Muriel McKay (left) was murdered 57 years ago, but her remains have never been found, despite extensive searches for her (Picture: PA/Shutterstock)
A bone has been found near a betting shop where a woman is believed to have been buried 57 years ago.
Muriel McKay, the wealthy wife of newspaper executive Alick McKay, was kidnapped for a £1 million ransom in 1969 after being mistaken for Anna Murdoch, the then-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
Two men, Nizamodeen Hosein, with his brother Arthur, were convicted of her murder in 1970.
Now a bone, measuring about nine inches long and a couple of inches wide, has been found near a betting shop in east London where her family believe she was buried.
The Metropolitan Police told Metro: ‘Police are aware of reports surrounding the discovery of a single bone in the garden of a property in Bethnal Green Road, Hackney. The bone was uncovered on Friday, 20 March, during an independent search.
‘Officers attended the scene assisted by forensic colleagues who have determined the bone does not belong to a human.’
Following their conviction 56 years ago, the Hosein brothers refused to tell police where they buried her body – a secret Arthur took to his grave.
But in 2024, Nizamodeen told Muriel’s daughter, Dianne, and her grandson, Mark Dyer, where he hid her body, which was at a farm near Stocking Pelham, in Hertfordshire, where she was held hostage.
A police search team dig in an area of Stocking Farm, formerly known as Rooks Farm, in Stocking Pelham, Hertfordshire in 2022. No remains ended up being found in the farm (Picture: Peter MacDiarmid/Shutterstock)
After a dig was carried out, no remains were found. But over a year later, new information came to light suggesting that her body was buried near a betting shop in Bethnal Green Road, east London, prompting her family to urge for a dig to be carried out.
In a statement to Sky News, Mr Dyer said: ‘It would be a great outcome to end this ghastly mystery for our whole family and all of those who’ve been interested enough to follow our story.’
Last year, the dig ended up in the courts after homeowners refused to allow access for their garden to be dug up.
In November, barristers for two of her children, Ian McKay and Dianne Levinson, asked a judge to order that the homeowners of two neighbouring properties on Bethnal Green Road allow them to conduct a ‘ground-penetrating radar survey’ of a shared back garden.
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But Mr Justice Richard Smith stated that he would not allow it to go ahead, on the basis that ‘evidence of the presence of Muriel McKay’s remains at the premises, such as it is presently, seems thin’.
Alex McKay with his wife Muriel and family at Buckingham Palace in 1965 (Photo by Zola Bela/Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix via Getty Images)
Concluding his judgment, the judge said he would have also refused the injunction on the basis of ‘egregious conduct’ towards the neighbours from Ms McKay’s family, including her grandson, Mark Dyer.
He added that this included ‘threats, deception, dishonesty, lies, bullying and harassment.’
Mr Dyer said at the time this was a ‘complete exaggeration’, adding: ‘It’s a cheap shot at us to win the narrative and there’s no evidence to that.’
Responding to the comments at the press conference, Mr Dyer said: ‘We’ve always behaved very well. We’re not a bunch of yobbos – we’re civil people.’
Metro understands the bone was found during an independent search.
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