Murder of Shafilea Ahmed

Shafilea Ahmed born in 1986, was a British woman from Great Sankey,Warrington (a large town near the Mersey Estuary) who is believed to have been murdered, possibly by a member of her family in a 'Honour' Killing after she turned down a suitor for an Arranged Marriage (that police suspect may have been a forced marriage, however her parents were released without charge after briefly having been arrested along with five other members of her family from her Extended Family) on her while she was on a family holiday in Pakistan in early 2003. In an apparent suicide attempt, in desperation she swallowed bleach causing internal damage so serious it required great medical attention over a period of time.

There was mass media coverage for her that touched many people over the nation that continued for many months.

There were several poems written by Miss Ahmed, that proved interesting to police, the reflected the utter despair she was in. About how her family had changed to and having a forced marriage put upon her. She had indeed run away from home several times in the past, as a result of the situation at home. A student who wanted to become a lawyer, she disappeared on September 11, 2003 and her corpse was tragically found in February 2004 in the River Kent near Sedgwick near Kendal in the Lake District (70 miles away from Warrington) after heavy flooding in the area, police said it was hidden deliberately, jewellery found with the body was identified by her parents as hers. Shafilea's body was such in a bad state a precise cause of death could not be determined by the coruner. The Police believe such was the state of the body that it had probably been there since the day she disappeared or not long after. A 2nd post mortem was ordered, but nothing came of that either. The police believed someone in the community is involved and that her family was too.

The investidation by Cheshire Constabulary into the murder of Miss Shafila Ahmed remains ongoing and after 3 years has not established who killed her.

References

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