Muriel McKay’s youngsters ‘will not cease til they discover her’ after dig fails
An investigative journalist who was side-by-side with the family of Muriel McKay – who was famously kidnapped and murdered in 1969 in a case of mistaken identity that baffled the police – during last week’s failed new dig to find her body says her family ‘have the means and the determination’ to keep hunting for her remains.
Jane MacSorley revealed how her BBC Radio 4 Intrigue podcast about the kidnapping, Worse than Murder, of which one episode has been released so far, took a dramatic twist when the Met announced they would launch a search for Muriel’s body at the Hertfordshire farm where one of her killers said she was buried.
Last week, the journalist joined Muriel’s children each day at the suspected crime scene of Stocking Farm, near Stocking Pelham, after convicted killer Nizamodeen Hosein, who was deported to Trinidad and Tobago after serving 20 years in prison, revealed the spot where he claimed the body of Muriel was buried.
Investigative journalist Jane MacSorley, centre, pictured at the Met police dig last week at the Hertfordshire farm when the body of kidnapped Muriel McKay is believed to have been buried in January 1970, pictured with two of Muriel’s three children, Ian, right, and Dianne, far left
The fresh Met police dig at Rooks Farm, now Stocking Farm, began last week, with the family hopeful that guidance given by one of Muriel’s two killers, Nizamodeen Hosein, would help her family finally locate the murdered 55-year-old’s remains
The BBC Radio 4 Intrigue podcast Worse than Murder, of which just one episode has been released so far, investigates the original crime – Muriel McKay was taken from her upmarket home in Wimbledon on December 29th 1969 to recent interviews with her children about their ongoing search for closure
It’s believed Muriel, 55, was murdered just days after she was taken from her Wimbledon home; after Hosein and his older brother Arthur, who owned Rooks Farm, now Stocking Farm, had kidnapped her for a £1m ransom – £14million in today’s money – believing her to be the wife of Rupert Murdoch.
Muriel was married to Alick McKay, who was Murdoch’s deputy at News Limited at the time.
Speaking to MailOnline this week, MacSorley said following the fruitless eight-day dig that the case was ‘like no other story she’s ever worked on’ and the family’s hopes of closure had been ‘crushed’ – but that she was confident that Muriel’s children Ian, 82, and Dianne, 84, and grandson Mark Dyer, 59, would not rest until her body had been found, more than five decades after she was snatched from her home.
Ian McKay told UK journalists this week that he didn’t want to leave the UK until his mother’s remains were located.
The Sydney-based 82-year-old had previously been so traumatised by his mother’s killing that he had not spoken about the case ‘even to family’ for decades, says MacSorley – before he finally agreed to be interviewed by her after she arranged a meeting with him while she was working in Australia.
He has since spoken in depth to her about his mother’s murder for the Radio 4 podcast.
Journalist MacSorley, who co-hosts Worse than Murder with author Simon Farquhar, was at the police dig for each of the eight days, travelling with Muriel’s children as the police drilled down on the location given them by murderer Hosein
Muriel McKay’s daughter Dianne (left) travelled to Trinidad with her son Mark Dyer (right) to speak with one of her mother’s killers, Nizamodeen Hosein (centre) – he told the family he knew where the body was buried on the farm that he lived on with his older sibling Arthur Hosein, who was also convicted of Muriel’s murder
Brothers Arthur (left) and Nazamodeen Hosein (right) were found guilty of her murder in September 1970. Arthur died in a care home in 2007 after being transferred there from Ashworth prison, while Nizam was deported to Trinidad and Tobago, where he still lives, after serving a 20-year-prison sentence
The podcast delves into how the abduction is believed to have been a case of mistaken identity – with the kidnappers – who called themselves M3 – intending to seize Anna Murdoch, the former wife of media tycoon Rupert Murdoch (pictured)
Blue police tents in the garden of Stocking Farm, formerly known as Rooks Farm, where police dug for the remains of Muriel McKay last week; MacSorley said the family has been left crushed by the fruitless search
Metropolitan Police Detective Superintendent Katherine Goodwin said the information Nizamodeen Hosein had provided in the last two years to Muriel’s family was ‘not correct’
Mrs McKay’s family have been calling for the police to allow convicted killer Nizamodeen to be brought to the excavation site to show detectives where he buried her body in 1970. They believe her body cannot be found without him physically in the UK.
They slammed the search as ‘nonsense’ and ‘pointless’ without Hosein being there, calling it ‘the blind leading the blind’.
Last week’s search was the fifth of the farm – including three in 1970 – and the Metropolitan Police, who carried out the operation with Hertfordshire Constabulary, warned before it began that it would be the last attempt to find Mrs McKay.
Police seen at Stocking Pelham in Hertfordshire where they searched for her remains; the family has said it won’t give up searching for their lost relative – with privately-funded searches being considered
MacSorley said 82-year-old Ian, who lives in the Southern Highlands in New South Wales, with three of his four children also residing in Australia, was, along with his sister and nephew, determined to look at new avenues, potentially privately funding a new search.
The journalist said: ‘Can he really put his life on hold for this? Because the Metropolitan police have said unless there’s fresh evidence – and there won’t be – that’s it.’
She added that correspondence with the family, who have significant wealth, in recent days had left her in no doubt that they were as committed as ever to gaining closure for their mother and late father.
‘They have the means and the determination, particularly with Muriel’s grandson Mark Dyer driving things. I’ve no doubt they’ll keep trying to find Muriel.’
Around 20 officers from the Met and Hertfordshire Constabulary searched for her body, with the family kept updated each day
Police searched the farm in 2022 (pictured), but Hosein claims they looked in the wrong area
Muriel McKay’s son Ian McKay (Right) and her grandson Mark Dyer at the farm last week; the second episode of the programme looks at the aftermath of her kidnap in 2022, including the moment her husband Alick was told by FBI experts the family realistically ‘had 48 hours to find her’
Muriel McKay’s son Ian (right) and her grandson Mark Dyer (left) spoke to the press as they joined police in the search for her body at Stocking Farm in Hertfordshire
MacSorley co-presents Worse than Murder with author Simon Farquhar, who has worked on the story for years ‘piecing together every last scrap of evidence’ for his 2022 book A Desperate Business: The Murder of Muriel McKay.
The first episode of Worse than Murder, which was released on July 15th, examines the couple’s wealthy background and Alick’s successful media career before recounting how Mr McKay returned to his Wimbledon home to find his house in disarray and his wife missing on December 29th 1969.
The 30-minute episode details how Mr McKay called the police and then immediately enlisted the help of his media contacts including then editor of The Sun, Larry Lamb, to try and secure his wife’s safe return to their upmarket family home.
It is the fifth search of the farm and the Metropolitan Police, who carried out the operation with Hertfordshire Constabulary, have said they will conduct no more searches without fresh evidence
While Lamb and the police were on the scene, McKay received a 1am call from the kidnapper, known as M3 who claimed to be a member of the Mafia and demanded £1million within 48 hours to secure her release.
Episode two, released on July 31st, details the aftermath of the days following Muriel’s disappearance including how the police were ‘baffled’ by the kidnapping for ransom.
The second episode of the podcast discusses the immediate crime scene – including the discovery of a rusty two-pointed knife and a tangled ball of twine – and how police discovered the call by M3 was made from a phone box at Bell Common in Epping, after a savvy phone operator stayed on the line after connecting the line.
It also delves into the chilling advice offered by FBI experts drafted in to help DCS Bill Smith, who led the early days of the investigation, including revealing the ominous warning he was given by the US security organisation after a press briefing.
He was told: ‘You’ve probably only got about 48 hours – or she’ll be dead’.
Worse than Murder will run weekly at 9:30am from today on Radio 4 and is available on BBC Sound
