Muriel McKay family remain ‘sanguine’ despite bone found in search for her remains being non-human
Her family have announced that the search for Muriel McKay’s remains will continue after it was confirmed that the bone found in a garden in east London was not human.
Ms McKay’s grandson, Mark Dyer, said his family had gone “down hill” since police confirmed the bone found in a garden in Bethnal Green Road on Friday was not human.
Mrs McKay, the wealthy wife of newspaper executive Alick McKay, was kidnapped for a £1 million ransom in 1969.
She was mistakenly identified as Anna Murdoch, then-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
The single bone was found during a private dig in the garden on Friday. This search was launched by Ms. McKay’s family following new information from a witness’ daughter.
Mr Dyer told the Press Association that “we have moved from top to bottom”, but added that he felt “optimistic” as he confirmed the search would continue.
He said: “We’re surprised… but I’m optimistic about all this. We haven’t finished searching the area yet and we need to do it. If it’s not a human bone at a depth of 1.2 metres, we don’t know what it is.”
Mr Dyer added: “We’re not done with this search yet; we had an agreement to stop if we found any bones, so (the bone was determined to be non-human) we’ll take it to the next stage and continue checking.”
Ms McKay, 55, was abducted from her home in Wimbledon, south London, on December 29, 1969.
Brothers Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein were later arrested and convicted of murder and sentenced to 15 years in prison to 25 years in one of the first murder cases filed without a body.
The McKay family had the garden searched following new information from Hayley Frais, who was running a tailor shop at the premises on Bethnal Green Lane at the time of the murder, where Arthur Hosein was working.
The garden was first searched in a non-invasive sweep over a week ago; It turned out that the ground was disturbed and it was decided to carry out an excavation on Friday.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: “Police are aware of reports that a single bone was found in the garden of a property on Bethnal Green Road, Hackney. The bone was discovered during an independent search on Friday, March 20.
“Officers arrived at the scene with the assistance of forensic colleagues who determined the bone did not belong to a human.”
