Deported killer of newspaper executive's wife Muriel McKay offers to return to Britain to show where she is buried

16 November 2023, 09:21

Muriel McKay (l) and Nizamodeen Hosein (r)
Muriel McKay (l) and Nizamodeen Hosein (r). Picture: Getty

By StephenRigley

A deported killer is offering to come back to Britain to show his victim's daughter where he buried her mother's body 54 years ago.

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Nizamodeen Hosein was 22 when he and his older brother Arthur kidnapped Muriel McKay, the wife of a newspaper executive, and held her ransom for £1million.

The brothers were caught and jailed for life for murder, but the body of Ms McKay, 55, has never been found.

Muriel McKay, who was kidnapped by Arthur Hosein and his brother in 1969, having been mistaken for the wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch
Muriel McKay, who was kidnapped by Arthur Hosein and his brother in 1969, having been mistaken for the wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. Picture: Getty

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The kidnappers had mistaken Ms McKay for Rupert Murdoch's then wife Anna. Ms McKay's husband Alick, also Australian, was Mr Murdoch's deputy.

Hosein, 75, who is now free and living in Trinidad has offered to help Ms McKay's family in a final attempt to uncover her remains, Sky News reports.

He has written to the Home Office asking it to lift a deportation order which still bars him from the UK. His brother Arthur died in prison in 2009.

Arthur Hosein and Nazamodeen Hosein
Arthur Hosein and Nazamodeen Hosein. Picture: Getty

He wrote: "I admit my involvement in the kidnap and death of Muriel McKay, and I have been attempting to assist her daughter Dianne in locating her body.

"I believe I am the only living person who knows where Muriel's body is and would like her body to be found before I myself die."

After years of refusing to explain Ms McKay's fate, Hosein now claims she collapsed and died of a heart attack at the remote, rented Hertfordshire farm where the brothers were holding her.

Hosein says he panicked and buried her body under a dung heap behind the farmhouse near the village of Stocking Pelham.

Police hunting for Muriel McKay after her kidnap
Police hunting for Muriel McKay after her kidnap. Picture: Alamy

Last year Scotland Yard detectives failed to find anything during a search of a small section of a field near the house. The family insists they searched in the wrong place.

Hosein says he is certain he will remember exactly where he buried Ms McKay's body, even though the buildings, the farmyard and the fields have changed a lot since the kidnap in 1969.

Dianne, 82, believes this is probably the family's last chance to find her mother's final resting place, but there are still hurdles to overcome.

The Home Office said in a statement: "We express sympathies with Muriel McKay's loved ones.

"Whilst we do not comment on individual cases, we work with the police on any requests pertaining to ongoing investigations."

Scotland Yard is in contact with the McKay family and has spoken to Hosein.

Detectives are considering the possibility of applying for a search warrant to excavate at the farm again, but are not yet convinced it is worth it.

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