Muriel McKay family offer £1m reward to find her remains

The family of Muriel McKay – who was held hostage and murdered 56 years ago – have offered a £1m reward for information that leads to the discovery of her remains.

Mrs McKay’s grandson, Mark Dyer, told the BBC the family was inspired by the Mel Gibson movie Ransom to make a last-ditch attempt to solve the mystery.

Mrs McKay’s body has not been found since she was kidnapped in 1969, taken to a farm in Hertfordshire and killed.

Police searched the farm at the time, in 2022 and again in 2024, but Mr Dyer said the family hoped the reward “could provide a new way forward”.

He said the £1m ($1.35m), which had been supplied by a “benefactor”, would not be paid “if finding Muriel involves any illegal act whatsoever”.

“It’s a long shot, but it’s a big statement and I think after 55 years – we have been trying to get her back ever since,” he added.

The reward mirrors the original ransom demand of £1m to return Mrs McKay to her family.

She had been mistaken for the then-wife of media mogul Rupert Murdoch and abducted from her London home on 29 December 1969.

Her husband, Alick McKay – Murdoch’s deputy – returned home to find her missing. Later that evening, he received a phone call.

He was told: “This is Mafia M3.

“We’re from America, we have your wife. It will cost you a million pounds to get her back.

“You’d better get it by Wednesday, or we will kill her.”

The caller was Nizamodeen Hosein, who was convicted of Mrs McKay’s kidnap and murder along with his brother, Arthur.

Arthur died in prison. Nizamodeen Hosein later spoke to the McKay family, explaining where he had buried her.

The Metropolitan Police interviewed Hosein in 2024 and – despite scepticism about his account – carried out a third dig at Stocking Farm, near Bishop’s Stortford. No human remains were found.

Mr Dyer said his mother Dianne – Muriel’s daughter – had seen the film Ransom and “thought it was an interesting idea to turn it on its head” by offering the same payment that had been demanded in ransom.

“We’re offering it to anybody who can lead us directly to recovering Muriel’s remains.

“Someone who feels a flicker of recognition. It could be an old memory.

“You may have been living with this for 55 years, you may have been suffering with that knowledge.

“There are people perhaps in Trinidad or in prison who were told things over the years.

“You could have the courage to rewrite history and give a family that peace that’s been denied,” he said.