Princess Di's Death to Be (Kinda) Reinvestigated

Nearly 16 years after Princess Di died in that fatal car accident in Paris, British media is reporting the possibility that maybe, just maybe, it wasn't an accident after all.

Scotland Yard announced earlier this weekend that they will be examining the "relevance and credibility" of information they have newly received about the deaths of the 36-year-old Princess of Wales, her boyfriend Dodi Fayed, and their driver, in August of 1997.

Although Scotland Yard is refusing to provide any concrete details about the examination they'll be conducting, British media outlets claim the assessment was sparked by a letter written by the estranged in-laws of a Special Air Service soldier. The letter apparently said the operative had boasted that the SAS “was behind Princess Diana’s death” in conversations he'd had with his with his ex-wife. He also allegedly said the unit had “arranged” the killing, and that this had all been “covered up”.

In a statement Saturday, Scotland Yard stressed that they won't be formally reopening the investigation, but will handing the information to specialized detectives.

"The assessment will be carried out by officers from the specialist crime and operations command. This is not a reinvestigation and does not come under Operation Paget," the spokesman said.

“On April 7, 2008, the jury concluded their verdict as 'unlawful killing, grossly negligent driving of the following vehicles and of the Mercedes’,” he added.

But their decision to conduct an examination into the new claims suggests that they are being taken quite seriously.

A senior military official told The Daily Beast, however, that they were doubtful anything would come from the information.

“This allegation was made after a marriage had broken down, based purely on comments that were, rightly or wrongly, taken seriously. That’s if they were ever said at all,” he said. “The case of Princess Diana has had a lot of conspiracy theories bandied about around it—and I’m sure this won’t be the last.”

Of course, Twitter has its own theories:

[Image: Sougata Ghosh via Flickr]