Keith Bennett: Police find NO evidence of human remains on Saddleworth Moor

Police hunting for the grave of Moors victim Keith Bennett, based on new claims from an author, today halted their week-long search after finding no evidence of human remains on Saddleworth Moor.

Archaeologists began searching the area last week after author Russell Edwards said he believed he had found the makeshift grave of 12-year-old Keith, who was murdered in 1964 by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.

Edwards believed he had found the boy’s remains after “extensive soil investigations.” He is said to have started his own excavation – close to where the other victims of Moorish murders were found – and uncovered a skull with teeth, which independent experts have reportedly concluded to be human.

But Greater Manchester Police today announced they had called off the search after an “excavation by accredited forensic experts” found “no evidence indicating the presence of human remains”.

Police said forensic scientists have tested what the author believes to be Keith’s bones and “although this has not yet indicated human remains, more analysis is required.” They also said it “cannot be ruled out” that the object is “vegetable.”

Detective Chief Inspector Cheryl Hughes said: “In response to the report made on Thursday, September 29, officers met with the member of the public who later provided us with samples and copies of the photographs he had taken. He also took officers to the location where he obtained them and gave roster references.

In the days since, independent accredited forensic archaeologists and certified forensic anthropologists, along with GMP crime scene investigators, completed a methodical forensic archaeological dig and survey of the identified area and beyond.

‘An accredited forensic geologist has also taken a number of soil samples, which are still under analysis. The artifacts given to us by the public have been examined by a forensic scientist and while this has not yet indicated the presence of human remains, more analysis is required.

‘We enlisted the help of a forensic botanist for the photo. We now use the knowledge and skills of a forensic imaging expert to apply a standard anthropological measurement to the object to aid in its identification.

“At this stage there are indications that it would be considerably smaller than a juvenile jaw and it cannot be ruled out that it is vegetal. The excavation and investigation at the site has been completed and, again, we have found no evidence that this is Keith Bennett’s burial place.”

Assistant Chief Constable Sarah Jackson said Keith’s family was “central” to any action taken in the case and that police “remained involved” to find answers for them.

She said: “We have always said that we would respond in a timely and appropriate manner to any credible information that might lead us to finding Keith. Our actions over the past week or so are a highly visible example of what that response looks like, with the force leveraging the knowledge and skills of recognized experts, specialist officers and staff.”

This morning, the author, Mr Edwards, said he is “convinced” that he has found the boy’s remains, despite police saying otherwise.

Between July 1963 and October 1965, Brady and Hindley murdered five children between the ages of 10 and 17 in a two-year massacre that shook the nation.

Keith was last seen by his mother in the early evening of 16 June 1964 after he left the house in Eston Street, Longsight, Manchester, on his way to his grandmother’s house nearby.

Brady and Hindley’s victims were: Pauline Reade, 16, who disappeared on her way to a disco on July 12, 1963; John Kilbride, 12, who was abducted in November of the same year; Lesley Ann Downey, 10, who was lured away from a funfair on Boxing Day 1964; and Edward Evans, 17, who was murdered in October 1965.

Brady and Hindley were caught after the murder of Edward Evans and the bodies of Lesley and John were found in the moor.

They were taken to Saddleworth Moor to help police find the remains of the other victims, but only Pauline’s body was recovered. Brady claimed he couldn’t remember where he buried Keith.

In 2009, police said a secret search of the moor, using a wealth of scientific experts, also failed to find a trace of the boy.

Hindley died in prison in 2002 at the age of 60, and Brady died in a high-security hospital in 2017 at the age of 79.

Following Brady’s death, Greater Manchester Police officer Martin Bottomley said: “It is especially saddened by Keith Bennett’s family that his killers have not revealed the location of Keith’s burial site to police.

“Hardly a week goes by that we don’t receive any information that would lead us to Keith, but in the end only two people knew where Keith is.

Greater Manchester Police will never close this case. Brady’s death doesn’t change that. We will act on credible and useful information that will lead us to him.”

In 2012 – 48 years after Keith’s death – his mother, Winnie Johnson, died at age 78 without fulfilling her wish to give him a Christian funeral.

Officially diagnosed as a psychopath in 1985, Nazi-obsessed Brady taunted Keith’s brother Alan Bennett, now 66, in a sickening letter in 1991.

Brady insisted that he leave “special instructions” on how to find the child’s remains in his will, but the clues never materialized.

At the start of the most recent search, Alan said on social media that “hundreds of thoughts ran through my head.”

However, expressing his skepticism, he wrote on Facebook: “Except this is the location for Keith and all previous graves have been shallow, why haven’t anything been discovered yet if the police have been brought to the location?”

“I can’t escape the feeling that we’ve been here before.”

Alan wrote: ‘I just get frustrated, annoyed, confused and feel a lot more emotions because there’s more going on than meets the eye and I can’t understand why that guy doesn’t seem to have been exact in his information to the police about the place.

“I’m sure he couldn’t have forgotten exactly where it is after his claims about his years of research. Just a few of the hundreds of thoughts running through my head.

‘For clarity. I’m not saying there’s nothing, what I’m saying is that I, and many others, are confused to say the least.

He added: “I’m not saying there’s nothing, what I’m saying is that I, and many others, are confused to say the least.”

Alan said he believed Keith’s remains would not be found at the site being excavated, but “no one can rule out anything else.”