The family of Muriel McKay is asking the High Court to overturn the Metropolitan Police’s decision to stop investigating an east London garden where they believe she may have been buried.
At the centre of the case is a bone found during the search — and the way a Met officer tried to identify it. According to court papers filed by Mrs McKay’s children, the officer uploaded a photograph of the bone to the AI chatbot Microsoft Copilot “for curiosity”. The chatbot suggested that it came from cattle.
Contractors hired by the family found the large bone in the garden in March and recovered five smaller fragments when they returned in April.
The Met said an external forensic examination had found the material tested to be non-human. The force said it did not commission further analysis to identify the species because the examination had answered its question about whether the remains were human.
The family wants experts to determine whether the fragments came from a calf, how old they are and whether any cut marks could link them to a billhook found at the farm where Mrs McKay was believed to have been held.
The family’s lawyers say that, as far as they have been able to establish, the prosecution’s case in 1970 was that Mrs McKay’s body had been cut up with a billhook. Arthur Hosein had borrowed one from a neighbour, saying he needed it to butcher a calf. The family believes Mrs McKay’s remains may have been mixed with those of the animal.
The garden is behind a former tailor’s shop in Bethnal Green Road whose owner, Percy Chaplin, employed Arthur Hosein. Hayley Frais, Chaplin’s daughter, said her father recalled an unexplained foul smell in the shop in early 1970. He came to believe Mrs McKay’s body had been brought there from the farm and buried in the yard.
Dianne Levinson, Mrs McKay’s daughter, said she and her father had been told to wait by a phone box opposite the shop during the second attempt to hand over the ransom.
The search had previously centred on Rooks Farm, later known as Stocking Farm, in Stocking Pelham, Hertfordshire, where the brothers lived. Police searched it in 1970 and returned in 2022 and 2024 without finding Mrs McKay’s remains.
The family reached an agreement with the occupiers of the Bethnal Green property to carry out a radar survey and limited digging. Contractors found the large bone on March 20. The court papers say the officer used Copilot five days later. Police collected the smaller fragments after the second dig in April.
In a letter dated August 19, Detective Chief Inspector Teresa Foster said the discovery of non-human material gave the Met no additional evidence that human remains were at the property. She said the force would not apply for a warrant, carry out further excavation or pursue further inquiries at the site. The Met said it would review any new evidence that emerged.
The family argues that police gave too little weight to what Frais told them about her father’s account and to the findings from the dig. It says officers could have pursued further inquiries with the occupiers’ consent.
Mark Dyer, Mrs McKay’s grandson, said: “We want to get the bones sent to the US for proper analysis. This is the last lead we have got and we would like a full excavation of the garden. We’re shocked that in such a serious matter that the police are using AI to identify a bone.”
A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: “We are aware the family of Muriel McKay have sought permission to bring a judicial review against the Met. We are defending the claim.”
She added: “While we understand the family’s natural desire for answers, given the ongoing legal proceedings it would not be appropriate to comment in detail.”
Mrs McKay was abducted from her home in Wimbledon, south-west London, in December 1969 after being mistaken for Rupert Murdoch’s then wife, Anna. She was married to the newspaper executive Alick McKay.
Her kidnappers demanded £1m. The brothers Arthur and Nizamodeen Hosein were convicted of her murder at the Old Bailey in 1970. Her body has never been found.
