'Previous owner murdered inside': Estate agent's honest sale details

Estate agents are sometimes derided for being economical with the truth to secure interest from potential buyers.

But when a fire-ravaged house where a mother and daughter were brutally killed came up for sale, one home auctioneers decided honesty was the best policy, writing in the blunt particulars: ‘The previous owner was murdered inside.’

The charred rooms and belongings of Dr Saman Mir Sacharvi, 49, and 14-year-old Vian Mangrio show the devastation caused by handyman Shabaz Khan, who set their three-bedroomed home ablaze in a bid to cover up his crimes.

Khan, 57, gave his victims drug-laced smoothies before trying to frame them for a murder-suicide.

The semi-detached property, in Burnley, Lancashire, has remained eerily untouched and boarded up for five years since the killings.

Photographs of the property, on Rightmove, show fire damage to the living room and bedroom – where the two victim’s bodies were found by police – and the pair’s possessions piled up but not disposed of. The kitchen and bathroom also suffered smoke damage.

According to the estate agent: ‘The previous owner was murdered inside the home in 2020. The property has sustained some fire and smoke damage.’

The house, which was due to be sold via auction, was listed for sale last month with a guide price of £125,000.

Evil Khan was jailed for life after he pleaded guilty to murdering Dr Sacharvi and Vian on September 30, 2020. Khan’s wife, Rabia Shahbaz, 50, was sentenced to 30 months in prison for perverting the course of justice by providing him with a false alibi.

The bodies of Dr Sacharvi and Vian were discovered on October 1, 2020, after police were called to their home address over concerns for their welfare.

Vian's body was found badly burnt in a downstairs room, while Dr Sacharvi’s body was found upstairs. Attempts had also been made to burn her body, but the fire had failed to take hold.

Khan, a married father-of-four, tried to cover his tracks by staging a murder-suicide. He had scrawled ‘my mum is evil’ and ‘this is a Covid house’ on the walls, to suggest a falling-out between the mother and daughter.

In reality, he had drugged Dr Sacharvi and Vian by mixing diazepam – also known as Valium – with wine and fruit into a smoothie before murdering them both. He set their bodies and a kettle in the kitchen alight to suggest the deaths had been caused by an electrical fire.

A post-mortem examination concluded Dr Sacharvi died from pressure to the neck and had likely been strangled with a ligature.

Vian's body was so badly burned that the pathologist could only say she died of asphyxiation ‘on the balance of probabilities’. She had bruising to the inside of her throat and was found with a woollen item wrapped around her neck and in her mouth.

After his arrest, Khan initially denied responsibility, bizarrely telling police that ghosts named Robert and Rita were responsible for the deaths.

But officers later discovered jewellery belonging to the doctor – valued at £27,000 –in the loft of Khan and Shahbaz's home.

Sentencing Khan, who was ordered to serve a minimum of 34 years in prison before being eligible for parole, Mr Justice Goss, sitting at Preston Crown Court, said: ‘These were premeditated, callous and merciless murders of a devoted mother and her young and loving teenage daughter.

‘The murders were planned and motivated by financial gain.’