We start this one with a bit of chaos, as usual, a catch-up about gigs, half term, the price of fireworks and the ongoing trauma of David Walliams audiobooks (because honestly, why is he everywhere?). But once we’ve had our rant, we’re heading back to South London for a story that’s as shocking as it is tragic.

In December 1969, Wimbledon was the picture of quiet suburbia, Christmas lights, family dinners, and that post-holiday haze where no one quite knows what day it is. But on Arthur Road, behind the warm glow of St Mary’s House, something unthinkable happened. When Alick McKay came home, he found chaos, an open door, a torn-off telephone, his wife’s glasses on the carpet, and their dachshund Carly pacing by the fire. Muriel was gone.

What followed became Britain’s first modern kidnap-for-ransom, a crime born from desperation, greed and mistaken identity. Two brothers from Hertfordshire thought they were targeting Rupert Murdoch’s glamorous wife. Instead, they took an ordinary woman from Wimbledon and set off a manhunt that gripped the nation.

We trace the story from Muriel’s quiet life in South London to the police investigation that changed British criminal history, a case without a body, a family’s fifty-five-year fight for answers, and a tragedy that still echoes today.

Sources include:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-67981800
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Muriel_McKay
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-beds-bucks-herts-68514150
https://www.personsunknown.net/p/55-years-later-will-muriel-mckay
https://www.itv.com/news/london/2025-09-18/muriel-mckay-im-going-to-kidnap-someone-wealthy-recalls-former-shop-owner
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/article/2024/jul/15/police-start-new-search-for-remains-of-murdered-muriel-mckay
https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/the-calm-before-the-storm-the-murder-of-muriel-mckay
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-11/search-for-answers-muriel-mckay/104257842
https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/muriel-mckay-mistaken-identity-kidnap-ransom-and-murder/id1776843975?i=1000676681448
https://www.murielmckay.com
https://news.sky.com/story/farm-where-muriel-mckay-is-buried-isnt-worth-market-value-family-says-as-body-remains-unfound
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0021cx6

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Produced and hosted by Hannah Williams & Rachel Baines
Mixed & edited by Purple Waves Sound (A.K.A Will)