A new BBC Local podcast series explores one of Essex’s most harrowing unsolved murder cases, where six members of the same family died in a house fire over a decade ago.
In the early hours of 15 October 2012, a blaze tore through a home in Barn Mead, Harlow. Dr Abdul Shakoor escaped through an upstairs window, but he lost his entire family – his wife Dr Sabah Usmani and their five children: Hira (12), Sohaib (11), Muneeb (9), Rayyan (6) and Maheen (3).
That same night, a neighbour’s car was also set alight nearby. Essex Police launched one of their largest ever investigations – Operation Shakespeare – and quickly discovered that the fires had been started deliberately. But despite multiple arrests and a £20,000 Crimestoppers reward publicised on BBC’s Crimewatch, no one has ever been charged.
Dr Shakoor remains without answers more than twelve years later, he says: “We have been waiting for a long time for justice; it impacts not only myself but an entire community. We really need some sort of a conclusion and some closure.”
The new five-part series, Crime Next Door: Who Killed the Shakoors?, will look at what went wrong with the investigation and share new information never previously made public.
Chris Burns, Controller of Local Audio Commissioning at the BBC, said: “This is an astonishingly sad story which still has no resolution. I am grateful that Doctor Shakoor trusted BBC Local with his story.”
Crime Next Door: Who Killed the Shakoors? is available on BBC Sounds from today, Wednesday 21 May.
