Muriel McKay: Killer gave 'inconsistent' detail on body's location before farm search - police

Specialist police teams have left the Hertfordshire where they have been digging for the past week in the search for the remains of Muriel McKay

A family’s plea to fly a murderer back to the UK to help find his victim’s body, 54 years after she was killed, were rejected because of inconsistencies in the information he gave, police have said.

Specialist police teams have been digging at farm in Hertfordshire over the past week, based on information from one of the men convicted of kidnapping and murdering Muriel McKay.

The teams did not find a body nor any evidence of the crimes during their search of the rural property near Bishop's Stortford, leaving the family keen to bring the killer, Nizamodeen Hosein, to the UK to pinpoint the exact location.

However, investigators have withdrawn their search teams and said the details that Hosein gave them about the whereabouts of Ms McKay’s body were wrong.

Det Supt Katherine Goodwin of the Met Police said: “I want to express our sincere condolences to her family and friends, as this is not the outcome we wanted.

"However, what we can now conclusively say is the information given by Hosein in the last two years is not correct.

"Muriel is not in the location that he has indicated.”

On whether he should have been brought back to the UK to help with the search, which the family had pushed for, she said: “If we thought there was a reasonable chance that he might be able to point out the true location, then this would be beneficial to the investigation.

"However, sadly, I don’t believe this to be the case. He’s already provided us with quite a lot of detailed information about the location of Muriel, which has unfortunately been proven to be incorrect.”

The land now looks very different from the time of the murder, which casts further doubt on whether he would be able to help.

Ms McKay, 55, the wealthy wife of newspaper executive Alick McKay, was kidnapped and held ransom for £1m in 1969.

The brothers who kidnapped her had mistaken her for Anna Murdoch, the then-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.

Ms McKay disappeared in December 1969 and was traced to Stocking Farm near Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire, but her body has never been found.

The farm was searched at the time of the murder, in 2022, and again for several days last week, but nothing was found.

Her family’s hopes had been raised by information given by Hosein, who was interviewed by relatives and then by Metropolitan Police detectives at his home in Trinidad and Tobago.

He was in contact with police as recently as Monday morning with what he claimed was new information about where the body may be found.

As a convicted murderer who was deported after serving his prison sentence, he cannot enter the UK without permission from the Home Office.

Det Supt Goodwin added: "Bringing a convicted murderer who’s been permanently deported from the UK is something that has a high threshold and is not something that we should look to do lightly.

“We would only seek to do it in exceptional circumstances if it was operationally required.

”In the the latest eight-day search at the farm, 33 specialist search officers were used, with forensic experts and archaeologists, but the dig was fruitless."

There were inconsistencies in Hosein’s accounts when he was interviewed by detectives over three days earlier this year, said police.

Det Supt Goodwin said: “It could be he forgets things, it could be there’s certain bits he’s not proud of and actually doesn’t want to be truthful about so deliberately withholds.

“It could be a combination of factors, or there could be a far worse reason why he enjoys this process. We just don’t know.”

Commander Steve Clayman expressed the force’s “absolute, heartfelt sympathy” for the family and friends of Ms McKay as he said the latest search for her remains had been unsuccessful.

He said: “I know they’ve done everything they can possible to try and find her remains so that she can have a respectful burial following the horrific kidnap and murder.

"We shared with them earlier today that the final search, which concluded this morning, unfortunately, was unable to locate Muriel, and the whole team are disappointed that this was the outcome.”

In 2022, 30 police officers, ground penetrating radar and specialist forensic archaeologists took part in the search.

Hosein and his brother Arthur were convicted of her kidnap and murder, and Arthur died in prison in 2009.

Investigators had to persuade the current landowner to allow a further search at the farm, having previously agreed that the dig in 2022 would be a one-off.

They remapped where the manure heap would have been on the site in 1969, used details given by Hosein, and had members of Ms McKay’s family visit the farm four times during the search.

“We have deep regret we didn’t find Muriel,” Mr Clayman said.

"I can see and feel what the family has gone through over the years, and the amount of time and energy they put in is absolutely clear.

“And this is taking nothing away from that and our sympathy is heartfelt. But there has to be a point in which we have to say we’ve now done what we can do.”

The family have told ITV News they will continue to push for answers.

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