The body of a teenager from London who was missing for eight months has been found murdered in an attic.
Abdi Ali, 17, went missing from his family home hours after his sister’s wedding on 11 December 2017.
Police were notified and his family made desperate appeals for information.
On Monday 27 August, his body was found in the loft of a property less than a mile away after a tip-off to the police. He had suffered blunt force and stab wounds.
Abdi’s older sister Kowsar said it was “torture” for her family not knowing his whereabouts.
She told the London Evening Standard: “My last memory of him is in a suit at his sister’s wedding. He was so happy. I had no idea we were all together for the last time.
“We were praying every night just to hear his voice again.”
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Abdi moved to London from Somalia with his seven siblings in 2008.
He had dropped out of college shortly before going missing.
His sister added: “We knew something was wrong straight away but the police didn’t take it seriously enough.
“They kept moving the case on to other officers then telling us they’d gone on holiday. We didn’t want to hear that as a family. We feared the worst but did not expect him to be killed in that violent way.
“He was just 17 and we want to know why. He never said he was in danger, he loved life, he was a happy person.”
Abdi’s body was found after officers raided a home in nearby Hartmoor Mews.
A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as blunt force trauma to the head and stab wounds to the chest.
Scotland Yard said: “The Met’s Specialist Crime Review Group will conduct a review, as is usual where someone re-ported missing is found deceased.”
Gary Hopkins, 36, and Stacey Do-charty, 28, will appear at the Old Bailey on November 23 on charges of murder, perverting the course of justice and preventing lawful burial.
