Bromsgrove pizza shop owner murdered wife and dumped her body in unmarked grave
A pizza shop owner has been found guilty of murdering his wife and leaving her in an unmarked grave – which went undiscovered by police for more than six months, despite extensive searches.
Nezam Salangy, 44, was found guilty at Worcester Crown Court of killing his spouse of eight years Zobaidah Salangy, on March 28 2020, then burying her in woodland near Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, under the cover of darkness.
Salangy’s younger brothers; Mohammed Yasin, 34, and 31-year-old Mohammed Ramin Salangy – who worked in another pizza shop, were also convicted alongside their older brother of helping him to cover up the crime.
Ramin travelled 90 miles by cab from his and Yasin’s home in Adamscroft Place, Cardiff, Wales, to help bury the victim.
Zobaidah disappeared on March 28, 2020, but her remains were not found by West Mercia Police until October that year, buried on the outskirts of Bromsgrove.
Salangy, of Talbot Road, Bromsgrove, later reported his wife missing to police, telling them "she had gone out for a run and never come back", after leaving him for a "new boyfriend", prosecutors said.
Opening the Crown’s case, at the start of the six-week trial, Simon Denison QC said it was an "unfortunate fact" of the case that Mrs Salangy’s body was initially missed by police, when a first dig at the site near the Worcestershire village of Lower Bentley took place in April 2020.
Nezam Salangy's brother told police he 'put his wife's body in back of his car'
During the murder trial, Mohammed Ramin Salangy told police he saw his brother Nezam Salangy put the body of his wife in the back of his car.
Ramin was being interviewed by detectives after Zobaidah Salangy's disappearance when he said "he brought her down and had flattened the back seat to put her in", the court heard.
Mohammed Ramin’s police interviews were read out at the murder trial in Worcester Crown Court on April 11.
Mohammed Ramin described how in the middle of the night, Nezam and him went to Prego Pizza, in Austin Road, and his brother put Zobaidah's body in the back of his small white car before taking her “somewhere”.
"I didn’t see her face,” added Mohammed Ramin.
"She was in a house above the shop. He brought her down and had flattened the back seat to put her in."
None of the men visibly reacted as the verdicts were read, but as he left the dock in the care of security guards, Nezam Salangy stared at several West Mercia Police detectives who had conducted the investigation, telling them "you guys framed me".