UK police force apologizes for failing slain sisters’ family

LONDON (AP) — London’s police force has apologized to the family of two murdered sisters and said its initial response to the crime was “below the standard that it should have been.” The mother of the two women dismissed the apology Tuesday as too little, too late, saying the Metropolitan Police force had not taken responsibility for its “reprehensible” failings. The sisters, 46-year-old Bibaa Henry and 27-year-old Nicole Smallman, were stabbed to death in a park last year. An investigation by a police watchdog agency found the London force mishandled the initial missing persons reports. Family members launched their own search for the women, and their bodies were found in bushes 36 hours after the killings.