Did skydiver who fell 13,000 feet to his death cut the straps on his own parachute?

Stephen Hilder grinned broadly at his two friends' shaky camcorder and flashed a thumbs-up as their SMG Turbo Finist light aircraft circled up to 13,000ft where they leaped out over Lincolnshire. For Stephen that was the start of a horrifying plunge reaching 120mph as his sabotaged parachute tore from four deliberately severed straps.

The resulting murder inquiry has seen 10 months' relentless investigation into what police called a "uniquely terrible crime" with all 4,500 skydivers in Britain questioned and three men arrested on suspicion of arranging the killing - two of them the young army cadet's best friends.

But yesterday a different but equally chilling picture emerged from a microscopic sheaf of nylon and reinforced strap fibres plus DNA from Stephen's sweat found on household scissors bundled in clothes in the boot of his car. Detectives backtracked on their long hunt for a murderer to say that Stephen was undoubtedly present when his parachute was sabotaged in a locked shed the night before his death.

They are not yet ready to say as much publicly, but they believe that he made the cuts himself. In the traditional formula used before a coroner's inquest takes place, Detective Superintendent Colin Andrews told a press conference in Hull: "I am satisfied that we are now not looking for anyone else."

The full story will only be unravelled later this year before North Lincolnshire's coroner in Scunthorpe, across the flat fields from Hibaldstow's ramshackle former bomber airfield where Stephen died. Until then, evidence from friends - which detectives are not releasing for legal reasons but which will go before the inquest jury - has led to the death being classified as "unexplained" rather than suicide.

Witnesses are expected to give details going back to the ambitious and fiercely competitive graduate's youth, possibly including recent religious experience and focusing on socialising within a tightly knit group of cadets and their rivals the week before the tragedy.

Hilder was one of a group from the Defence Academy at Shrivenham who camped at Hibaldstow for the annual national collegiate skydiving contest, which his team was leading when the tragedy took place on July 4.

Evidence garnered from thousands of interviews includes a video of Hilder dancing in a blonde wig and black strappy dress the night before he fell 13,000ft. He had also bought drink for the evening on an unexpected outing to Scunthorpe.

"He was neither drunk nor under the influence of drugs when he died," Det Supt Andrews told the media at Humberside police headquarters in Cottingham, near Hull. "But he had been drinking the evening before."

Significant material has also been supplied by Hilder's two best friends and companions on the final jump, who broke formation with him 4,000ft above Hibaldstow's weed-fringed runway. Both were arrested on suspicion of murder. But although one of them, 20-year-old Adrian Blair, a pallbearer at Hilder's funeral, has been so affected that he dropped out of his Shrivenham course, both have backed police action throughout, according to Det Supt Andrews.

Arguments about fights over a girlfriend earlier in the cadet's student career may also return to the centre of the case, although Det Supt Andrews emphasised that he had found nothing indicating that Hilder was thinking of suicide. He was also cautious about further details of forensic evidence although the fibres, he said, could only have come from the point where the sabotage was done.

"It is now in the hands of the coroner and it would be inappropriate for me to speculate," he said. "I am not being evasive or wanting to be unhelpful, but I can't go into more details about matters which will be discussed at the inquest."

Hilder's parents, Paul and Mary, and his sister Kate issued a joint statement saying that they were also keeping an open mind until the inquest. They said: "Steve could be stubborn, selfish and infuriating but he was also loving, supportive and popular. Nothing in 10 months of intensive investigation has been found to challenge this or tarnish his memory."

The mother of Mr Blair, who was arrested with Hilder's other jumping mate, David Mason, asked why it had taken police so long to rule out murder. Speaking from her home in Cornwall, Hilarie Blair said she and other friends had been convinced the cadets were innocent "from day one".

Det Supt Andrews said the investigation had been unique - although a Hollywood film called Drop Zone features a skydiver who falls to his death on July 4 because of a sabotaged parachute.

He said: "We followed forensic advice throughout in an inquiry which involved analysis of more than 200 items and a very large number of interviews. It has been a long process but our methods have been supported throughout by outside reviews."

The breakthrough came a month ago when fibre analysis linked the scissors to the sliced straps and cords. Det Supt Andrews said the scissors had been found on the evening of Hilder's death, but were not sent for analysis until six months later because the pack and the cadet's clothing were seen as priorities. Lengthy tests for DNA, which ultimately proved important corroboration, were also organised first.

"We were initially told that these scissors, which are ordinary ones, could not cut through parachute straps," he said. "We were also told that cut straps would not shed fibres. In fact the scissors were capable of cutting and there were fibres - a lot of them."

Hilder, who had made 200 jumps, took up skydiving at Bristol university, after passing A-levels at the army's Welbeck College and before enrolling for a pre-Sandhurst management and logistics course at Shrivenham.

"He'd get withdrawal symptoms if he hadn't jumped for a few days," said his girlfriend Ruth Woodhouse, 24, of Stafford, who was a fellow student at Shrivenham. "But the guy was my boy, my friend, and I'll miss him."

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