Police search land beside A19 for remains of North East mum killed by estranged husband

An area of land next the A19 is being searched by police for the remains of a mum-of-three who was killed by her estranged husband.

Rania Alayed, who had previously lived on Teesside, was just 25 when she died at the hands of her husband Ahmed Al-Khatib in June 2013. He murdered the young mum at his brother's flat in Salford, before launching an elaborated deception aimed at convincing her family and friends that she was still alive.

Al-Khatib said he had buried her in a copse between trees near the A19 in Thirsk, North Yorkshire but her body has never been found. However on Tuesday morning, officers from Greater Manchester Police could be seen searching a ditch beside the A19, on the northbound side of the carriageway, just past Northallerton, Teesside Live reports.

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A spokesman for Greater Manchester Police said: "We remain committed to pursuing all opportunities in order to identify Rania’s burial location and recovering her body, and in recent months, new information came to light which has led to some police activity in the North Yorkshire area. Disruption to the local community will be/was kept to a minimum, with no wider risk or threat to the public.

"We continue to do all we can to find Rania and we 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 eleven years on."

Over the years, the painstaking search for Rania's body has involved officers from both North Yorkshire and Greater Manchester police forces, with support from the military. Excavations have so far concentrated on a number of laybys next to a stretch of the A168/A19 near Thirsk.

At the time, detectives said they believed a white camper van was used in her disappearance and was parked in a layby near the A19 in the early hours of Saturday, June 8, 2013. In August that year, officers were seen searching a layby near the B1448 turn-off at Thirsk.

Then in October 2023, officers from Greater Manchester Police returned to the A19 area and used a digger and a team of officers, including a cadaver dog.

In June 2014, Al-Khatib was sentenced to life with a minimum of 20 years in prison. His brother Muhanned Al-Khatib, of Salford, was found not guilty of murder but had already admitted perverting the course of justice by hiding Rania's body and was jailed for three years.

The prosecution told the Manchester Crown Court trial Al-Khatib was a physically and sexually abusive husband who killed Rania for leaving him and becoming “too Westernised”. Rania moved from Norton to Manchester in January 2013, and had previously lived in Middlesbrough.