Muriel McKay remains search called off after 55 years

UK police on Monday said a fresh search for the body of a woman kidnapped and murdered over 50 years ago after being mistaken for Australian media tycoon Rupert Murdoch's wife had been unsuccessful.

A police team including forensic archaeologists scoured a farm north of London for the third time a week ago after one of the men convicted of the kidnapping claimed to know the location of victim Muriel McKay's body.

Brothers Nizamodeen and Arthur Hosein kidnapped McKay, then 55, in 1969 for a £1 million ransom -- the equivalent now to £14 million ($18 million) -- thinking that she was Murdoch's second wife Anna.

The brothers had followed Murdoch's Rolls-Royce unaware he had lent it to his Australian deputy Alick McKay, Muriel's husband.

But London's Metropolitan Police force said that a fresh dig at Stocking Farm near the town of Bishop's Stortford relying on information provided by Nizamodeen Hosein had failed to find McKay's body.

"The whole team are disappointed that this was the outcome," Commander Steve Clayman told reporters.

Detective Superintendent Katherine Goodwin said investigating officers could now "conclusively say the information" provided by Hosein "is not correct".

"Muriel is not in the location that he has indicated," she said, defending the Met's decision -- opposed by the family -- not to bring Hosein to the UK from Trinidad to assist with the search.

She said there were inconsistencies in the guidance he had given, perhaps due to memory lapses but also potentially deliberately withholding details about what happened on the night McKay died.

The brothers were convicted of murder and kidnapping after a 1970 trial, but denied killing her and refused to reveal where she was buried.

Nizamodeen served 20 years in prison and was then deported to Trinidad, while his brother Arthur died in prison in the UK in 2009.

Hosein last December gave McKay's family a sworn statement confirming the location of the body, telling them he wanted his "conscience to be clear".

He was in touch with police as recently as Monday morning via his lawyer with new information about where the body might be.

He has previously claimed McKay collapsed and died while watching a television news report about her kidnapping.

McKay's grandson, Mark Dryer, said last week the focus of the latest search was an area behind a barn that had not been dug before.