A teenage girl who feared a marriage was being arranged for her by her Pakistani-born parents was the victim of a "vile murder," a coroner in Britain ruled Friday, according to dpa. The decomposed body of 17-year-old Shafilea Ahmed was found on a riverbank in Cumbria, northern England, in February 2004, six months after she went missing from her parent's home in the town of Warrington. Shafilea went missing in September 2003 shortly after returning from a trip to Pakistan, where it was said she had drunk a quantity of bleach after meeting a possible suitor. The parents, who both gave evidence at an inquest concluded Friday, have denied any involvement in their daughter's death, and also rejected claims that they had beaten Shafilea and taken her savings. Coroner Ian Smith, closing the inquest held at Kendal, in Cumbria, ruled Shafilea had been unlawfully killed. "She was genuinely afraid, rightly or wrongly, that her parents were planning to arrange her marriage," he said. Delivering his verdict, Smith said he was convinced Shafilea was murdered because of the way in which the body had been disposed of. "I do not believe she escaped and ran away. She was taken," Smith said. Police said Friday that the four-year murder investigation would continue. "It will not be closed until the killer or killers have been brought to justice," chief investigating officer Geraint Jones said.
