Mystery of Diana, Dodi, the fatal crash and the missing photographs

It is the last great mystery surrounding the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. On Saturday, it will be five years since she lay in the wreckage of a Mercedes in a Paris road tunnel, a scene photographed by some of the pack of paparazzi who had been pursuing her. It is known that the police failed to impound all of their film. But none of the photographs have ever become public.

"The pictures exist, because they were transmitted digitally,'' said Göksin Sipahioglu. The owner of the Sipa news agency in Paris is convinced that, sooner or later, they will be published.

As yet, picture agencies and newspapers agree, the market is not ''ready'' for shots of the fatal crash in the Tunnel de l'Alma that killed three of the four occupants of the car – Dodi al-Fayed, the princess, and the driver, Henri Paul. Only the bodyguard Trevor Rees-Jones survived, and is quietly rebuilding his life after the events of 31 July 1997 thrust him into the international spotlight.

The glare of publicity which always followed Diana became white-hot after an Italian paparazzo, Mario Brenna, got the first photographs of her with Dodi on a yacht in the Mediterranean. In a deal brokered by Jason Fraser, the celebrity photographer and agent, the Sunday Mirror paid some £250,000 for just the British rights to a set of pictures which showed that the Princess of Wales was having an affair with the son of the Harrods owner, Mohamed al-Fayed.

With that kind of money on offer, freelance photographers converged on the couple. The Mercedes S-280 was travelling at 60mph over the speed limit as Henri Paul tried vainly to shake them off, and the paparazzi were the first on the scene when he lost control and crashed.

One of the photographers opened a rear door – to see if he could give first aid, he later said. At least one of the others said he fired off several frames. On the night of the crash, the News of the World and other newspapers were offered – and saw on their screens in London – pictures taken by Laurent Sola's agency. The shots showed Dodi dead in the back seat of the Mercedes and Diana's body lying between the two front seats.

They were syndicated by Big Pictures, an agency in London, and negotiations were under way for the rights to publish them when news broke at about 3.30am London time that Diana had died. The price tag had reached several hundred thousand pounds when Sola withdrew his pictures from sale. Last week a spokeswoman for Big Pictures said: ''I can tell you, because it's the truth, we no longer have the pics.''

But Mr Sipahioglu believes the pictures have almost certainly been stored on computers around the world. ''You can forget about negatives," he said. "When you're dealing with digital images, as in this case, once they are sent, they are out there.''

The day after the crash, the German tabloid Bild published a blurred picture apparently showing occupants of a wrecked car surrounded by emergency workers, but it was denounced as a fake, as were grislier pictures which circulated on the internet. US tabloids such as the Globe and the National Enquirer backed off when supermarkets said they would refuse to sell newspapers that carried photographs of the crash.

With the anniversary looming, however, rumours persist in Paris that pictures of the accident are being offered around. No one admits to having seen the images, however, and British newspapers are categorical that they would not be interested in running them.

Because the crash happened in France, one likely market for the pictures is excluded. French privacy legislation prevents magazines like Paris-Match, which did not scruple to publish gruesome autopsy pictures of Robert Maxwell, from doing the same in this case. The stills were taken from a video of the disgraced publisher's second autopsy in Tel Aviv after he drowned at sea off Tenerife.

But those who know the market believe that, sooner or later, a scandal sheet somewhere, possibly outside western Europe or north America, might summon up the nerve to publish – if the price is right. After sufficient time had passed, photographs of the movie icons Jayne Mansfield and James Dean after their fatal car crashes were deemed acceptable.

The potential value of such pictures is demonstrated by the unique footage of President John F Kennedy's assassination in Dallas in 1963, filmed on a home movie camera by Abraham Zapruder, a dress manufacturer. The 8mm strip of celluloid sold for $150,000 to Life magazine, which published individual frames but did not allow the film to be screened its entirety. The Zapruder family regained the film in 1975, and in the following two decades earned them another $650,000 before an arbitration panel determined that they should receive $16m in compensation for the footage being declared the property of the nation.

At the time, no one shrank from reproducing the Zapruder pictures, possibly because their shock value was lessened by their blurred quality. Crystal-clear stills of Diana's final moments are another matter, however. Nearly five years have passed since her death – but how much longer will the taboo last?

It's five years since Princess Diana died, but the merchandise keeps coming

The book

Diana: Closely Guarded Secret Tawdry revelations of the Princess's relationships with James Hewitt and Oliver Hoare by ex-bodyguard Ken Wharfe. Price: £18.99.

The DVD

Diana – The People's Princess Released tomorrow by Warner Vision. Has an extra 20 minutes "Poignant Moments". Running time: 198 min. Price: £19.99.

The ballet

Diana, the Princess. Created by Peter Schaufuss, former artistic director of the English National Ballet. British ballerina Zara Deakin performs the title role. The world premiere will be on 14 September in Aarhus, Denmark. Price: tickets from £3.45.

The cake

A piece of Diana's wedding cake goes under the hammer at Dominic Winter Book Auctions in Swindon on Wednesday. Price: Expected to reach up to £500

The stamps

Six federated states of Micronesia stamps have been published, with portraits of the Princess plus one souvenir sheet with Diana wearing a hat. Designer: Ron Rundo. Price: 39p and £1.32