Muriel’s son Ian, now 82, said the family endured “a thousand deaths” after she was taken from her home in Wimbledon, South West London, by Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein.“Then he said we want £1million to hand my mother back to us.”

“The main area is where a manure heap once stood — we know now this was larger than we ­previously thought and therefore that area was not entirely searched in 2022. Mr McKay initially worked for the Daily Mirror group in the UK, before going to work for Mr Murdoch in 1969, and was instrumental in helping the rebirth of The Sun. Twine identical to that found at the McKays’ home was discovered in the farmhouse, along with paper flowers.The family’s hopes for an answer to the mystery rest on younger kidnapper Nizamodeen — known as Nizam — who served 20 years in prison before being deported back to his native Trinidad.

“They were confused as they had never had a kidnapping in this ­country before.” The family were plagued by crank callers, many asking for money, which were mostly fielded by the McKays’ son Ian, who had flown from Australia to be with his father and two older sisters Dianne and Jenny.Newspaper executive’s wife Muriel, a 55-year-old mum-of-three with grandchildren, was taken by the brothers to Rook’s Farm, in Hertfordshire, and held to ransom for £1million — worth 18 times that figure today.Arthur’s prints also matched those found on a newspaper in the driveway of the Wimbledon address.

An internal door was damaged and a knife and twine was left on a desk. A bill hook was lying on the floor.He said: “This is a highly ­emotional time for all of us.Bizarrely, a male cop dressed as a woman posed as Dianne as there were no female officers available.One read: “Alick Darling, I am blindfolded and cold. Only blankets. Please do something to get me home.”

Ian told a BBC Radio 4 podcast: “We were absolutely dying a thousand deaths every day because we were hanging on every telephone call.””While we have concerns about inconsistencies in the account by Nizamodeen Hosein, for completeness we want to do this.”But there was no sign of Muriel.They took her inside the property on Arthur Road and grabbed her ­jewellery before driving Muriel two hours across London to Rook’s Farm.Elsa was visiting Germany with her children at the time Muriel was taken to the farm.At 1.15am the next morning, Nizam made a call to the house from a phone box in Epping, Essex, which Dianne answered.Nizam Hosein has now revealed that he and brother Arthur — who died in Ashworth high-security psychiatric hospital in 2009 — grabbed Muriel outside her home as she returned from a dental appointment.Met Police Commander Steve ­Clayman said: “Other areas have been highlighted as being of potential interest and it is these we will search.“This is earth-shattering stuff if we are able to find her after all this time.”A specialist police team ­yesterday began excavating a site at a farm where Muriel was taken after being abducted by two brothers in December 1969.

‘Blindfolded and cold’

Ian, 81, told The Sun then: “We are hoping to get some closure.The bungling Hosein brothers, of Trinidad-Indian heritage, had intended to kidnap Anna Murdoch, then wife of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch, who had relaunched The Sun as a tabloid a month earlier with the help of Muriel’s husband Alick McKay, his right-hand man.“My sister Dianne and her son Mark Dyer have done a ­wonderful job gathering evidence.Over the next 40 days, the Hoseins made a further 17 calls, some lasting an hour and a half, and sent four letters demanding money and posted three snippets of Muriel’s clothing. Police were hampered because numbers could not be traced in those days and the Daily Mirror had published the McKay home phone number on its front page. Mr McKay died in 1983 and his family have continued the quest to find Muriel’s body.We have endured a thousand deaths. This is earth-shattering stuff if we are able to find her after all this timeThe joint Met and Herts Police team are being assisted by archaeologists and forensic specialists and have brought in a mechanical digger.It was the first ever British murder ­prosecution in which no trace of the victim’s body had been found.The Hoseins’ older brother Adam, linked to organised crime in the US where he died in 2021, is said to have ordered Elsa to throw the jewellery in the Thames.The Hoseins sent notes purporting to be from Muriel.Arthur’s brother Nizam, 21 at that point, had come to the UK in June of that year and had a girlfriend, a nurse, who saw no sign of Muriel when she visited on January 1.

The previous search of the farm by the Met Police focused on three main areas and drew a blank.Hosein — who has turned down an offer of money from Muriel’s wealthy family for his account of events — said he ­buried Muriel in her coat in a 5ft hole dug at a dung heap before placing grass and soil on top of her.They were convicted at the Old Bailey of ­blackmail, kidnap and murder.A further attempt on February 6 failed when a couple unwittingly picked up the suitcases and handed them in to local police.Muriel’s daughter Dianne and grandson Mark visited Hosein earlier this year in the hope of pinning down the exact location where she was buried, and managed to entice further information from him.Muriel came to Britain from ­Australia in 1957 with husband Mr McKay, her childhood sweetheart in their home city of Adelaide.Ian got the Hoseins to reduce their demand and insisted on proof that his mother was still alive by asking them to get her to write down a headline from the Evening Standard. He claimed Muriel suffered a heart attack on New Year’s Eve, two days following her kidnapping, just after she had watched a TV appeal from her family and having been given powerful sedatives by the brothers.Two years ago, police carried out an initial search of the 12-acre site, now renamed Stocking ­Pelham Farm, which is on the edge of the Herts-Essex border, close to Bishop’s Stortford.Mr McKay called police and his three grown-up children.Previous checks of the site have been carried out with ground-penetrating radar and the police team will be sifting through the soil in the hope of finding Muriel’s remains.THE family of Muriel McKay, kidnapped and murdered almost 55 years ago, will today watch in hope as police carry out a final attempt to discover her remains.

They lobbied cops for a further search and detectives flew to Trinidad to interview Hosein, leading to this week’s excavation. Muriel’s son Ian

And it was discovered that registration checks had been made by Nizam on Mr Murdoch’s Rolls-Royce.She recalled: “He said, ‘We wanted Mrs Murdoch but have got your mother. We are M3. Mafia M3’.Retired publisher Ian McKay said: “The police say they went through Rook’s Farm with a fine-toothed comb. Yet according to Arthur’s daughter, her mother subsequently found a brick behind a bar in the farmhouse where my mother’s jewellery was. They missed a vital piece of evidence.” “I only realised for certain she was dead when my father died because she would not have missed his funeral.”Daughter Dianne, now 84, told The Sun: “Police initially didn’t believe my mother had been abducted.Their son Ian has travelled from his home in Australia to be with family members this week while the police do their search.Dianne said: “It has been more than 50 years of torture. It has affected me very much, worrying and wondering about where my mother is.There were two abortive handover attempts, in which suitcases filled with £500,000 in fake notes were left at countryside spots marked with white paper flowers.The first attempt, on February 1, floundered after the Hoseins spotted a massive undercover police presence.The McKays had an Australian flag in the front garden of their home, which would have added to the impression that Muriel was Mr Murdoch’s wife.In a twist of fate, Mr Murdoch was spending Christmas in Australia, and as Mr McKay did not have a car at the time, he gave him the use of his Rolls-Royce and chauffeur — which the brothers had been tracking. During one call, Mr McKay pleaded: “Take me instead.”

‘Missed vital evidence’

Tailor’s cutter Arthur, then 34, who came to Britain in the mid-1950s, lived at the farm with German wife Elsa, their daughter and two children from a previous relationship. As he left court, Muriel’s husband Mr McKay said: “All I want to know is where my wife has been buried so that I can go and place some flowers.”The telephone wire had been ripped from the socket and its centre disc with the number on was missing.Police yesterday dismantled a corrugated iron barn which now covers the area where Hosein says he remembers burying Muriel after carrying her body from the nearby farmhouse.“Finding my grandmother is something our family has waited more than 54 years for. It would be ­fantastic to find her.”He discovered Muriel was missing when he arrived home at 7.45pm on December 29.“I used to think my mother was still alive and I would go to Knightsbridge, because she loved it there.“It would help us find some peace and give us a chance to give her a Christian burial.”Hosein has offered to travel to the UK to assist the police search but is barred by the Home Office from returning here.The McKay family accept this will be the last chance to find Muriel.Arthur and Nizam insisted the money should be dropped off by Mr McKay and his daughter Dianne.But a Volvo was seen circling the latter drop-off at Bishop’s Stortford, Herts, which led cops to Rook’s Farm.Dianne’s son Mr Dyer said: “We are hoping for resolution for ourselves and also the Murdoch family, who have also been greatly affected by what happened and have always been a great support to us.The Hosein brothers were arrested 40 days after abducting Muriel and jailed for life.

Now aged 75, and destitute, Hosein was tracked down by a Sky Crime documentary team in 2021 and later went on to reveal what ­happened to Muriel.“They thought she had a boyfriend and had gone back to Australia.