Mother says police have failed her over son's killing

A mother whose son was fatally stabbed 22 years ago in north London says she has been "failed" by the police and justice system, and fears that chances to catch his killer have been missed.

Jonathan McMurray was 20 when he was attacked in Wood Green on 17 July 2002, as he walked home after a night out with his friends and family.

His mother Sandra says she was shocked to be told by the Metropolitan Police last month that the case had been classed as "inactive" nine years ago, without her knowledge.

A Met Police spokesperson said the investigation was in "an inactive phase" but "no unsolved murder is ever closed and detectives would consider any new information provided". The Crown Prosecution Service has also been contacted for comment.

Ms McMurray said: "The police and the justice system failed us. They failed us bad. Not having closure, not having justice, that's the worst thing for a mother to go through."

She described Mr McMurray as a "kind and loving son", who loved playing pranks on his family, and said he had been celebrating signing a music deal on the night he died.

He was attacked after an argument with a group of boys he passed in the street.

Although Ms McMurray says there were a large number of witnesses and CCTV footage of several people suspected of being involved, officers told her there was not enough evidence to charge anyone.

"The detectives told me that they were interviewed but all of them said, 'no comment'."

In 2003, police offered a £7,500 reward for information to try to persuade more witnesses to come forward.

A few months after her son's killing, Ms McMurray also spoke to the BBC about the case but she says officers warned her she should not make public appeals in the media.

"They said, 'don't speak to anyone. If you speak, you might hamper the case, the case is still ongoing'.

"So I just drew myself back from speaking. But now I think, if I spoke to people, maybe I would get justice."

The family now plans to return to the scene on the anniversary of Mr McMurray's death, on Wednesday, to hand out leaflets appealing for information.

Fiona McMurray, who was 15 when her brother was killed, says she does not think the Met Police took the case seriously enough.

"I think they just thought it was another gang thing. They let us down from the beginning."

Their mother says her son was not in a gang and had never been in trouble with police.

She says after contacting the Met Police for an update on the investigation, the family were visited by two detectives in June 2024, who explained the case had been inactive since 2015, and, at the family's request, showed them CCTV footage of the attack.

But the family says this has raised further concerns and questions, claiming more should have been done to seal off the scene more quickly and preserve evidence.

"There's people coming out from across the road, and literally looking over the police officers' shoulders," says Fiona McMurray.

"At one point, I saw one of the guys actually moved one of the police officers out of the way, to just see what was going on."

She says a jacket, which Mr McMurray had been wearing that night but had removed before the attack took place, went missing from the scene and was handed in to police by a girl three weeks later.

There were eight arrests “in the course of the investigation”, the Met Police says, but no charges.

A Met Police spokesperson said: “Our thoughts remain with Mr McMurray’s family and friends.

“As with any murder investigation, a number of inquiries have been made over the years to try and secure justice for Mr McMurray and his loved ones.

“The investigation is in an inactive phase, which means that it is not currently subject to routine reviews.

"However no unsolved murder is ever closed and detectives would consider any new information provided to assess whether it represented a new and realistic line of inquiry.”

The family says it is painful to know that Mr McMurray's killer is still free and that a memorial to him at the scene of the attack has been vandalised twice, once on the anniversary of the attack, and again on his birthday.

The memorial has now been moved into Ms McMurray's back garden.

"We still want to keep him alive, we don't want him forgotten," she says.

"He was a part of me. It's broken my family. The people that did it don't know what it does, when they take a life. It destroys the whole family."

Her message to anyone with information is: "Come forward. Bring closure to the family. Give Jonathan the justice he needs."