What happened to Sara Sharif?
SARA Sharif was found dead at a house in Surrey in a heartbreaking discovery in August 2023.
Following her tragic passing, tributes poured in for the ''happy and always laughing'' child.
Who was Sara Sharif?
Sara Sharif was a 10-year-old girl born to parents Olga and Urfan Sharif.
Sara's mother described her as ''popular'' and told The Sun: ''Sara was an amazing child."
''She had lots of friends at school and she would get on with anyone. Whenever I picked her up I would hear kids shouting ‘Bye Sara’.
''Sara was invited to every birthday party in the class and every sleepover, she was so outgoing, much more social than me.”
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The ''cheeky'' girl — a super-fan of the Frozen Disney films — bonded with her mum over a shared love of arts and crafts and trips to Marwell Zoo with friends.
Olga continued: ''Sara was so beautiful. She was artsy, she loved building and making things. We’d go to Hobbycraft and buy everything that she wanted for supplies.''
The grief-stricken mum also revealed her daughter had her mind set on the world of modelling and dreamed of moving to Los Angeles.
Olga added: ''She would walk in and say, ‘Mum, look how pretty I look’. It was always modelling.
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''She was so pretty that I never had to ask her to pose for a picture because every time she looked at the camera she was already smiling and beautiful.
''She would tell me that ‘I want to be like Mummy’.
''She was like a younger version of me — but much prettier than her mum.''
What happened to Sara Sharif?
Sara's body was found after police rushed to the address of her dad Urfan Sharif on Hammond Road, Woking at around 2.50am on August 10, 2023.
She was sadly pronounced dead at the scene after cops arrived.
Police quickly taped off the area, with officers seen heading in and out of the house with evidence bags in hand.
The following day, it emerged three people police wanted to speak to had skipped the country in the hours before the youngster's body was discovered.
Det Chief Insp Debbie White said: "Our investigation into this tragic incident has continued at pace today with a number of enquiries underway.
"We have identified three people we would like to speak to in connection with our investigation and from our enquiries we believe that they left the country on Wednesday.
"We are working with our partners, including international authorities, to locate them."
All three are known to Sara and no one was present in the home when the heartbreaking discovery was made, following a call raising concerns about her welfare.
On September 13, Urfan Sherif, 41, his wife Benish Batool, 29, and his brother Faisal Malik, 28, were arrested at Gatwick Airport after disembarking from a flight from Dubai — the trio travelled to the UK from Pakistan via the Arab Emirate five weeks after they fled.
Who is Sara Sharif's mum?
Olga Sharif was the mother of Sara.
Born in Poland, Olga now lives in Yeovil, Somerset.
Olga married cabbie Urfan at a Surrey registry office in November 2009, but their marriage ended in 2017.
Aside from occasional phone conversations, Olga said she was only allowed to see her children twice in four years.
In 2021, Olga was cut off completely after an argument between her and Urfan’s new partner, Beenish.
Olga explained that she learned about her daughter's death in a soul-destroying phone call as she travelled back to Poland.
She said: “I was on my way to Poland when they called to say, ‘You need to come to England and come to the police station in Dover’.
''She told me she could not say why over the phone, but when I called again they told me to pull over, so we did.
''Then she told me Sara had been found dead in a house and I just burst into tears. It took us six hours to get back to the UK.”
She added: ''I couldn’t see my daughter for four years, and now she is dead. She’s only a kid. She had done nothing wrong.''
The mum now plans to take Sara’s body to be buried in her native Poland after authorities complete their examinations.
The devastated mum of Sara told of how the arrest of her daughter’s dad and stepmother is a “weight lifted” off her shoulders.
Reacting to the arrests, an emotional Olga told The Sun: “I am very happy that the police have made arrests.
“It is a huge relief and something I didn’t think would happen this quickly.
“I feel like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders but there is still a long way to go before I feel closure.
“What is important now is that the police can investigate with no information being kept back or put to the side.
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“This needs everyone to work together.
“I have had to wait a long time for this and I didn’t know if they would ever be able to investigate what happened to my daughter.”
