Breakthrough In 25-Year Mystery Of Missing Toddler
 

Horrific if true but atleast the family will have some closure

http://m1.herfamily.ie/YToyOntzOjQ6I...7fQ==/benn.jpg

Toddler, Ben Needham from Sheffield disappeared in Greece on the 24th of July 1991 when he was just two years old.

Ben's heartbroken mother, Kerry, has never given up hope that her son was alive. However, now british investigators on the island of Kos where the boy disappeared from just outside his grandparent's home, have told her to "prepare for the worst," that Ben may, in fact, have died 25 years ago.

Kerry has revealed that detectives believe the 21-month-old may have tragically been crushed to death by a digger.

Reports state that a forensic team have been combing two sites close to the home of Kerry's parents.

The breakthrough in the case came when the friend of the workman believed to be responsible came forward and revealed his information.

The digger-operator believed to have crushed little Ben died of stomach cancer last year just before the investigative team from South Yorkshire Police arrived on the island to reopen the case.

The friend maintains that the death was accidental. According to reports, the deceased digger driver had been employed to clear land for a local builder, also a friend of the Needham family, at the time of the accident. The area was searched in 2012 but now in light of this new testimony investigators have return to the site.
http://www.herfamily.ie/news/breakth...toddler/250043

One has to question the competence of the investigators at the time if this proves to be true

It is ****ing disgusting that they have had to wait this long for answers. I don't know if I should be happy for them getting closer to finding out the truth, or upset that there seems to be an even smaller chance than ever before of ever finding him :S

The way this investigation has been handled is a disgrace.

Why wouldn't the man have just come forward after it happened though if it were an accident? Instead living with both the guilt of killing the boy and putting his parents through a life of torment at not knowing where Ben was, if he was alive, if awful things were happening to him etc

This is awful if true, terrible that they've been left thinking that he could still be alive during all those years too.

I remember this case, poor baby. I hope they are able to have some closure from this information. I don't know what is worse not knowing and imaging what happened or having the facts and knowing the bald truth.

Omg <\3

But yeah why didn't the digger driver come forward if it was an accident?

Selfishness; even with it being an accident it's likely that he had been in some way negligent so he would probably have been convicted of manslaughter. Even without the legal implications it's likely that he thought he couldn't handle the guilt / shame of other people knowing what he had done.

It is horrendous though. As impossible as it would be to deal with the loss of a child at all... knowing straight away that your child has been killed in an accident, probably died instantly and didn't suffer, is a million miles away from believing that your child has been abducted and likely endured hours / days / years even of fear and horror. Not knowing if they are alive or dead and being unable to grieve. What he has taken from that family out of self-preservation is unforgivable in my opinion. And there's no one to answer for it now, as he's dead anyway. Although you have to question how long this friend that came forward knew about it, and potentially other people in this man's life?

Might also be tasteless timing to point out, but this also just confirms a very real crime statistic: a significant proportion of reported abductions are people (often family members) trying to cover up an accidental death.

mmhhmm, I am trying not to have this thread turn into another endless you-know-who-debate-though :fc:

Re the first part of your post, yeah i see your point but it's so so selfish and horrific to put the childs family through that especially when he was apparently a friend of theirs? He couldn't have been feeling that guilty about killing the child though if he was still prepared to hide this and hurt his family even more

Sadly the lengths people will go to for self preservation stopped surprising me years ago. I can only assume that people have some ability to lock things away in the back of their mind that has somehow bypassed me... I can't handle even small scale secrets if I know they have the potential to come out and affect my life in some way. But people manage to keep these huge, horrendous secrets locked away for years and go on living, laughing, smiling. :shrug:

Terrible tragedy and even if an accident there is a crime is keeping the secret and allowing his family to suffer all these years. Also weird in a self preservation theory to tell someone. :shrug: And weird of them to keep the secret also. I think perhaps they should be prosecuted for that.

I don't think so, atleast they eventually came forward, prosecuting them could stop others in similar situations from coming forward in future

That would be my reservation against punishing someone coming forward with this sort of information. First and foremost you want people to know they can do so safely, so long as they haven't been directly involved in a crime / accident

Also this person who came forward only has to say that the digger driver told them just before he died.It's possible that they both knew for 25 years plus more people could've known.However if this person who came forward admitted to that it may make them an accessory.

Oh God this is awful.

Sad result , if true
for the Mother

It just seems a terrible thing to do to hide something like that. Like being an accessory.

Well, exactly. They will never prove in court who knew what and when at this late date. The only thing that can come out of this tragic news is closure for the parents

...it's funny only a few days or so ago, talking about Brendan Dassey being released and prison being all he's known for 10yrs../so in a way a 'comfort zone' for him..?...and it feels similar with this...for 25yrs, Kerry's had that hope that Ben was still alive/like a comfort that she was able to cling to/something she needed..?...and it's being taken away from her now, how does someone cope with something like that because it's been her life/that hope...it makes you think, would she have preferred to live the rest of her life, keeping that hope/it being her life-line, type thing...just so awful what she must be feeling right now...and even when he knew he was dying/terminally ill...he still didn't say anything himself...I wonder if he agreed with his friend that it would be told after his death.../if they agreed that together..?...and could either have lived with it, had it been a local child and they had to face the family/mother day on day and look directly into her eyes/at her pain....

..:sad:...

I'm sure the story of the digger working close by has circulated before, it makes more sense than an abduction, awful for the family if true as they could have grieved and moved on with their lives in a different way. Like the McCann case it seems like an an avoidable scenario if the toddler hadn't been left out of sight, a 2 year old should never be wandering around in their own no matter how "safe" the location seems, horrific secret to have kept all these years if proven to be true.

Has anyone considered that the guy may just be making up the story? There is nothing to back that scenario up more than abduction at the moment. For all we know the digger and his pal could be part of a ring that abducted and abused children. It's pure hearsay at the moment as far as I am aware.

Yep it's convenient that the digger driver is dead so has no case to answer :unsure: the theory came up before so not sure why it wasn't fully investigated then

Possible, though logic would dictate that a covered up accident is far more likely than a child-abducting-paedophile-ring.

Yeah, pretty much

It was his grandparents who were looking after him at the time which most have made things incredibly hard for his parents too

i remain to be convinced that what happened is as straightforward as is being made out.

And they didn't think something could have happened at this building site linked to the parents' friends 25 years ago?

If that was me, that would have been my first worry.

Maybe not but you enter murky moral territory there. The guy is dead and has successfully dodged any sort of justice (unless you believe in hell etc.). It seems pretty clear that he killed the child, accidentally or otherwise. Would it not then be better to believe that he died quickly in an accident on the building site due to some sort of professional negligence, than to keep digging and discover some untold suffering? Would that "truth" help anyone? If it was a matter of catching and dealing with the person who did it then I would say worth it... when you're looking to rage at a corpse, it seems pointless.

I think they did yeah but the investigation led no where

what if he was a member of some ring, and that ring are just taking advantage of the fact he has died. It's speculation of course, but I'm just not convinced this latest story should be taken as an absolute fact after all this time.

Sounds like a ballsed up investigation from start to finish, not unlike the McCann case. :worry:

..the building going on was talked about all the way through, that there could have been an accident..?...but I don't think that it was considered to look off the property for his remains, which is what is being said now..(ughh, I hate saying that...)....

..yeah, it's incredible isn't it...mind you, I don't know that much about the investigations I have to say...

Exactly, they considered the possibility (even likelihood?) of an accident but not that someone already knew and had removed the evidence. So when they didn't find him on the site, they would have moved on to other considerations.

..yeah and it's not just that he's (allegedly..)...lived all of these years with the actual act, it's how he's covered it up from the beginning as well to ensure that Ben wasn't found...I mean it's just something that wouldn't have been considered because it's so unbelievable now...that someone could do something like that/could live each day knowing that they had....

The only balls up in the McCann case was letting the UK Police get involved imo and not properly investigate the McCanns

It actually seems pretty bizarre when you think about it. If, say, a family from another country was on holiday in the UK and were the victims of a crime, I would imagine it would be considered pretty unusual to have detectives from their country come over and interfere with the investigation?

Absolutely, it's really strange. I could understand it if the Police had shelved the investigation after a few years and they then allowed the "home countries" police to have a look over it but not during the investigation

Yeah, as soon as they were showing signs of "giving up" even, but they weren't... The investigation was still very much ongoing when British police got involved.

Danger of this becoming a Maddie thread though Niamh, you said that wasn't happening!