On the morning of August 26th, 2003, a quiet residential street in Moseley, Birmingham, England, became the scene of a brutal and seemingly motiveless murder that remains unsolved more than two decades later. Naveed Saleem, a thirty-two-year-old successful businessman, was found stabbed to death in the driver’s seat of his £60,000 black Range Rover in Wellesley Gardens.
Naveed, who lived in Hall Green with his family, ran a thriving cell phone company with his brothers. Described by those who knew him as intelligent, hard-working, kind-hearted, and always smiling, he had built a strong network of friends and was known for his generosity, reportedly even helping with things like paying people’s mortgages.
At the time of his death, Naveed was engaged to Aneesha (or Anessha) Khan, whom he had known since she was a child and had been in a relationship with for about five years. The couple had a wedding date set for September 28th, 2003, just over a month away. They had put a deposit down on a four-bedroom detached house in Solihull and were planning to start a family. Friends and family described their life together as a “fairy tale.”
The evening before his death, Naveed and his fiancée had enjoyed a date night: they went to the movies and picked up food before returning to her home in Wellesley Gardens, Moseley. He left her address around one a.m., intending to drive back to his family home in Hall Green.
Early the next morning, at about seven thirty a.m., Aneesha woke with a bad feeling. Looking out the window, she saw Naveed’s Range Rover still parked on the street. She initially thought he might have fallen asleep in the car. When she approached the passenger side and then opened the driver’s door, she made the horrifying discovery: her fiancé was dead, slumped in the seat with multiple stab wounds.
A postmortem examination confirmed that Naveed died from stab wounds, including one that severed a main artery in his thigh.
Police quickly determined that this was not a random attack or a robbery. Naveed’s Rolex watch and wallet containing £250 were left untouched, and the keys to his luxury vehicle remained in the ignition or with the car. Detectives believed he was deliberately targeted, possibly linked to his business or social life.
Witnesses reported a blue saloon car (possibly containing three or four men) acting suspiciously in the area the night before, parked half on the road and half on the pavement near Wake Green Road by Moseley Secondary School. This vehicle was reportedly seen following the Range Rover.
In September 2003, Naveed’s family and business associates offered a £100,000 reward for information leading to the killers.
Two men, Mark Smith (then thirty-two, of Severne Road, Acocks Green) and Gregory Clarke (then thirty, of Sheepcote Close, Chelmsley Wood), were charged with the murder. Prosecutors alleged the attack stemmed from an argument about Naveed’s car being blocked in.
The case went to trial at Birmingham Crown Court. In 2005, both men were acquitted after a jury took just one hour to reach its verdict. Following the acquittal, police stated they were not looking for anyone else at that time, though the case has since been reviewed as a cold case. One of the acquitted men later expressed plans to sue police over his time in custody.
Aneesha Khan, who was twenty-three at the time, has spoken publicly about the devastating effect of the murder. She spiralled into depression, left her job, sold the house deposit, and even traveled to Australia to cope. She has never married or had children, saying the loss prevented her from moving on. In 2020, she broke her long silence to appeal for information, emphasizing that new evidence is needed for justice.
West Midlands Police have continued to review the case. As of later statements, Detective Inspector Justin Mason-Spanner noted that the killer remains at large and urged anyone with information to come forward.
The murder of Naveed Saleem is still unresolved as of July 2026.
Crime Immemorial 