Elsa was visiting Germany with her children at the time Muriel was taken to the farm.The Hosein brothers were arrested 40 days after abducting Muriel and jailed for life.
Muriel McKay’s son Ian and grandson Mark Dyer visit the dig at Stocking FarmCredit: Doug Seeburg
Mum of three Muriel McKay was held for a £1million ransomCredit: PA
Police experts search at the Hertfordshire farm this weekCredit: Doug Seeburg
Arthur Hosein, left, and younger brother Nizamodeen were jailed for lifeCredit: Getty
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.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.They lobbied cops for a further search and detectives flew to Trinidad to interview Hosein, leading to this week’s excavation.Police this week 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.
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The Hoseins sent notes purporting to be from Muriel.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 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.“This is earth-shattering stuff if we are able to find her after all this time.”
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They were convicted at the Old Bailey of blackmail, kidnap and murder.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.
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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. Asked how he felt about the possibility of finally finding his mum, he said: “I will feel like finally, in my heart of hearts, that we have finally not let her down. We can put her to rest.”“Then he said we want £1million to hand my mother back to us.”Ian told a BBC Radio 4 podcast: “We were absolutely dying a thousand deaths every day because we were hanging on every telephone call.”He said: “This is a highly emotional time for all of us.The joint Met and Herts Police team are being assisted by archaeologists and forensic specialists and have brought in a mechanical digger.The police have said this will be the final dig to find Murial, who was kidnapped from her home and held by two brothers for a £1 million ransom – a figure worth 18 times that today.At 1.15am the next morning, Nizam made a call to the house from a phone box in Epping, Essex, which Dianne answered.At 1.15am the next morning, Nizam made a call to the house from a phone box in Epping, Essex, which Dianne answered.The McKay family accept this will be the last chance to find Muriel.”While we have concerns about inconsistencies in the account by Nizamodeen Hosein, for completeness we want to do this.”They took her inside the property on Arthur Road and grabbed her jewellery before driving Muriel two hours across London to Rook’s Farm.Newspaper executive’s wife Muriel McKay, a 55-year-old mum-of-three with grandchildren, was abducted from her home in Wimbledon, South West London, and taken to Rook’s Farm, in Hertfordshire, in December 1969.
“It would help us find some peace and give us a chance to give her a Christian burial.”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.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.He discovered Muriel was missing when he arrived home at 7.45pm on December 29.Ian told The Sun then: “We are hoping to get some closure.
‘Missed vital evidence’
Twine identical to that found at the McKays’ home was discovered in the farmhouse, along with paper flowers.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 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.The telephone wire had been ripped from the socket and its centre disc with the number on was missing.Arthur and Nizam insisted the money should be dropped off by Mr McKay and his daughter Dianne.But there was no sign of Muriel.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.“They were confused as they had never had a kidnapping in this country before.”The Hosein brothers were arrested 40 days after abducting Muriel and jailed for life.Mr McKay died in 1983 and his family have continued the quest to find Muriel’s body.Ian said the family endured “a thousand deaths” after she was taken from her home in Wimbledon, South West London, by Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein.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.Daughter Dianne, now 84, told The Sun: “Police initially didn’t believe my mother had been abducted.
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THE son of murdered Murial McKay has told he “cannot express” his emotions as he arrived at the farm site where his mum was killed 55 years ago.Mr McKay called police and his three grown-up children.
Muriel’s daughter Dianne at the farm in 2022Credit: JOHN McLELLAN
Police begin a new search at the farmCredit: PA
A mechanical digger at the farm in HertfordshireCredit: PA
The Sun’s front with the headline Vanished wife ‘in serious danger’Credit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Muriel’s husband Alick McKay with Jennifer, left, Diana and son IanCredit: Getty
Arthur HoseinCredit: News Group Newspapers Ltd
Nizamodeen Hosein in 1970, aged 22Credit: PA:Press Association
