Sister grieves mother killed in London: 'She was my world'

Kirandeep Kaur came to London in September 2024 with a plan. She wanted to study, to work, to build something better for herself and the family waiting for her back in Punjab. She was 24 years old. She enrolled at Buckinghamshire New University, finished her degree, found work at a grocery store. In the early hours of Sunday, July 12, she was stabbed to death in her bed in Hayes, west London, while her husband and infant child slept beside her.

Her sister Gursharan, 21, learned about the killing not from police or family, but from someone in their village. She still knows very little about what happened. Speaking through a translator from Tarn Taran, the city in Punjab where their family lives about 22 kilometers south of Amritsar, Gursharan described the person she had lost: intelligent, hardworking, the top of her class back in India. "She was my world," she said. "She is everything for me."

The family is poor. Kirandeep had moved abroad partly to change that—to earn money, to send it home, to help her parents and her three siblings. She had been paying for Gursharan's university fees. She called home regularly, video calls that connected her to her mother and sister across the distance. When she first arrived in London, she told them it was beautiful and that she was happy. She had never been back to visit since she left.

Now her mother is unwell from the shock. Her father, already in poor health, is devastated. Gursharan cannot sleep. "I am not coping well," she said. "I cannot handle this news." She looked up to her older sister. She depended on her. The family never imagined something like this could happen to Kirandeep in London.

Daniel Sean James, 46, has been charged with her murder. According to police, he attacked her in her home on Uxbridge Road in the early morning hours. He then jumped from a window, breaking both ankles, and was detained nearby. On Thursday, James appeared at the Old Bailey by videolink from Wormwood Scrubs prison. He faces charges of murder, attempted murder, and possession of a blade. A plea hearing is set for October 1, and he has been remanded in custody.

The Sikh community in the area where Kirandeep died has held vigils for her on Friday and Saturday. Gursharan is grateful for this. But what her family wants most is her body returned to India so she can be buried in their village, so her parents can see her one last time, so she can have the funeral she deserves in her hometown.

"We want justice," Gursharan said. "We don't want this to happen to anyone else. We want her body back for her rightful funeral in our hometown." She was the youngest of four siblings. Kirandeep was the one who supported them all, who believed in her sister's education, who loved them very much. Now there is a hole in the family that cannot be filled, and an ocean between them and the place where she died.