Police search for body of Rania Alayed off A19 near Thirsk
Officers with a digger were seen back at the side of the A19 in North Yorkshire today (Monday, February 24) looking for the remains of Rania Alayed. The 25-year-old mum-of-three, formerly of Norton and later Manchester, was killed at her brother-in-law's Salford flat in June 2013 by husband Ahmed Al Khatib but her body was never found. Rania was born in Syria in 1987 and moved to Teesside with her husband to escape conflict in the Middle East.
She left him the January before he killed her to escape his abuse. Al Khatib was jailed for life with a minimum 20-year term. He had been unhappy when she started college and wearing make-up, a court heard.
His brothers Muhaned and Hussain were also jailed for perverting the course of justice. Muhaned told the trial they buried her at the side of a layby off the A19 in North Yorkshire, and several searches have taken place since. 
Officers were seen by motorists working at the scene near Thirsk on Monday. A Greater Manchester Police (GMP) spokesperson said: "Our officers are carrying out a detailed search in relation to recovering the body of Rania Alayed. "We have acted on information that has been available to us, and we are now looking at a further section of layby on the A19 Thirsk as we continue to do everything we can to help bring some form of closure to her loved ones.
"We will be on location to carry out a thorough search of the area identified and will keep disruption to the local community to a minimum, with no wider risk or threat to the public." Click here to join our WhatsApp community and get breaking news updates direct to your phone.[1] Searches first took place in 2013, before the conviction, with GMP searching a 15-mile stretch for her body.
At the time a letter was sent to the owners of 350 cars travelling in the area on June 8, 2013, asking for information about a white campervan believed to have been parked in a layby between 3am and 5am that morning.
In October 2023 officers acting on "new information" moved in on a layby near Thirsk after but no remains were found.
Police were spotted at the scene again last November, and once more on Monday.