Shawny Khan was just 14 when her older brother Ashley was found dead in Ashford, Kent.
Ashley Dighton had been savagely murdered, decapitated and his partially-naked body abandoned in woodland behind a Sainsbury's supermarket.
In a particularly grisly twist, one of the 19-year-old’s ribs was found wrapped up in his bloody t-shirt in a carrier bag nearby.
While four arrests were made shortly after Ashley’s murder, no charges were ever brought.
In an emotional appeal for information, Shawny said: "We want to know who killed him. We know people know who did this.”
She added: "How is it fair? The state they left him in, they cut his head off.
"His fingertips were nowhere to be seen, neither was his head.
Fifteen years after their brother’s death, Shawny and her sister Amanda are still desperately searching for Ashley’s head, which was never found despite a long police investigation.
Amanda told The Sun: “It’d mean so much to our family to get his head back. It would be a massive deal because to us he’s not laid to rest.
"If his head was found we could actually lay him to rest.”
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Ashley’s father Ambrose Dighton lashed out at the inadequate police operation, telling reporters in 2017: ”I would have thought police would have found something by now, but they haven't. I don't think the police are doing enough”.
Ambrose said he would never give up trying to solve the mystery of his son’t death, even visiting former Metropolitan Police CID officer turned psychic Keith Charles in a bid to uncover the truth.
Ashley’s family was shattered by his death, with the two sisters holding their father to blame in an emotional confrontation on the Jeremy Kyle show in 2018.
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Shawny accused Ambrose of being the key cause for her brother getting involved with the "wrong crowd”.
She said "Ashley could still be here if he didn't have the life he had as a child.”
The family’s agony didn’t even end there. Later in 2018 they faced fresh heartbreak after discovering Ashley’s grave had been desecrated and his photo had been ripped from the headstone.
Shawny told Kent Live: "My sister in law found someone had done something to Ashley's grave the day after his birthday.
"They took the photo off his headstone but nothing else was damaged.
Ashley was last seen alive on on June 11, 2007. His body was found in woodland a month later.
In December 2008, an inquest at into Ashley's death at Ashford's Coroner's Court recorded an open verdict.
Sadly, Ashley’s body was so badly decomposed the pathologist was unable to determine a cause of death.
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