then disappears into another scene, without ever being detected by police.

But it happens. There is a whole file of frozen cases at Scotland Yard which will only be dusted down if somebody breaks an old allegiance or a new piece of evidence comes to light.

One which is rarely talked about as the years pass is the shocking murder of Duane Bertrand 25 years ago today, Friday.

The DJ was found shot dead in his car in the area where King’s Cross meets Bloomsbury, having been tailed by what can only be described as an assassin on a drive through central London in October 2001.

It’s horrific that his killer has seemingly escaped justice, and even more so that detectives always said that this had been a case of mistaken identity.

Duane was not mixed up in gangs, and the real target is believed to be somebody he lent his
car to.

There are hardly any newspaper clippings about his death amid a period when London saw several murders using guns. Duane’s mother, Marie, attended a march as mothers of those who had died asked for more police resources to be made available.

When cases pile up, it’s hard to imagine that detectives have infinite time to crack every investigation and it’s often felt that if arrests and charges don’t come quickly, then there is a risk that they might never come at all.

Then the one-year anniversary appeal becomes a two-year appeal, before the case is only mentioned on big number anniversaries and then not at all.

Harrington may be proved wrong, but doubts there will be a media event marking today’s grim milestone.

We are well past the stage where relatives and loved ones can believe that a detective is coming in every day and dedicating time to catching this particular killer.

It’s why our newspapers often recap on cases like this; a pricked conscience has changed the story before.

Men who thought they got away with murder have sometimes been hauled before a court years or decades after their crime, although even the most hopeful might see that phrase “there’s no time limit on justice” as a little double-edged.

Yes, people go to jail for historic crimes, but at the same time nobody can wait for ever, often hoping in vain, for the closure that a conviction can contribute towards.

Detectives retire, new officers without the same institutional memory come in, a natural if unhelpful revolve.

Meanwhile, Duane’s killer is probably in his mid-40s now, perhaps pushing 50. Perhaps he went to prison for something else, perhaps he’s died, perhaps he’s got a family and is living a normal life. Perhaps he’s living on the other side of the world.

Nobody knows what happened to them, but they might at least feel a little sweaty around the collar if police made unsolved murder cases and appeals constantly accessible.

In the modern world of the internet and social media, detectives don’t need to rely on us local newspaper guys to keep the flame alight on unsolved murders with columns like this.

It wouldn’t take much resource to constantly remind the killers that the death of somebody like Duane has not been forgotten, wherever they are.

There should be anniversary posts, and reminder appeals. No twisted loyalty to a killer will ever be snapped if everybody thinks the case has been forgotten.

So, here’s the million-to-one chance that somebody seeing this article might finally do the right thing, if they are reminded of the circumstances, and reminded too that an innocent young man had his life taken away just as it was really starting.

Fiona Bruce hosts a Crimewatch UK appeal in 2004

A good place to start would be a rewatch of the Crimewatch UK appeal, which went out on
BBC One in November 2004, around the third anniversary. It is still on YouTube, and remains one of the only places where the likely sequence of events is laid out.

Duane, described as a man with no enemies and “living for his music”, had spent that evening handing out flyers for a friend’s band. He and his friends grabbed a bite at McDonald’s in Leicester Square, then he drove up towards Tottenham Court Road and out to King’s Cross to drop one of them home.

CCTV showed he was being followed. Five seconds behind him was a black VW Golf. Thirty seconds back, and catching up, was a black BMW 3 Series. Detectives said the Golf had gone by the time the fatal shots were fired from the BMW into Duane’s car.

“We are certain it was a case of mistaken identity,” Detective Inspector Scott Wilson, of the Met’s Trident gun crime team, told viewers. Police had a strong suspect and quite a bit of evidence, he said, and needed just a little more to tip the scales.

And a £10,000 reward was offered.

And then there as Marie, who said: “At least if someone is convicted, we can put it to rest. Every year when the time comes around, it comes back.”

The time has now come around 25 times.