Featured Image Credit: Police Handout/Getty/Milos Bicanski
Topics: True crime, World News
Emily Brown
The mom of a British boy who went missing 33 years ago is urging police to continue their investigation by speaking to persons of interest.
Kerry Needham was working at a hotel on the Greek island of Kos when her son, Ben, suddenly disappeared on 24 July, 1991.
Ben had been staying with his grandparents while his mom was at work, and was last seen playing in front of a farmhouse.
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As she prepared to mark the 33rd anniversary of Ben's disappearance yesterday, Needham spoke to The Mirror about her continued search for answers.
She is currently awaiting the results of a DNA conducted on a Danish man who came forward claiming he could be her missing son.
The man claimed his grandparents informed him that he had been taken from Kos, and said even his own parents never denied the claims.
He even allegedly recalled visiting a market and hearing someone shout 'Ben'; an incident that resulted in him being kept in a caravan for years.
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However, this is the third person since Ben vanished who has suggested they could be the missing child, so Kerry is cautious over the claims.
A number of theories about what happened to Ben have been thrown around over the years, including one from a digger driver who allegedly confessed that he may have killed the young boy.
An elderly witness told British police he spoke to the digger driver the morning after Ben vanished, and found him shaking and sweating.
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The witness said they asked if there had been an accident, to which the driver responded: “Yes it's possible. I heard a yelp but I thought it was a dog.”
The driver approached officers in Kos after the incident, but later refused to give a statement to police.
Needham recently met with DI Matt Bolger, the South Yorkshire Police officer who is now in charge of Ben’s case, to discuss the investigation, and expressed her wishes for officers to return to Kos to continue the search.
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She explained: "I really want them to reinterview a number of witnesses who lied and those who refused to talk to us properly."
Needham also urged the current officers on the case to speak to police who were involved in the original search for Ben.
“There are people who know where Ben is on that island," she claimed. "I cannot understand how they can live with themselves knowing they could end our torture.
"They can't go to prison because the statute of limitations is 20 years, so they have nothing to lose.”