The cause of the death of Sara Sharif has not yet been established, an inquest has heard, although coroners said the 10-year-old’s death – which has led to an international manhunt – was likely to be “unnatural”.
Sara’s body was found alone at home in Woking, Surrey, on 10 August, a day after her family had travelled to Pakistan.
British police say her father, Urfan Sharif, 41, made a 999 call from Islamabad that led them to find his daughter’s body.
The inquest opening into her death revealed that the exact cause of death was “not yet ascertained”, but was likely to be “unnatural”, Surrey coroner’s court heard on Tuesday.
It follows claims from Urfan Sharif’s brother, Imran Sharif, who said while he was in the custody of Jhelum police in Pakistan that his niece “fell down the stairs and broke her neck”.
The coroner, Simon Wickens, adjourned inquest proceedings until 29 February to allow Surrey police to continue investigating. He offered his “sincere condolences” to all those “touched by Sara’s short life”.
Police believe that Urfan Sharif’s partner, Beinash Batool, 29, and his brother Faisal Malik, 28, also travelled to Islamabad the day before Sara’s body was found. Detectives from Pakistan and the UK are attempting to track the family down. Pakistan police have widened their search and expanded it to include two more areas around the city of Jhelum.
Sara’s paternal grandfather, Muhammad Sharif, 61, has also urged the trio to hand themselves into the police. “We want them to resolve the matter as the privacy of our house is affected due to frequent police raids,” he told the Sunday Times. He added that Urfan had not informed him of Sara’s death.
Along with widening the timescale of their investigation, Surrey police have launched a fresh appeal for information that will help in understanding Sara’s life before her death. This follows the postmortem examination of her body, which indicated that she had suffered multiple injuries, likely to have been sustained over an extended period.
Since this examination, Sara’s neighbour has said the young girl was seen at school with cuts and bruises on her face months before her death.
The neighbour told the BBC: “My daughter had asked what had happened and she said she’d fallen off a bike and then kind of walked away. The next day the teacher announced she had left school and she was being home-schooled.”
Sara’s mother, Olga Sharif, is being supported by specialist officers.
