Muriel McKay: Family still searching for grandmother’s body ‘encouraged’ after meeting landowner

The family of murdered Muriel McKay say they have been given a boost by a search of the farm where they believe her body is buried.

mrs mackayGrandson Mark Dyer had threatened to sue landowner Ian Marsh for access but when the pair met on a public footpath through the farm yard he was invited inside for coffee and chat.

Businessman Mr Dale later said: “If the police decide not to carry out a second excavation then I will come and speak to Ian because Ian and I are now in touch.

“He seemed like the kind of person I could have an intelligent conversation with and maybe come to some kind of resolution.

“I’m sure he doesn’t want this to go on forever. I think he knows we’re determined. I think we made a lot of progress today.”

It was Mr Dyer’s first visit to the Hertfordshire farm where his grandmother was held for ransom and died 55 years ago. Her body was never found. He was six years old at the time.

“This is a place that I was reprimanded and told never to come to,” he said. “For our family, this is the most evil place on earth.”

“My palms actually get sweaty because it’s a weird feeling knowing she’s here and I’m not allowed to pick,” he tells me as we walk along a path toward the farm in the village of Stocking Pelham. “She got up and it was so scary. “

In January, Mr Dyer and his mother Diane McKay (Mrs McKay’s daughter) flew to the Caribbean To meet her murderer Nizam Hussainlong deported to his native Trinidad after being released from a life sentence.

They greeted each other warmly and sat in front of old maps and photographs, trying to find out where Hussein said he buried Mrs. McKay after she died of a heart attack.

Hussain, 75, pointed to a spot behind the barn and said: “Two feet from the hedge, that’s where the body is.”

Mr Dale, who followed a path through the farm to the scene, said: “I feel like she’s underneath me now.

“I mean, it brought tears to my eyes. I just wanted to get her out and take her away.”

After a while, landowner Ian Marsh appeared, introduced himself, and the two disappeared into the farmhouse.

Hussain and his brother Arthur kidnapped Mrs McKay, 55, mistaking her for Anna, the then-wife of newspaper boss Rupert Murdoch. Mrs McKay is married to Murdoch’s deputy Alec McKay.

They held her captive on a farm owned by Arthur while they negotiated a £1 million ransom with her family.

They were arrested after police followed their car and were later found guilty of kidnapping and murder in one of the first trials without bodies.

Scotland Yard officials excavated the farm two years ago but found nothing. The family said they dug in the wrong area and urged them to search again.

Police have yet to decide whether to conduct a second exhumation after detectives visited Hussain himself last month and found his memory to be “incoherent”.

read more:
Farmer to let police search for Muriel McKay’s body
Deported killer offers to return to UK to show where body is buried

Detective Superintendent Catherine Goodwin, of the Met Police’s specialist crime unit, said: “I have complete sympathy for Muriel’s family and how desperate they are to find her remains.

“We spoke to Muriel’s family following their visit to Trinidad, which led to detectives flying to Trinidad to conduct further inquiries with officers from the Trinidad and Tobago Police Service.

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“The team have only recently returned from Trinidad and it is important that we properly assess all the information we have gathered following three days of extensive interviews. I would also like to stress that we remain open to all possible next steps.

“We will provide Muriel’s family with a complete update once we have had time to review all the materials we have collected.”