Human remains found in search for woman murdered 12 years ago by husband
Detectives searching for the body of a woman who was murdered 12 years ago have discovered human remains.
Ahmed Al-Khatib, from Gorton, Greater Manchester, was convicted in 2014 of murdering his Syrian-born wife, Rania Alayed, who had gone missing the year before.
He was sentenced to life with a minimum of 20 years imprisonment.
But the 25-year-old's body was never found despite numerous searches.
Now officers from Greater Manchester Police say that after receiving new information, they have discovered human remains buried beside the A19 in Thirsk, North Yorkshire.
They had been searching the area since Monday.
The force said 'a scene' would remain in place for the coming days as specialist officers carried out further work.
'While no official identification has taken place, we strongly suspect the remains are that of Rania,' they said.
Her family had been informed of the finding of remains and were being supported by specially trained officers. 'They remain at the forefront of our minds,' the force said.
Al-Khatib had subjected Ms Alayed to years of physical and mental abuse, eventually forcing her to flee the family home to try to start a new life, Manchester Crown Court heard at his trial.
He believed she was becoming too Westernised and became jealous when she enrolled at a local college and began studying English.
Rania's son, Yazan, speaking on behalf of his family, said: 'The discovery of my mother's remains more than a decade onwards has come as a surreal surprise to me and my family.
'At last, being able to provide a final resting place is all we have wanted for the last 11 years, to have the ability to lay down a few flowers for my mother is more than I can ask for from this world.'
Detective Chief Inspector Neil Higginson, from Greater Manchester Police's major incident team, said: 'More than a decade after her murder, we now strongly believe we have located Rania's body and are finally able to provide closure to her family, who we know have endured so much pain and grief over the years.
'Rania's family have always been kept informed following our searches over the last few years, and we are providing them updates as we get them following this most recent development.
'Her murder was utterly horrific and not knowing where her body is has inflicted further pain to all those who knew her. I hope that we are now able to finally reunite her with her family, where she belongs, so that they can give her a proper resting place.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Star of no. 1 Netflix show told ‘not to read' the novels the thriller is based on
Matthew Goode has said he was told 'don't read' the crime novel series Department Q before taking on a Netflix show based on the books. The crime thriller is currently number on on Netflix, after only being released on Thursday. Matthew, a British actor, 47, known for fantasy show A Discovery Of Witches, and thriller Stoker, is playing a new version of Carl Morck, who was created by the Danish author Jussi Adler-Olsen. In the adaptation of the Nordic noir novels, the action moves from Copenhagen to the Scottish capital Edinburgh, and is directed and written by multiaward-winning Scott Frank, known for Netflix series The Queen's Gambit and superhero film Logan. (Image: Ian West/PA Wire) Carl is a former top-rated detective, who is full of 'guilt' after his partner is paralysed and another policeman dies in an attack, before being given a cold case. At a special screening of Netflix's Dept. Q at the Ham Yard Hotel in Soho, central London Goode told the PA news agency that Frank 'really freed me up' having it based in Scotland, rather than Denmark. He added: 'I don't think (making it in Denmark) would have fit this particularly well, it worked for (Swedish noir) Wallander (with Sir Kenneth Branagh). READ MORE: Netflix releases Stranger Things 5 trailer and confirms dates Matthew Goode and Teresa Palmer star in A Discovery Of Witches Fool Me Once is number 1 on Netflix 24 hours after it lands 'He (Scott) said to me, 'don't read the novels', because he also made me English, which made him (Carl) an outsider, and so I was able to develop with Scott a really brilliant sort of socio-political, economic, sort of history of what we thought this English version of Morck would be.' Goode, who previously worked with Frank on crime show The Lookout, said the creator and executive producer of the new show 'treats the audience like they are as intelligent as he is, which is staggeringly intelligent'. He added: 'It's a very taut, very dark, brilliant crime thriller with also a lot of levity. It's also very amusing, and one of Scott's pet hates is any kind of sentimentality. So it's a slow burn, but it unfurls itself beautifully.' Adler-Olsen's books about a cold case unit have been previously adapted into films including the 2010 Danish movies The Keeper Of Lost Causes, A Conspiracy Of Faith and The Absent One. When asked about the Netflix experience compared with the ones that have come before, the author said the previous movies were 'terrible, terrible in so many ways'. He said: 'It's all about screenwriting. It's all about manuscripts, and the manuscripts of the former films were like amateurs. 'So now we have the best writer in the world, that makes a difference so that's why I wasn't that happy about (it before).' Adler-Olsen also said he was 'looking forward' to seeing how the show changes, after moving to Edinburgh. Speaking about what he had seen so far, the author said: 'I'm astonished how in the world is the story turning this way, I can't believe it.' The cast also includes Scottish stars Shirley Henderson, known for playing Moaning Myrtle in the Harry Potter films and being in Bridget Jones's Diary, Mark Bonnar, who has been in detective shows Guilt and Shetland, as well as Swedish actor Alexej Manvelov.
Yahoo
15 hours ago
- Yahoo
British businessman ‘spied for Beijing and tried to smuggle weapons into China'
A British businessman tried to smuggle missiles and drones into China and attempted to silence critics of Xi Jinping, according to an indictment. John Miller is accused of spying for the Chinese Communist Party and faces extradition to the US after his arrest in Serbia. The 63-year-old allegedly referred to Xi Jinping, the Chinese president, as 'The Boss' in intercepted phone calls and conducted surveillance on an artist who created statues mocking the country's leader. In April, Mr Miller was arrested along with 43-year-old Chinese national Cui Guanghai, in Belgrade, Serbia, on the orders of the FBI and is now awaiting extradition to the US where he could be jailed for 20 years. Over two and a half years, Mr Miller and Mr Cui allegedly employed a wide range of tactics to harass, intimidate, stalk and threaten a Los Angeles resident, known only as 'the victim', who is a public critic of President Xi. 'As alleged, the defendants targeted a US resident for exercising his constitutional right to free speech and conspired to traffic sensitive American military technology to the Chinese regime,' said Todd Blanche, the US deputy attorney Miller is a long-time resident of the US, but also owns a £1.5 million home in Tunbridge Wells in Kent. Companies House records show Mr Miller has held roles in at least five UK companies, including TEFL Jobs China Ltd, which seemed to facilitate English language teaching jobs, but is now dissolved. A few months before the case began in June 2023, Mr Miller went to China where he met with Chinese government officials in Beijing and Liaoning, a province in north-east China that borders North Korea. He also met someone who works for the governor of Liaoning. During the trip, Mr Cui reportedly introduced Mr Miller to two people, who Mr Miller later referred to as 'big mother------s.' Upon his return, he reportedly boasted that 'the trip couldn't have gone better'. The first incident referred to in the indictment occurred shortly after he returned. In October 2023, Mr Miller and Mr Cui approached two individuals who, unbeknownst to them, were working for the FBI. They enlisted the undercover agents to stop 'the victim' from protesting against Xi's appearance at the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit the following month. Mr Miller and Mr Cui allegedly installed tracking devices on 'the victim's' car and paid the undercover agents to slash their tires. Mr Miller and Mr Cui also devised a complex plan to destroy a set of statues created by 'the victim'. These depicted President Xi and his wife bare-chested, kneeling with their hands tied behind their backs, and were potentially going to be displayed at a protest. The 'victim' had previously displayed the statues in Times Square electronic billboards and broadcast the display on X, according to court documents. Initially, Mr Miller had wanted to steal the statues and 'remove the heads' as evidence, but later decided to pay the undercover FBI agents to 'smash up' them up. In 2025, Mr Miller paid the agents $36,500 (£27,100) to convince 'the victim' to desist from showcasing the new statues at an upcoming protest, after 'the victim' had displayed the statues on a 24-hour live feed online. Beyond the intimidation schemes, Mr Miller also allegedly tried to purchase millions of pounds worth of military equipment on behalf of the Chinese military. Mr Miller reportedly tried to buy a £37,000 Stinger portable missile launcher, two military drones valued at £148,000, a £668,000 AGM-88E anti-radiation missile system and a £1.5 million air-defence radar system. He also allegedly tried to procure a cryptographic device, which is used for secure communication of classified and sensitive information. At one point, the Briton suggested that the device be smuggled from the US to China by hiding it inside a food blender or a motor starter, having shipped it first via DHL or FedEx to Hong Kong, according to court documents. Several times in Mr Miller's conversations, he mentions a 'boss' or at times a 'big boss' that seems to be the one giving orders. According to the special FBI agent who submitted the affidavit, Mr Miller's use of the phrase 'boss' 'refer[s] to President Xi' and 'demonstrates [Miller's] awareness that he was acting at the direction and control of the [Chinese] government.' Mr Blanche said: 'This is a blatant assault on both our national security and our democratic values. This Justice Department will not tolerate foreign repression on US soil, nor will we allow hostile nations to infiltrate or exploit our defence systems. 'We will act decisively to expose and dismantle these threats wherever they emerge.' Bill Essayli, attorney for the Central District of California, said: 'The indictment alleges that Chinese foreign actors targeted a victim in our nation because [they] criticised the Chinese government and its president. 'My office will continue to use all legal methods available to hold accountable foreign nationals engaging in criminal activity on our soil.' Akil Davis, the assistant director in charge of the FBI's Los Angeles field office, said: 'The FBI will not tolerate transnational repression targeting those in the United States who express dissenting opinions about foreign leaders. 'Both defendants face serious stalking charges in Los Angeles and my office intends to hold them accountable for bullying a victim, a critic of the PRC [People's Republic of China], and targeting him with violence.' If convicted, Mr Miller could also face the maximum penalties of five years in prison for conspiracy, five years in prison for interstate stalking, and 10 years in prison for smuggling. Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.
USA Today
17 hours ago
- USA Today
At the US-Mexico border, volunteers conduct a grim search for human bones
At the US-Mexico border, volunteers conduct a grim search for human bones Remains of 176 migrants were recovered near the US-Mexico border last year, a shocking jump from 20 in 2019. With crossings down, volunteer searchers hope for fewer this year. Show Caption Hide Caption Human remains are found by volunteers near the border wall Battalion Search and Rescue volunteers have found dozens of human remains in the desert in Santa Teresa, New Mexico in ares used by organized crime Editor's note: This story contains reporting and images that some readers may find disturbing. SANTA TERESA, N.M. – Human bones, white against the orange sand, are hard to miss and harder to forget. Once a month, retiree Abbey Carpenter leads volunteers through a field of dunes near the border, searching for the remains of migrants. She has located 27 sites in southern New Mexico in under two years, artefacts of a wave of migration that has ebbed to a trickle. But the bones – femur, rib, jaw – take her breath away each time. In them, Carpenter, who taught English as a Second Language, sees the journeys made by her former students ‒ migrants who live and work in the United States and learned English in her classroom. Men in construction. Women in service industries. When she first joined the desert searches, she said, "I just felt like I was walking in their footprints. I could see them: their backpacks, their shoes, their clothes." President Donald Trump's border crackdown has helped push illegal crossings to record lows over the past four months. With triple-digit summer temperatures looming here, there are growing hopes that the decline in migration could bring relief from the horrific death toll of the past two years in Border Patrol's El Paso Sector. Last year, border agents found the bodies of 176 migrants in the 264-mile sector stretching from West Texas across New Mexico. They discovered 149 remains the year before. The toll represented a shocking increase from the 20 deaths recorded in 2019. The sector has become a focal point. That's in part because of the rise in deaths and in part because local Border Patrol leaders shared the sector statistics during two deadly years, when the Biden administration failed to provide broader numbers – despite a congressional mandate. U.S. Customs and Border Protection didn't respond to a USA TODAY request for the missing data for fiscal years 2023 and 2024. Along the length of the U.S.-Mexico border, migrant deaths climbed five years running through fiscal 2022, the last period for which data is publicly available. Deaths rose to 895 from 281 over that time, according to CBP. The numbers include human remains found by Border Patrol and other federal, state, local and tribal agencies. The climbing death toll prompted CBP to create the "Missing Migrant Program" in 2017, under the first Trump administration. The goal was "to help rescue migrants in distress and reduce migrant deaths along the Southwest border," according to an Government Accountability Office report. The program also helped facilitate the identification and return of migrant remains to their families. Under the new Trump administration, the effort has been renamed the "Missing Alien Program." The vast majority of migrant remains in El Paso Sector have been found in a single county, New Mexico's Doña Ana, in an area painfully close to life-saving assistance: main roads, a cluster of factories, residential neighborhoods. Looking north from the border fence, the desert appears flat, the bare Franklin Mountains in the distance to the northeast. New Mexico's two-lane Highway 9 parallels the border about three miles to the north. The proximity to the urban footprint is in part what made this region such a heavily trafficked crossing point. But within minutes of hiking into the desert, creosote bushes and mesquite pull the sand into disorienting mounds that can, without warning, block the view in every direction. Should a tired migrant collapse in their scant shade, the sand can run as hot as 150 degrees in the summer. "We were wondering why these individuals, or these bodies, were found very close to the border," Border Patrol Agent Claudio Herrera, a sector spokesman, told USA TODAY. "The saddest thing," he said, is that migrants who survived told us "they'd been in a stash house for weeks … without proper food and without water. So by the time they made the illegal entry, they were already dehydrated." An 'open graveyard' New Mexico's Office of the Medical Investigator is tasked with investigating reports of unattended deaths, including those in the desert near the border. In 2023, the agency officially began tracking remains that could belong to a "probable migrant." Last year, the agency positively identified 75% of migrant remains recovered in southern New Mexico, or 112 individuals, according to data provided to USA TODAY. Carpenter and her partner, Marine veteran James Holeman, organize the desert searches through a nonprofit, Battalion Search and Rescue. On a Saturday in May, as temperatures climbed toward 90 degrees, nine volunteers met Carpenter and Holeman at a Love's truck stop. They donned fluorescent orange-and-yellow shade hats. They readied their radios and turned on a cellphone GPS-tracking app, for safety and to map the terrain they covered. "It is a straight-up open graveyard," Holeman said of the 10- by 20-mile section of border they've been covering little by little since late 2023. Mary Mackay, a local school teacher, volunteered with Carpenter for the first time that day. "Emotionally, it was more than I expected," she later told USA TODAY. "You feel like you would be prepared to see a body, but then you actually see it and you realize that's a real person with an entire back story and family and wishes and dreams. And it all just ended there alone in the desert." The Battalion's search for migrant remains in New Mexico follows the footsteps of other volunteer teams working in deadly stretches of Arizona and California. Search volunteers typically try to comb through areas Border Patrol or local law enforcement might otherwise miss. The volunteers don't touch the bones, said Carpenter, also a former college administrator. They mark the sites with brightly colored tape tied to the brush. They record the precise location and alert local law enforcement in hopes that officials will come to collect the bones that remain. Sometimes they do; too often they don't, Carpenter said. Animals or wind sometimes scatter the remains, before volunteers or officials can reach them. Still, she said, each one matters in the quest to identify a missing migrant. A chipped bone could hold a clue. "It takes some time and effort to work wider circles around the site to identify everything," Carpenter said. "But that's important. Which family member wouldn't want all of their family's remains recovered?" Lauren Villagran can be reached at lvillagran@
