TWO daughters of an Accrington woman butchered to death by her son-in-law fled Blackburn Coroner's Court in tears during the inquest into her death.
Zarina Ahmed and Kauser Parveen found it too emotional to bear as the coroner heard that Zainab Begum's remains would probably never be found.
She was murdered on 13 January 2004 and dismembered in her Burnley Road home by barbaric son-in-law Muhammed Arshad, 39.
Detective Inspector Jim Elston, who at the time of the murder worked for Blackburn CID, told the inquest that Mrs Begum's disappearance was initially treated as a missing person case even though it would have been completely out of character.
That morning Mrs Begum, who was born in Faisalabad in Pakistan on New Year's Day 1948, had said goodbye to her daughter Neelam, who was 14 at the time.
On returning from school later that day Neelam was unable to get into the locked house.
Following media appeals and a review of the case, police searched the house and an officer discovered a fingerprint in what appeared to be blood at the top of the stairs by the bathroom.
Forensic examinations revealed several other seats of blood and DNA tests proved it was Mrs Begum's.
DI Elston said police investigations led to the arrest of Arshad, of Middleton Road, Crumpsall, Manchester, and his brother Mohammed Khan, 41, of the same address, who was later jailed for seven years for helping to dispose of Mrs Begum's body.
Trained butcher Arshad was sentenced to 24 years in prison for murder in 2005 and a later appeal against his sentence was dismissed.
The jury rejected his version of events that on visiting the house, mother-of-six daughters Mrs Begum had tried to seduce him and when he spurned her advances she fell and hit her head on a wall, leading to her death.
DI Elston said: "He went on to admit in some detail that he took it upon himself to dismember Mrs Begum's body in the house."
Arshad said the body parts were then transferred to the Millennium Takeaway on Church Street, Accrington, which he and his brother ran, where they continued their grisly butchering of the body.
Police later found large traces of Mrs Begum's blood at the food outlet.
Arshad also claimed to have attempted to further dismember the body in the garage of his Manchester home, although no DNA evidence was found to corroborate this.
He claimed the body parts were dumped in bins along Manchester's Curry Mile in Rusholme.
DI Elston said their inquiries revealed there were three waste collections a week and from there the body may have been removed to several landfill sites in the North West.
He said: "No parts have been located or recovered."
Following the inquest DI Elston dismissed speculation that Mrs Begum's remains could have ended up in takeaway food or in pies.
Coroner Michael Singleton had to request the right to hold an inquest without a body from the Home Office.
He was required to do this to formalise the situation so a death certificate could be issued.
He said that without a body it would be impossible to ascertain a cause of death.
He concluded that on 13 January 2004 Mrs Begum received a fatal injury as a result of an attack upon her.
He said: "This concludes the inquest and enables the family to have some sort of closure so they can deal with Mrs Begum's affairs and move forward."
