The murder investigation into the shooting of former Westcountry journalist Jill Dando has been shut down after a £500,000 forensic review failed to find new evidence, according to reports.
Ms Dando, who was born in Weston-super-Mare in Somerset in 1961, was killed by a single bullet to her head outside her West London home in April 1999.
Barry George spent eight years in prison after being convicted of her murder in 2001.
He was acquitted at a retrial in August 2008 but failed in a High Court bid earlier this year which could have opened the way for him to claim an award of up to £500,000 for lost earnings and wrongful imprisonment. Two judges rejected his claim that the Justice Secretary unfairly and unlawfully decided he was "not innocent enough to be compensated".
It has now emerged that since Mr George's acquittal, Scotland Yard has paid £587,383 to privately run firm LGC Forensics for the review of the investigation.
Experts subjected dozens of exhibits from the scene, including Ms Dando's clothing, to state-of-the-art tests. But the detailed forensic review, the costs of which were revealed in a Freedom of Information request, concluded after having failed to establish new lines of inquiry.
The Metropolitan Police refused to comment on whether the review by LGC Forensics had uncovered any new leads. It did, however, confirm that there are no officers currently working full-time on the case.
A spokesman said: "This case remains unsolved and, as with all unsolved cases, any new information that comes to us would be examined.
"All unsolved cases remain open. Our aim is always to try to solve all murders."
A number of former officers who worked on the murder case are said to doubt whether Scotland Yard will ever be able to prove who killed Ms Dando.
According to the Daily Mail, hopes of a new forensic breakthrough were hampered by what happened immediately after Miss Dando was blasted in the head at point-blank range.
Although she was killed instantly, paramedics removed some of her clothes and trod on potentially crucial evidence in a vain effort to resuscitate her.
A popular presenter, Ms Dando was at the height of her fame, fronting both Holiday and Crimewatch UK, when she died.
She started her career as a trainee reporter at the Weston and Somerset Mercury in 1979. During her career, she had also worked at BBC Radio Devon in Exeter and ITV's TSW, before joining BBC Spotlight in Plymouth.
