Family of Muriel McKay pursue new Bethnal Green lead in search for her remains
She was kidnapped from her home in 1969 and said to be killed on a Hertfordshire farm
The family of Muriel McKay, who was abducted and killed in 1969 after being mistaken for Rupert Murdoch’s wife, say they have received three “genuine leads”.
It follows a £1 million reward offer — with one location in Bethnal Green now described as the "most compelling".
Muriel McKay was kidnapped from her Wimbledon home in December 1969 by Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein.
The brothers demanded a ransom of £1 million, but Muriel never returned home. Her body has never been found.
Both men were convicted of kidnap and murder in 1970, though Arthur’s younger brother Nizamodeen has since claimed she was buried on a Hertfordshire farm previously owned by their family.
Last year, with the support of a benefactor, Muriel’s family offered the same sum demanded by the kidnappers in 1970 as a reward for information that could directly lead to the discovery of her remains.
Ian McKay, Muriel’s son, said: “We’ve made an incredible offer of £1,000,000 to anybody who can help us retrieve her body. And so far, we’ve had, bearing in mind, it’s 55 plus years, three amazing leads, which were genuine leads, and we’re just working through those now.”
The family say two of those sites — in Buntingford High Street and Crabb Tree Lane — have already been examined using ground-penetrating radar.
At Buntingford, nothing was found. At Crabb Tree, Ian explained, “we found something about the size of human remains and or six foot. We actually have dug down, but we’ve come to a very, very strong base. We have to have another meeting with scanning people to rescan again before we dig it up with a digger.”
But it is the third lead, linked to a tailor’s shop on Bethnal Green Road where Arthur Hosein once worked, that the family now consider the most promising.
Mark Dyer, Muriel’s grandson, said: “The most important lead of all is Bethnal Green Road, where we have two statements from a brother and sister, who were the children of Arthur Hosein’s boss. What they did mention were things that no one else ever knew. So they mentioned there was a phone call my grandmother made and she said, grey Hillman. And then the phone was ripped out of her hand. These people mentioned that there was a grey Hillman always parked outside Bethnal Green Road.”
The siblings, whose late father ran the tailor’s shop, have described a disturbing stench beneath the stairs of the property in early 1970, and claim their father said Muriel may have been brought there after her death and buried temporarily in the rear garden.
They have now signed written statements confirming their accounts of the events.
Mark Dyer added: “They are pretty certain that she’s there at Bethnal Green Road. We’ve been there and it’s intact as it was in 1970. But again, we’ve met resistance from people with access to it who don’t seem to want to let us in there to do a non-invasive scan. This will take an hour.”
The location is significant to them not only because of the testimony, but also because one of the phone boxes used during the ransom drop was directly opposite the property, providing what they believe would have been “a clear, unobstructed view” of the family following instructions.
The family say their immediate goal is to secure access to the Bethnal Green site in order to carry out a scan, which they argue would take only a matter of hours.
Until then, their search continues.