Nishi murder: police gain questioning extension

8:04am Friday 8th December 2006

MAGISTRATES have granted police an extra 32 hours to question two men arrested over the murder of special constable Nisha Patel-Nasri.

Two separate London magistrates courts have allowed police to hold the men arrested on Wednesday morning over the murder of the hairdresser outside her North Wembley home earlier this year.

A 37-year-old man from north London and a 41-year-old man from east London were arrested in the early hours of Wednesday, December 6, police said.

The 29-year-old hairdresser was alone, in her nightdress and carrying a torch when she was stabbed in the leg outside her home, in Sudbury Avenue, just before midnight on May 11 this year.

The pair, the first to be arrested over the murder, are currently in custody at separate London police stations.

The arrests follow the discovery of a light coloured Audi A4 from a street in south west London last Thursday.

It is believed to be the car detectives had previously appealed for information on after it was seen on CCTV acting suspiciously in Harrowdene Road, which runs parallel to Sudbury Avenue, before and after her murder.

CCTV cameras at a tile shop in East Lane filmed the car one hour before the murder as it drove up Harrowdene Road. The car may have picked up the suspect, a black hooded man seen running away from the scene.

In September, police said the missing kitchen knife that killed Ms Patel-Nasri was found complete with DNA of the killer on it.

It is still unclear if Mrs Patel-Nasri had taken the knife with her to investigate a possible burglary or if the suspect took the knife from the kitchen and chased the hairdresser out of her home.

For "operational reasons" police have never said where or when the knife, a 30cm John Lewis Evolution cooking knife, was found.

Her husband, Fadi Nasri, 32, had gone out for the night and was never a suspect in the case.

The couple had been celebrating their third wedding anniversary in the hours prior to the attack.

Anyone with information should call 020 8247 7821, or to remain anonymous, call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

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