'My wife and five kids were killed at home - I still don't know what happened'
It's been 13 years since Dr Abdul Shakoor devastatingly lost his wife and five children in a house fire, and the murder investigation, called Operation Shakespeare, still remains unsolved.
On the night of October 15, 2012, at 1.40 am, the Shakoor family were sound asleep in their terraced home in Barn Mead, Harlow, when a blaze took over the ground floor. Around the same time, a silver Ford Focus was also set alight, alarmingly close to the house fire.
Their residence was rapidly consumed by flames and smoke. In a desperate bid to alert others and get help for his family, Dr Shakoor managed to leap from an upstairs window.
He landed on a car parked below and attempted to re-enter his home with a neighbour to rescue his beloved family. He suffered minor burns as he battled to free his family, but tragically, the fire spread too quickly and his wife and their five children did not survive.
Dr Shakoor's wife, Dr Sabah Usmani, 44, and sons Sohaib, 11, Rayyan, six, and daughter Hira, 13, were killed in the house fire, while his son, Muneeb, nine, and daughter Maheen, three, died later in hospital.
At first, it was suspected arson, but after a laptop bag was found at a nearby estate that contained photos belonging to the family, a murder investigation was launched. Detectives also said that a burglary had taken place at the house on that fateful day, believing it to be the same person who could have set their house on fire.
However, to this day, police have yet to find the culprit responsible. On a BBC podcast, Who Killed the Shakoors?, 13 years later, claims were made about how forensic evidence was gathered from the scene.
Fire investigator David Hajakostas examined the scene at the house but raised concerns about the cordoned areas where vital evidence needed to be collected. He said on the podcast: "There was an outer and inner cordon in place... but when I arrived, there were people inside the outer cordon who shouldn't have been there."
Ian Peck, from Prometheus Forensic Services, reviewed the scene of the fire at the time but spoke of his own concerns on the BBC podcast regarding how evidence was preserved. He criticised how some evidence was packaged and said, "If it had come to me for analysis, I probably would've rejected it."
Further concerns were raised, but Essex Police told the BBC podcast that "heat damage significantly compromised forensics. Items were examined on scene before being moved and no accelerants were detected."
Dr Shakoor also appeared on the podcast and spoke of his unimaginable loss and the heartache he faces every day, not knowing who is behind the devastating fire that saw him lose his beloved family.
On the podcast, he said: "I'm really shocked because I never thought they wouldn't have done it properly. We have put our own trust in them. But when you hear these sort of things, really, it gives a very shocking feeling of dismay."
Dr Shakoor, who is originally from Pakistan, added: "When we came to England, we thought it is the most safest country. We felt really safe and then that thing happened.
"But when we hear something like that, so it really brings some waves of shock, feeling of helpless, you know. We are waiting for a long time, it has an impact on not only myself, but as a community."
Speaking about the case last year, Detective Chief Inspector Louise Metcalfe, from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate, said: "Dr Shakoor lives with the unimaginable pain of losing his entire family; a wife who he had planned to grow old with; children who he imagined growing up and going on to do great things. But that future was taken from him exactly 12 years ago. For 12 years, no one has faced justice for what happened but I remain committed to changing that."
She continued: "I have met with Dr Shakoor and I see his unwavering determination to see someone – or some people – held accountable for his family's deaths. I am committed to doing all we can to give him that." DCI Metcalfe added that "no case is ever closed."
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