New search launched for body of woman kidnapped, killed 54 years ago after being mistaken for Rupert Murdoch's wife
U.K. police on Monday launched a fresh search for the body of a woman kidnapped and murdered over 50 years ago after being mistaken for the wife of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.
A police team including forensic archaeologists will scour a farm north of London for the third time after one of the men convicted of the kidnapping reportedly revealed the location of victim Muriel McKay's body.
Officers searched Stocking Farm in Stocking Pelham at the time of the murder and again in 2022, with the help of ground-penetrating radar and specialist forensic archaeologists, BBC News reported. Nothing new was found.
London's Metropolitan Police said a no-fly zone would be in place over Stocking farm near the town of Bishop's Stortford to "protect the integrity of the search and dignity for the deceased should remains be found."
Brothers Nizamodeen and Arthur Hosein kidnapped McKay, then 55, in 1969 for a £1 million ransom -- the equivalent now to $18 million -- thinking that she was Murdoch's second wife Anna.
The brothers had followed Murdoch's Rolls-Royce unaware he had lent it to his deputy Alick McKay, Muriel's husband.
They were convicted of murder and kidnap after a 1970 trial, but denied killing the newspaper executive's wife and refused to reveal where she was buried.
Nizamodeen served 20 years in prison and was then deported to Trinidad, while his brother Arthur died in prison in the U.K. in 2009.
Nizamodeen Hosein, however, last December gave McKay's family a sworn statement confirming the location of the body, telling them he wanted his "conscience to be clear," the Murdoch-owned Times newspaper reported.
He has previously claimed McKay collapsed and died while watching a television news report about her kidnapping.
McKay's grandson, Mark Dryer, told BBC News the focus of the latest search would be an area behind a barn that has not been dug before.
"If we don't find her it will be a disappointment, but it won't be unexpected. But without searching for something you're never going to find it," he said.
"We haven't dug behind the barn, no one's ever dug behind the barn," he added.
The search is expected to take around five days but could be extended.
Speaking to Jane MacSorley and Simon Farquhar for BBC Radio 4's new podcast "Intrigue: Worse Than Murder," Muriel's son Ian McKay said after his mother was abducted, the family received countless calls from people including strangers and crank callers.
"We were absolutely dying a thousand deaths every day because we were hanging on every telephone call," Ian McKay said. "This was the most incredible and torturous experience you can imagine - this just didn't happen over a few days. This went on for weeks."