Family of woman who was found in freezer year after disappearance say police never apologised

The cousin of a woman whose body was found in a freezer a year after she was first reported missing has claimed the Met still hasn’t apologised for failing to take the disappearance seriously.

Mother-of-three Mihrican ‘Jan’ Mustafa, 38 was murdered by Zahid Younis, who stored her body in his east London flat for almost a year until she was discovered by chance in April 2019.

Now, her cousin, Ayse Hussein, has hit out at the Met’s handling of the investigation and said the force “did nothing for us” in the months following her disappearance in May 2018.

Convicted sex-offender Younis, 36, was jailed in September 2020 for a minimum of 38 years after being found guilty of the murder of Ms Mustafa and another woman, Henriett Szucs, 34.

Ms Mustafa’s family have spoken out on the same day, Dame Louise Casey is to publish her review into culture and standards in the Met.

The long awaited review is expected to point to a string of examples where officers guilty of racism, sexism, homophobia and bullying were able to remain in their jobs.

Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Ms Hussein said: “In the Met's eyes, Jan was nothing to them.

“She was a very, very vulnerable woman at the time.

“Just because she was vulnerable, it doesn't mean she shouldn't get the same as everyone else.

“She wasn't a doctor, she wasn't a nurse but she was a person, she was our loved one. And the way we were treated by the Met was disgusting.”

She added: “They never said sorry. Even when Jan was found the police that were taking our investigation never contacted us again…

"It would have been nice just to have an apology or acknowledge that Jan was found.”

The discovery of Ms Mustafa’s body came after Younis’s property had been visited on two occasions by officers in December 2018 when he breached the conditions attached to being a registered sex offender.

It was not until April 2019 - when he was reported as missing by an acquaintance - that officers visited his home to check on his welfare.

Det Ch Insp Simon Harding said one of the officers forced open the small, padlocked chest freezer in the flat on an “old-fashioned police hunch” and found what he thought was one body.

An x-ray of the appliance later revealed the two murdered women had been stowed inside.

A spokesman for the Met told the Today programme: “Various lines of enquiry were conducted to try and locate [Ms Mustafa].

“After her body was found, the force referred itself to the police watchdog and when the Met’s own directorate of professional standards investigated it identified learning for the unit involved.”