He argued that the little boy was killed in an accident and was buried under rubble. Responsible for the accident was a friend of his an excavator operator, who then worked in the area.
The witness pointed out to the police two new points of investigation. One was near the farmhouse from where little Ben was lost and was not researched, and another far away, where his friend used to throw away useless building materials.
With their statements in English newspapers, the husband and son of the excavator operator, refused he was engaged in the disappearance of the little boy. As they said before he died, he collaborated with the Authorities whenever he was asked. He had filed to the police for his moves at the time of Ben’s loss and had informed them of a gypsy agricultural car that had left the area at a dizzying pace that day. In fact, he had also given a DNA sample. They considered it is unacceptable that after so many years someone tried to tarnish the name of the family.
Ben’s mother Kerry Needham, when informed of this development, said: “If the testimony is valid, this man has submitted me to twenty-five years of misery. If he had spoken then, the nightmare for my family would have ended. “
New circle of surveys on the island
British officers, using testimonies and specific information gathered after the appeal they sent through “Light at the Tunnel”, organized a new venture.
On the morning of Monday, September 26, 2016, the new investigation cycle for Ben was launched.
The team consisted of eighteen people led by John Cousins and with the assistance of an anthropologist and two archaeologists. In cooperation with the Greek Authorities, they delineated the two research points in the Hercules area.
Animal bones were detected on the first day of the research. The anthropologist and archaeologists who participated in the business were examined on the spot in a special laboratory set up for this purpose. On the fourth day, new elements were found near a tree that had caught the attention of the British. According to older and newer photographs they compared, the tree seems to have been planted after the young boy disappeared. In 2012, special tubes had been sinking around to collect specimens from the soil.
The Scottish Forensic Laboratories that examined them showed signs of disintegration that belonged to a dog and a bat.
The officers of South Yorkshire Police have allowed press representatives to take images from the “ghost” house, where Needham family was working at the time.
The excavations brought to light an ancient cemetery with five Roman period graves. The owner of the plot was concerned that after the discovery of the cemetery, its area would be declared an area of archaeological interest.
It followed an understanding of the judicial authorities with the Archaeological Service, which considered that they were simple graves and their content would be removed for further analysis.
Researchers still searched in adjacent cisterns and in a waste bin. They did not hesitate to seek permission to demolish a room of the house where Ben and his family were living in 1991, which was added after the disappearance. Their request was accepted.
Just half an hour it took the bulldozer to demolish it, but no findings were found. The demolition caused damage to the building that the British police undertook to repair.
The head of the team also called the little boy’s grandfather to attend where he disappeared, hoping that perhaps he would recall in his memory details that had not been examined before.
The investigations were then transferred to the field indicated by the key-witness.
Inspector John Cousins then said that the original site excavation revealed that under the ground there was a large amount of compressed material that had been deposited there for the last thirty years. He told reporters that this mattress had to be removed, which would extend the stay of English policemen on the island.
“It must be done. I must be able to sit with my family when I leave Kos, and tell them that I did everything I could to find an answer to what happened in Ben, ” he pointed out to reporters who watched the progress of the investigations.
The British, in their attempt to solve a mystery of twenty-five years, literally plowed more than eight hundred tons of soil.
They proceeded to portray a possible way in which little Ben Needham may have lost his life in an accident in 1991 after he was hit by a excavator. For the simulation, a bulldozer, similar to the one that was handled by Dinos Barkas, was taken at the spot from where the little boy disappeared.
From the field investigations, the special crews retrieved sixty minor items which were sent to the South Yorkshire Special Police Laboratories for further analysis. These were pieces of cloth and small pieces of plastic.
At the same time, the family watched the operation with agony.
When the surveys were about to come to an end , the hoop brought to light the toy car which did not announced at the time. Ben’s mother, Kerry Needham left some flowers at the point where her son was last seen in July 1991.
In her statements to reporters then, she said:
“The police are asking us to stop searching for Ben . They know he’s dead, but they can not find him. They are right but it is very difficult for me and my family to say “goodbye” when we know he is buried somewhere on the island. “
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