The author claimed to have discovered evidence of a possible burial place for the 12-year-old child who vanished in 1964 and whose body has never been located. Keith was one of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley’s five victims.
The police have concluded their search for Moors murder victim Keith Bennett on Saddleworth Moor since no human remains were discovered.
The author claimed to have discovered evidence of a possible burial place for the 12-year-old child who vanished in 1964 and whose body has never been located.
Keith was one of the five victims of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, three of whom were subsequently discovered buried on the moor.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) began scouring the area on September 29 but stated on Friday that “no evidence of human remains” was found.
Detective Chief Inspector Cheryl Hughes stated, “The investigation into Keith’s abduction and murder has been ongoing since 1964, and it will not be finished until we have provided his family with the answers they have deserved for so many years.”
“The excavation and analysis at the site are complete, and to stress, we have discovered no indication that this is Keith Bennett’s burial site.”
Russell Edwards informed that he believed he had identified Keith’s improvised grave after “extensive soil analysis” revealed the presence of human remains.
Mr. Edwards reportedly began his excavation close to where the other Moors murder victims were discovered and uncovered a human skull with teeth, as determined by independent authorities.
DCI Hughes stated that officers “met with the citizen who later gave us samples and copies of the images he had taken.
She continued, “He also led authorities to the site where he obtained these items and supplied grid references.”
The senior investigating officer stated that experts had completed an assessment of the location, adding, “The objects provided by the member of the public have been analyzed by a forensic scientist; however, this has not yet revealed the presence of human remains; further analysis is necessary.”
GMP previously reported receiving a photograph depicting what experts working with Mr. Edwards identified as a human mandible.
However, DCI Hughes stated on Friday, “At this time, the indications are that it would be significantly smaller than a juvenile jaw, and plant origin cannot be ruled out.”
Alan Bennett, brother of Keith Bennett, had previously voiced skepticism that the author’s findings would prove to be his sibling’s remains.
After the site hunt began, he said on Facebook that he “cannot shake the feeling that we’ve been here before.”
Throughout two years in the 1960s, Brady and his accomplice Hindley sexually raped, tormented, and murdered children.
While the remains of four of their victims were found, Keith’s remains have never been located.
Keith was last seen by his mother in the early evening of 16 June 1964, after he had left his Longsight, Manchester, home to visit his grandmother.
Brady disclosed to Hindley that he sexually assaulted and strangled the child.
Although Keith’s mother, Winnie Johnson, pleaded with Brady to reveal the location of her son’s body, it was assumed that withholding the information was the killer’s last attempt to keep control.
Mrs. Johnson passed away in 2012 without carrying out her desire to give her husband a suitable Christian burial.
Brady confessed to murdering Keith but said he could not recall where the victim was buried.
Brady and Hindley’s other victims were 16-year-old Pauline Reade, who vanished on her way to a disco in July 1963; 12-year-old John Kilbride, who was abducted in November of the same year; 10-year-old Lesley Ann Downey, who was lured away from a fair on Boxing Day 1964; and 17-year-old Edward Evans, who was murdered with an axe in October 1965.
After the Evans murder, the killers were apprehended and Lesley and John’s bodies were discovered in the moors.
Hindley passed away in prison in 2002 at age 60, whereas Brady passed away in a high-security hospital in 2017 at age 79.
