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'Please can you let me dig up her body': Muriel McKay's grandson pleads with the Met commissioner for ‘closure’
17 January 2024, 08:59
Muriel McKay’s grandson has pleaded with Met commissioner Sir Mark Rowley to let him collect her remains from where he believes she was buried so his family can have closure.
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Speaking on LBC's Call the Commissioner, Mark Dyer requested the Met grant a search warrant for the farm where he believes the body of his grandmother was buried.
Ms McKay, 55, was kidnapped and held for ransom for £1 million by brothers Nizamodeen and Arthur Hosein in 1969.
She was the wife of Australian newspaper executive, Alick, who was Rupert Murdoch's deputy.
The brothers had meant to kidnap Murdoch’s former wife, Anna, but got the wrong person.
Ms McKay disappeared and was never found.
"Sir Mark, I'd like to ask you if I could collect my grandmother from Stocking Farm in Stocking Pelham," Mr Dyer said, arguing that there is "compelling" evidence to back the move.
Sir Mark said: "Muriel McKay's body was never found and for her loved ones and her family clearly that is massively upsetting.
"We would love to bring closure and do that. We have already done a search at the location, quite an extensive search in the last couple of years.
"The information is coming from one of the people who were convicted but it's not entirely consistent and it keeps changing.
"If and when we get concrete evidence we will be prepared to go back there."
Sir Mark went on to explain: "We've had cases with other murderers in prison who try to get attention by telling stories and being inconsistent in what they say...
"We've already done a limited search at the premises based on what we were told previously and if we can narrow it down to be sufficiently concrete about where we need to look then we will get a warrant and we will do it."
He continued: "We haven't ruled it out, we are trying to get there, but we need to do it as far as the law allows."
It comes after the landowner turned down a £40,000 offer from the family of Ms McKay to dig up the site where they believe she was buried.
The family hand-delivered a letter to the owner of the Hertfordshire farm earlier this week, but the offer was refused.
Scotland Yard told the family: “We have had contact from the [landowner] family and the indication is that they will not accept your offer and would prefer contact to be via us.”
The owner agreed to allow the Metropolitan Police to dig up a small part of the farm last year but nothing was found. The family believes the police searched in the wrong place.
Ms McKay’s family previously offered £40,000 to her killer, Nizamodeen Hosein, to reveal the details of the 1969 kidnap and murder.
Hosein, who has since been released from prison, revealed the location of her body without taking the sum.
He has since offered to come back to the UK to reveal the exact spot where she was buried, though this would require Home Office approval following his deportation in 1990.
