Son’s hope to seek out murdered mum’s physique 30 years after his dad killed her

Rasheed Vaughan was simply seven-years-old when police took him into his kitchen and instructed him they believed his mom was lifeless.

Laura May had been reported lacking, together with her disappearance sparking a homicide investigation that shocked the nation.

His father, Jordan-born physician Hassan Al Shatanawi, could be discovered responsible of murdering his spouse and sentenced to life in jail in October 1994. 

However, nearly 30 years on, Shatanawi has nonetheless by no means come clear about his crime.

Now in his 70s, he has additionally by no means revealed what occurred to the 35-year-old lady’s stays – inflicting her household anguish to at the present time.

It is now three many years for the reason that homicide investigation and her son Rasheed has chosen to inform his story for the primary time.

Speaking to TeesideLive the 37-year-old father-of-one mentioned: “I love my mum so much and I will never stop trying to find her.

“My mum would like to have met my son and see me develop up. We want it wasn’t the case however we might need nothing greater than to have the ability to put my mum to relaxation.

“I remember going on holidays with her, we went to Rhodes – me and my mum, aunty and uncle – I remember going on trips to Scarborough. I have so many lovely memories. I’ve been told she lived life to the full.”

There were 16 months between his mum’s disappearance and his father being jailed, but Rasheed remembers snippets of chaos.

He said: “I remember being picked up from school by my mum’s best friend and it was just after then the police were coming. I was having blood tests. I remember the police taking me into the kitchen and telling me that they think my mum is dead and I just burst into tears.”

Hassan and Laura May had married in Egypt and moved to England in 1985. She had been studying tourism at Hartlepool College of Further Education and had just sat an exam before she disappeared. 

Shatanawi had asked around after Laura May and told friends and family that the trainee-travel agent may have taken a last-minute holiday to Turkey or was working in Hungary.

He continued to lie before reporting his wife missing after three weeks. Suspicions grew and a week later he was arrested.

Detectives discovered how Shatanawi had rented an allotment a few miles from his home in Seaton Carew, Hartlepool and ordered a new garden shed to be put up immediately.

Shortly afterwards witnesses reported seeing black smoke on the allotment, with Shatanawi paying a workman £10 to dismantle and burn the shed.

Instead the man sold the shed to a friend and then recognised Shatanawi when he appealed through the media to help find Laura. The workman contacted police and forensic officers found Laura May’s blood and hair on the shed’s partly gouged away floor.

The jury at Shatanawi’s trial at Newcastle Crown Court heard the then-46-year-old murdered his wife in order to set up home with his mistress and their five-year-old son.

Rasheed said: “We know nothing for definite. We don’t know the ins and outs. There’s only two people who know what happened – my mum is dead and my dad, I don’t know where he is now.

“I visited him at Holme House Prison in the months before the trial but after he was sentenced, I’ve never seen him since. There were a few letters backwards and forwards – I was at the age where I still didn’t really know what to do.

“One minute I hated him, didn’t want to see him and wanted to kill him – the next I thought about reaching out. There was a lot of anger and confusion. Looking back now I sort of regret, if I went to at least see him it might have been different – would he have told me?

“Since he has been deported I am trying to locate him because if he’s going to tell anybody where my mum’s body is it would be me. I always think where could she be. We’ve never been able to give her a resting place.”

Speaking of life before his mum’s murder, Rasheed admits it was hard at times and he could be frightened of his father.

Shatanawi was released after just over 18 years in prison and deported to Jordan, despite warnings from the parole board that he was still a danger. 

These days, Helen’s Law means criminals who do not disclose the location of their victim’s remains cannot be granted parole, but this legislation came in too late for Laura-May’s family. 

Rasheed, who now works at Durham County Council, added:  “I didn’t have much contact after the sentencing and, from what I can gather, he did reach out first. I was confused and upset. It took me a couple of years to engage with him and I went through a phase of engaging with him but it died off.

“I struggled with it a lot. Towards the end of his first parole hearing, we met with the probation service. We had to put a family impact statement together and he was turned down. It was looking like it would be turned down and knocked back again but it was then within days that he was out and deported.

“The second time he was up for parole he did send me a letter and the visiting order – but he had spelt my name wrong. By the time the probation officer and I got it sorted all this had happened and he was gone, on a plane to Jordan.

“I know everybody can throw the word ‘murderer’ around but at the end of the day he’s still my dad. Growing up he was my dad and we had some good times. It was difficult, really difficult to deal with and come to terms with.”

Rasheed has not heard from his father since he was deported.  

He mentioned: “For all we know he could be dead. He could be in prison.

“I’d like to listen to from him. I do know I had my probabilities to essentially get going and talk with him. I do know I’m to not blame – I feel my feelings received in the best way.

“I was too young and I was in turmoil like everyone else. I would like to speak to him. Things are different now, I’m older and wiser. There’s no barriers like what there once was.”

Rasheed added that he needs to ensure his mom’s reminiscence lives on.

He mentioned: “That’s so important to me. “My uncle Donald, who was my mum’s brother, by no means let her reminiscence die, however sadly he handed away final 12 months. I additionally need to spark folks’s reminiscence in regards to the case in case they’ve any data that might assist us discover her.”

In 2005, forensic specialists excavated part of Seaton Carew Golf Course after a man came forward as having seen someone struggling to carry and bury something in the area around the time of Laura May’s disappearance. 

Rasheed said: “He was proper, there was somebody struggling to hold one thing and after they dug it up it was the stays of a canine. People do see stuff, take discover and bear in mind even when years have passed by.

“Whenever I hear of anything on the news of badly decomposed bodies, I always ring up in case it could be mum. One time after I rang one police force it was months and months before I heard back and I was sat thinking ‘this is it’.

“Per week later they referred to as up and mentioned they’d recognized her and it wasn’t mum. I assumed not less than someone is getting their cherished one again.”

Rasheed added: “There’s so many households which are in the same boat to us – completely different tales however all of us have a cherished one which we won’t discover. My dad was delivered to justice and served his time so we’ve got some factor of closure there however for lots of others they do not have that.”

“I feel if we get my mum’s physique again and provides her a resting place we’ll have that factor of closure that we have been with out for thus lengthy.

“I do hold out hope that we’ll find her. Life works in mysterious ways, things happen when you least expect it – even maybe after all this time. It never goes out of my mind.”

Rasheed was taken in by Laura May’s aunt Shirli Traynor after the homicide, and she or he did all she may to guard him from the media frenzy. 

She instructed TeesideLive: “It is 30 years since Rasheed lost his mum. On his eighth birthday I brought him to live with me. He had lost everything – everything he was used to: parents, his home, friends, school and neighbours.

“It was a horrible and troublesome time for us attempting to return to phrases with what had occurred.

“We were so confused and struggled that such a dreadful predicament could happen to our family. But over the years we did get on with our lives, thanks to our lovely family and friends. Rasheed has turned out to be a good, hardworking man, much-liked in the community with a lovely supporting partner and a beautiful son of his own.

“We have by no means stopped grieving the lack of Laura May and we’ve got by no means forgotten her. I do know she could be so pleased with her devoted Rasheed and his household.”

Acting Detective Superintendent Peter Carr, from Cleveland Police’s historic investigation unit and homicide and major enquiry team: “Laura’s family have endured unimaginable distress over so many years and our thoughts remain with them.

“They need – and deserve – to know the location of her body so that they can gain some kind of closure. We’d therefore urge anyone with information to come forward, anonymously if they prefer. They can contact Cleveland Police on the 101 number, online via the website or pass information anonymously to www.crimestoppers-uk.org (telephone 0800 555 111).”