A £5,000 reward is being offered for information leading to the arrest of the main suspect in a mother and daughter’s killing – as police said they did their “absolute best” to prevent the attack.

West Midlands Police and Crimestoppers are offering the reward for information leading to the detention of 21-year-old shop worker Janbaz Tarin.

He is currently wanted by the country’s second largest police force in connection with a deadly knife attack which claimed the lives of his ex-partner Raneem Oudeh, 22, and her mother Khaola Saleem, 49.

The pair were found fatally wounded at Ms Saleem’s home in Northdown Road, Solihull, just after 12.30am on Bank Holiday Monday.

Raneem Oudeh
Raneem Oudeh (West Midlands Police/PA)

A knife, which officers believe to be the murder weapon, has been recovered and a van thought to have been used by Mr Tarin is undergoing forensic analysis.

It comes as further details were released by police regarding Ms Oudeh’s previous contact with police on the night of the attack, and before, as a domestic abuse complainant.

The force revealed on Wednesday that its officers were at the scene within six minutes, when it became clear in Ms Oudeh’s final 999 call that the women were being attacked at home.

Detective Chief Superintendent Mark Payne, head of force CID, said: “Unfortunately we can’t always be everywhere and on the night in question we did our absolute best, but we weren’t able to get there in time to prevent a double murder.”

All previous contact between the victim and police has now been self-referred by the force to investigators at the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

POLICE Solihull
(PA Graphics)

Ms Oudeh had a two-year-old child – though Mr Tarin is not the father – and her mother had six children, with both victims originally from Syria.

Mr Payne said Ms Oudeh had made “a series of phone calls” to police on Sunday and into the following evening.

He added: “The first call that was made we responded to.

“We went to the location where we believed she was, but unfortunately she’d moved on from there.

“We then had a series of conversations with her, lastly the final conversation.

“We responded immediately to that but tragically we weren’t able to get there in time.”

Charting the emerging chain of events leading to the deadly attack, Mr Payne said there was “a sequence of calls” between Ms Oudeh and police in the preceding hours.

Officers responded to the first call but by the time they arrived Ms Oudeh had moved to “another location”.

He added: “That is why the IOPC are going to have a look at (it), there’s no complexity to this, we went to where we thought she was, she then called us again and then we had a further conversation, but she then moved on again.

“We then had a further conversation (with her).

“What we don’t know, and what we’re looking at, is the exact number of phone calls.

“It’s a bit of a confusing picture but what we are able to say is as soon as we realised that Mr Tarin was in the same place as she was, we responded immediately.”

Khaola Saleem
Khaola Saleem (West Midlands Police/PA)

Police believe Ms Oudeh kept moving to try to get to a “place of safety”.

Mr Payne added that as it was a bank holiday, there were “lots of calls coming in”, but that it was “the right thing to do” to respond to the first call, made by Ms Oudeh on Sunday.

The force had in the past logged and responded to calls from Ms Oudeh and visited the couple, with Mr Payne saying her relationship with Mr Tarin “had a footprint in domestic abuse”.

“We did the appropriate thing in the circumstances,” he said.

“I’m as satisfied as I can be we did the right thing.”

He added: “We were working with her to keep her as safe as we could.

“Unfortunately, we can’t always be everywhere and on the night in question we did our absolute best, but we weren’t able to get there in time to prevent a double murder.”

Mr Payne said: “The IOPC – that’s their job, whether to look at whether we did the right thing.

“Our job is to investigate the murder.”

A police forensic officer outside a property on Northdown Road in Solihull, where the mother and daughter were stabbed to death (Aaron Chown/PA)
A police forensic officer outside a property on Northdown Road in Solihull, where the mother and daughter were stabbed to death (Aaron Chown/PA)

Officers believe Mr Tarin, an Afghan national who had been in the country legally since Christmas Day 2012, is laying low in the West Midlands.

Offering the reward, they had a warning for anyone shielding the suspect, and again directly appealed for Mr Tarin to hand himself in for questioning.

Mr Payne said: “We are now working with Crimestoppers to offer the £5,000 reward to anybody who might be able to help us locate Mr Tarin.

“I want to appeal to Mr Tarin directly – if you’re watching this we will find you, we will arrest you.

“Make it easy on yourself and come and talk to us.

“To anyone who might be harbouring or assisting Mr Tarin, again, we will find you. Don’t get yourself in trouble, ring us.”

The public has been advised not to approach Mr Tarin and to call 999.