Family of woman kidnapped and murdered after being mistaken for Murdoch’s wife hope to search farm for body

‘Time is running out for me to give my mother the burial she deserves,’ says Muriel McKay 83-year-old daughter

Muriel Mckay, the wife of the former deputy chair of Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, was kidnapped in 1969 (PA Archive)

The family of a woman killed during a bungled kidnap after she was mistaken for Rupert Murdoch’s wife have offered £50,000 to search a farm where a convicted murderer claims to have buried her body more than half a century ago.

Brothers Nizamodeen and Arthur Hosein were jailed in 1970 for the murder of 55-year-old Muriel McKay, whose husband Alick was deputy to the media tycoon who had recently purchased the News of the World and Sun newspapers.

Mistaking McKay for Murdoch’s wife Anna after following the wrong car, the brothers kidnapped McKay from her Wimbledon home for a £1m ransom. While the pair were arrested at a Hertfordshire farm after days of negotiations and a botched bid to collect ransom money, McKay’s body was nowhere to be found.

The daughter of Muriel McKay fears ‘time is running out for me to give my mother the burial she deserves’ (PA)

More than 50 years after he and his brother were jailed for life and deported to their native Trinidad, and 20 years after he was released, Nizamodeen has finally signed an affadavit giving the exact location where he claims to have buried McKay, who he says collapsed and died while being held hostage.

McKay’s family have now offered $50,000 to the owners of the farm in Stocking Pelham to allow them to dig up the plot where her body is said to be buried – a sum initially offered to Hosein to reveal the location, but which he later turned down.

Her daughter Dianne told The Times her family had made the offer out of desperation after what they allege has been inaction by the Metropolitan Police. Hosein maintains that a fruitless police search in early 2022 with the cooperation of the farm’s owners was in the wrong area.

“I have carried the hurt of losing my mother for more than 50 years,” Dianne told the paper. “We have done all the work for the police, given them the location on a platter, and it is mystifying to me why they have not got a search warrant.”

The 83-year-old added that she feels “time is running out for me to give my mother the burial she deserves”.

Australian newspaper executive Alick McKay pictured making an appeal from his home in Wimbledon for the safe return of his missing wife on 9 January 1970 (Getty Images)

Former justice secretary Robert Buckland and ex-solicitor general Sir Oliver Heald KC – the constituency’s MP – have also called for the police to obtain a search warrant.

“It was a horrendous case. Yes, it was 50 years ago but giving the family as much information as possible seems to be humane and just,” Mr Buckland told The Times.

A Scotland Yard spokesperson told the paper: “We understand how frustrating and difficult this matter has been for Muriel’s family and remain in contact with them.

“An extensive search for Muriel’s remains was carried out in March 2022 at a farm in Hertfordshire. Unfortunately it concluded with nothing found.

“At that time there was no legal power to apply for a search warrant in these circumstances and so the search took place with the consent of the landowner. The investigation remains live and we continue to review and assess new information, keeping an open mind to all available options to recover Muriel.”