COPS have begun digging for the remains of a mum-of-three murdered 10 years ago in an honour killing that shocked the nation.
Tragic Rania Alayed, 25, was killed by her violent husband Ahmed Al-Khatib, 35, for becoming “too Westernised”.
Rania Alayed, 25, vanished from her home in 2013Rex Features
Jahangir Nazar was jailed for life for killing his wifeMEN Media
The SunPolice have begun digging for the remains of a mum-of-three[/caption]
He snapped after she sought help from lawyers in a desperate bid to escape her unhappy marriage.
She fled the family home and enrolled at a college, making new friends and started a relationship with a man she met on the internet.
But she vanished in June 2013 and her body has never been found.
Al-Khatib, who was convicted of her murder and sentenced to 20 years behind bars, has never revealed where he buried her.
But in a dramatic development officers from Greater Manchester Police (GMP) have begun to dig at the roadside on the A19 in Thirsk, North Yorks.
A digger was seen lifting swathes of turf as a team of officers – including a cadaver dog – began the painstaking search on an embankment as cars and lorries hurtled past.
GMP said it was acting on “new information” and concentrating its efforts on the outskirts of the picturesque market town.
A spokeswoman said: “We are carrying out a detailed search in relation to recovering the body of Rania Alayed”Following new information for a non-recent investigation, GMP’s Major
Incident Team have been authorised to begin looking at land on the side of the A19 near Thirsk.
“Officers will be on location to carry out a thorough search of the area identified and will keep disruption to the local community to a minimum, with no wider risk or threat to the public.
“GMP remain committed to finding Rania and will act on all available lines of enquiry when it is possible to do so to help bring some form of closure to her loved ones ten years on.”
Al Khatib, of Manchester, was handed a minimum term of 20 years for Rania’s murder.
His brothers Muhaned and Hussain were also jailed for helping to dispose of her body.
They claimed to have dumped her somewhere on the A19 – but refused to say exactly where.
Instead, all they offered was a 19-mile stretch of the dual carriageway.
Sentencing Al Khatib, Mr Justice Leggatt said: “The contempt you showed for Rania in death matched the contempt of how you treated her in life.”
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