'I'll thank my grandmother's killer if her body is found'

The family of Muriel McKay say they will travel back to Trinidad to thank her killer if her body is found, as they wait to hear whether police will carry out a further search.

Metropolitan Police detectives went to the Caribbean in March to question Nizamodeen Hosein, one of two brothers convicted of murdering Mrs McKay at a Hertfordshire farm.

Mrs McKay was kidnapped for ransom in 1969 after being mistaken for the then-wife of Rupert Murdoch and was traced to Stocking Farm near Bishop’s Stortford, although her body was never found.

The Metropolitan Police said detectives were "still assessing all the information” gathered from their trip and would “update the family as soon as we can”.

Muriel McKay was the wife of Rupert Murdoch's deputy Alick McKay when she was abducted from her home in London on 29 December 1969.

Brothers Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein were convicted of her kidnap and murder.

But while Arthur died in prison in 2009, Nizamodeen was deported to Trinidad and Tobago after serving his sentence.

Mark Dyer, 59, and his mother Dianne McKay, 84, went to meet Nizamodeen in January, to look at maps and photos of Rooks Farm, which is now called Stocking Farm.

He said her body was buried there and told the BBC he was willing to come to England to show police the location.

Mark Dyer at Stocking Farm
Muriel McKay's grandson Mark Dyer standing at the spot where he believes his grandmother is buried [Justin Dealey/BBC]

Police searched Stocking Farm near Bishop's Stortford in 2022 and nothing new was found.

However, Mr Dyer said the search should have continued.

"We have an awful tragedy here and we want to resolve it," Mr Dyer told BBC's Justin Dealey. "Let us dig my grandmother up, because all I want to do is pick my grandmother up and take her home.

"If I find her and she is reburied, I will go to Trinidad again, I will go to Trinidad because I will thank Nizamodeen Hosein and that will be the end of it because then I know it is done and closed."

Stocking Farm
The farm near Bishop's Stortford was last searched in 2022 [Justin Dealey/BBC]

As the family awaits a police decision over a further search, Mr Dyer said it was like the force's "watch has stopped".

"Either the Metropolitan Police's watch has stopped or their clock has stopped... they [the police] don't seem to have any empathy whatsoever, any understanding of tragedy," Mr Dyer said.

He said his mother Diane McKay had been left "devastated".

"I want her to be able to see that we have actually found her mother and I want her to be alive for it."

A shed, fence and field at Stocking Farm
Mark Dyer said his mother Diane McKay has been left "devastated" [Justin Dealey/BBC]

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