Family of murdered ISIS hostage say they are sick of waiting for his body to be found

The family of a murdered Islamic State hostage have told how they are ‘sick of waiting’ for his body to be found five years after he was beheaded.

Former RAF engineer David Haines, 44, from Perth, Scotland, was murdered in Syria in September 2014 after being abducted and held prisoner for 18 months.

The Yorkshire-born aid worker appeared in a sickening ISIS murder video, kneeling in the desert in an orange jumpsuit before being beheaded by Jihadi John.

But Mr Haines’s family are still waiting for his body to be returned – and his daughter Bethany, 22, is campaigning to bring it back to Scotland so she scatter his ashes.

Her hopes were boosted last year when authorities said they were looking for potential burial sites after capturing two Isis fighters implicated in his killing.

But no trace of his body was found – and Miss Haines has grown frustrated with the lack of progress having been dealing with the Foreign Office.

She told the Daily Record: ‘There have been so many signs they think it might be (his body) and it’s not.

‘When I asked if they were actively going out and looking, they said they weren’t and rely on information and not speculation.

‘Even if they do get leads, I strongly suspect they need confirmation and collaboration to be able to act on it.

‘We and the other families are finding it hard to get closure. If no one else is going to do it, I will. I’m sick of waiting around.’

Mr Haines’s family knew he had been kidnapped in Syria in March 2013 while working for Acted and had kept quiet in order not to derail any rescue attempts.

But he was executed by an Isis cell which also murdered British aid worker Alan Henning, US journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and US worker Peter Kassig.

His brother Mike Haines has since sought to continue his work by visiting schools and community groups to combat extremist indoctrination of young people.

British militant Mohammed Emwazi, known as Jihadi John, who was from Queens Park in West London, was killed in a drone strike in Raqqa in November 2015.

A Foreign Office spokesman said: ‘The FCO has advised British nationals against all travel to Syria since 2011 and has no diplomatic or consular presence there.

‘Consular support is not available in Syria and Her Majesty’s Government has no legal obligation to provide consular assistance.’

Source: Daily Mail