Murder victim's family hopeful at Met Police Trinidad arrival

A murdered woman's family are "cautiously optimistic" her body will be found after Metropolitan Police officers travelled to Trinidad to speak to her killer, their lawyer has said.

Muriel McKay was abducted in 1969, held to ransom for £1m at a Hertfordshire farm and then murdered.

Police hope her killer Nizamodeen Hosein will help them locate her body.

Matthew Gayle, who is representing her family in Trinidad, said he believed Hosein could assist the family.

Mrs McKay, the wife of Rupert Murdoch's deputy Alick McKay, was mistaken by kidnappers for the-then wife of the media mogul.

She was taken from her home in London on 29 December 1969.

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

Arthur died in prison in 2009, but Nizamodeen now lives in Trinidad, where he was deported after serving his sentence.

He had denied murdering Mrs McKay and told her family she died after having a seizure.

Her body has never been found, despite repeated searches at Stocking Farm, Stocking Pelham, near Bishop's Stortford.

Hosein recently admitted to burying her body behind a barn and police hope he can help them pinpoint the location of her remains.

Mr Gayle, barrister and attorney at law, said: "The police have been due to speak to Nizam properly for years; literally for years.

"He's indicated willingness to show the family where the body is and he's made this offer - and the police have been due to speak to him and now finally they are."

Asked if the McKay family was pleased Met officers had arrived, he said: "I think they're cautiously optimistic. Of course, there's a great deal of scepticism about the police.

"It's shocking the body wasn't discovered all those years ago - I don't think they're rejoicing just yet."

Mr Gayle said while Hosein had shown willingness to assist the police, "he's very conscious that he's done his time and he's living out the rest of his days at his family home".

He added: "He was there when the body was buried and he very much knows where it is.

"Of course, with time and age and so on, then how precisely he can identify where it is now? He might need some help. But I think he can assist the family to find the body."

"I think the police are likely to discover what we've known all along - it will be much easier for Nizam to help the police locate the body if he returns to England - and I suspect the conversations that the police are having him today and this week will show them that this would be the best way forward."

A neighbour of Hosein, who did not wish to be named, said he worked as a truck driver on an industrial estate when he returned to Trinidad.

"He's retired now, I assume," he said.

"He doesn't have many friends.

"His father was a Muslim priest, he was a decent man - a very ambitious man. They were very quiet people - nice people."

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