How ‘unusual’ pink carpet could hold key clue to solve mysterious murder of girl, 11, who vanished on way to school
GRABBING her Take That backpack, PE kit and some loose change for sweets, 11-year-old Nayantara Ali waved goodbye to her grandmother and set off for school just after 8am.
She lived a short 15-minute walk away and usually took one of two routes both involving a potential stop at a local sweet shop.
It was a routine she followed religiously but on this particular November day, Nayantara, known also as Nayan, vanished and was never seen alive again.
It was after 25 days of searching that Nayan’s naked body was found wrapped in a pea-green bed sheet, just yards from her home.
And now, as the 30-year anniversary of her violent murder approaches, her killer still hasn’t been caught.
A doting granddaughter
Nayan’s family knew instantly that something was amiss when she failed to come home on time from school at 4pm like she usually did.
When the school confirmed she hadn’t arrived there either that day, her family instantly feared the worst.
It was completely out of character for the schoolgirl, who lived with her grandmother, aunt and uncle, Aleem Malik, in Forest Gate, East London, as her parents still lived in Pakistan.
She was particularly close to her grandma, the pair shared a room, and she would spend time each morning plaiting Nayan’s long hair for school before waving her off for the day.
She would cheekily tease her nan over her ‘bad’ cooking but she wasn’t known to misbehave or ever wander off.
‘Things like this happen everyday’
Frantic with worry, Mr Malik called the police, but at the time of Nayan’s disappearance, her family were critical of their response, claiming it was three and a half hours before they arrived at the family home.
Once there, reports from the time reveal the family claimed the police asked questions such as: “Did you force her to wear Asian clothes? Did you have any plans to send her back to Pakistan against her will? Has an arranged marriage been set up for her?”
It was in stark contrast to how Nayan’s family felt the police reacted to the disappearance of Lindsay Rimer, a white girl from Yorkshire, who’d gone missing around the same time, a case which attracted huge attention.
Nayan’s uncle Mr Malik told The Independent at the time: “The police refused to believe that Nayan had been abducted.
“‘Things like this happen every day,’ they said. They just wanted to make excuses.”
However, Detective Superintendant Douglas Harvey, from North East London’s Major Investigation Pool, insisted he was satisfied his team did their best to find Nayan.
“Mr Malik’s complaints were without foundation. He wanted us to find his niece. We didn’t. He is upset. That is understandable,” he responded.
An appeal for help
A press conference was arranged five days after Nayan went missing on November 9, with her mum arriving for the appeal from Pakistan.
But the family were unhappy, and questioned why their case gained such little publicity, with Mr Malik hurt by the lack of interest.
Mr Malik later concluded that the press conference had been the “peak”. From then on it was “all downhill”.
A body wrapped in a bedsheet
Despite the criticism, appeals for information were made, and the search focused around Nayan’s home and two possible 15-minute walking routes she used to get to school.
A friend said she thought she saw her buying sweets from a nearby shop that morning on Odessa Road.
However there was also a sweet shop on Dames Road which Nayan would also go to, which was opposite a large, open green, Wanstead Flats.
In the first week 50 temporary staff and 12 CID officers were assigned to chase up leads.
However Nayan’s disappearance took a heartbreaking turn on November 29 – almost a month after she first went missing – when her body was discovered.
It was established the schoolgirl had been sexually assaulted and battered before she was killed.
If Nayan was alive, she would have come home. She hadn’t, so she had to be dead.”
Nayan's uncle Aleem Malik
Her naked body was wrapped in a green bedsheet and a piece of pink carpet, buried under rubble and dumped in a disused stonemason’s yard beside the railway tracks, just yards from her home.
The yard was a known fly-tipping hotspot, and whoever put her there almost certainly had local knowledge.
Upon hearing the news, Nayan’s bereft mother ran into the street screaming for her daughter, shouting: “Nayan where are you? Nayan where are you?”
Nayan’s family were left devastated at the grisly find but were also angry at the police for their lacklustre investigation.
Speaking at the time Nayan’s uncle, Aleem said: “The police decided that this was a family thing – another Asian girl rebelling against her family.
“I kept telling them `Nayan has been abducted’, but they didn’t take me seriously.”
The disappearance of Nayantara - a timeline
November 4, 1994, 8:15am: Nayantara sets off for school, like she always did. She was carrying a Take That backpack, her PE kit, an umbrella and wearing her school uniform.
Later that morning, a friend reported seeing her in a local sweet shop on Odessa Road, round the corner from her home.
November 4, 1994, 4pm: Nayan’s family become concerned when she fails to return home. A call to the school confirms she hadn’t turned up that morning, and the police are called.
November 9, 1994: Police arrange a press conference attended by Nayan’s mum.
November 29, 1994: 25 agonising days after she first went missing, Nayan’s body was discovered, wrapped in a green sheet and dumped just yards from her home in a fly-tipping hotspot.
A pea-green sheet
The case was featured on BBC show Crimewatch and the public were asked to call in with any information.
The show focused on two crucial bits of evidence – a pea-green single, fitted sheet which unusually had a valance attached and a seven foot piece of thick-pile pink carpet, cut into a circle, perhaps once used as a rug in a bedroom.
Speaking on the show and referencing the rug, Detective Super Intendant Doug Harvey said: “The unusual thing about it is it appears to have been unprofessionally cut from a larger piece of carpet.
“Perhaps a viewer knows someone who’s done that or maybe the remnants are still lying somewhere.
“The other thing about it is it is possible the body was carried through the streets for a short distance in the carpet.”
Referring to the sheet, the detective added: “What I’m hoping for is in a very local area, if someone has looked over their neighbour’s fence and seen such a sheet hanging on their washing line or maybe in a service wash in a launderette – we must hear from them.”
Nayan’s clothes, her school uniform including a black jumper with the school’s logo on and her red striped tie, an umbrella, PE kit and school bag she was carrying – a distinctive Take That drawstring bag – were not discovered.
‘We just wanted a body’
However, police were no further forward to catching her killer, much to the devastation of Nayan’s family.
“As the weeks went by, we gave up asking the police for information,” said Mr Malik. “It got to the point where we just wanted the body.
“If Nayan was alive, she would have come home. She hadn’t, so she had to be dead.”
The police at the time defended their investigation, with Detective Super intendant Douglas Harvey saying: “I treated Nayan’s disappearance as a potential murder from the day I was put on to the case.
“As the weeks went by, we gave up asking the police for information. It got to the point where we just wanted the body.”
Nayan's uncle, Aleem Malik
“I just didn’t tell the family. I didn’t want to upset them.
“Mr Malik doesn’t understand police procedure. He doesn’t understand that once we’ve finished searching, there is little we can do but follow up sightings and continue door-to-door inquiries.”
His colleague Detective Inspector Frank Weatherley, from Leyton police station, agreed.
He said: “Mr Malik has been sitting in his front room for the last few weeks. Just because the search isn’t taking place outside his window, he thinks it isn’t happening.”
But Mr Malik refused to accept their explanation. He said: “She might have been saved if the police hadn’t stereotyped her.
“To them, Nayan was just another Asian girl who was unhappy at home – another Asian girl trying to escape a strict, traditional upbringing.
“She died because they did not take her disappearance seriously.
“There is nothing more to say.”
An unanswered mystery
A member of the public submitted a Freedom of Information request to the Metropolitan Police in 2020 asking whether any DNA evidence was discovered and for an update on the investigation.
The request was refused and what happened to Nayan that fateful day still remains a mystery.
A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: “As with all unsolved murders, the investigation into the murder of 11-year-old Nayantara Ali is open, and detectives remain committed to securing justice for her family.”