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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Hollie Bone

Amateur detective 'convinced' he's found Moors Murder victim - but police find nothing

The amateur detective who prompted a fresh search for the final Moors Murders victim, Keith Bennett, says he is 'convinced' he found the boy's remains - despite police finding nothing.

Author, Russell Edwards, 55, insists the remains of 12-year-old Keith, who was killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley, are on Saddleworth Moor.

He has been searching for Keith - the evil couple's third victim - for seven years and is certain he has discovered his body while searching the moorland.

Despite his claims, a major police search of the site, near Manchester, has proved fruitless after a week of digging.

But Russell insists the 'very serious evidence' he gave to the police over a week ago, including a photograph of an 'upper human jaw' is the reason they are still searching.

Keith Bennett is the only victim whose body has, as yet, never been found (PA)

He said: “As soon as I showed the police the photograph of the teeth and the jaw within seconds they were off like lightning.

“We have found him, which is why the police are still up there, they’ve got to find him.

“A two or three-centimetre partial jaw is what they’re looking for.

"They’re trying to find this little jaw in horrendous conditions up there, but I trust the police in what they’re doing.

“The reason why they are there is because what they have got is very serious evidence.

"They need to find this upper maxilla because there are very clearly teeth.”

Killer couple Ian Brady and Myra Hindley (PA)

Russell has focused his search for Keith on an area of the moors called Eagle Rock, a location that Brady wanted to revisit with former detective Peter Topping.

He said: “I’ve got a lot of transcripts from Ian Brady and Myra Hindley’s interviews through Peter Topping’s book.

"Brady told Peter Topping that he would like to visit Eagle Rock and that it had no significant interest but would allow him to get his bearings and Peter Topping didn’t take any notice of that.

“Ian Brady wanted to go there to have a gloat that he knows where Keith is.”

The author has also centred his search to an area where another victim, John Kilbride, was buried.

Forensic tents have been set up on the Moors while police continue to search for the remains (Matthew Lofthouse SWNS)

He believes that Brady may have been forming the shape of a Swastika with the burial sites of his victims.

Russell said: “I’ve always known John and Keith are one side and the girls the other.

“The idea of a swastika, the shape in the road, and the way that the kids were, it leads itself to that so we’re looking for Keith in a specific area.”

Earlier this week the police search appeared to be widening with a third blue tent pictured on the moorland.

But detective chief inspector Cheryl Hughes from Greater Manchester Police said on Tuesday that 'no bones, fabric or items of interest were recovered from the soil.'

The force said the soil samples obtained by Mr Edwards had been sent to "accredited experts for analysis", which is ongoing.

Police walk across Saddleworth Moor where 5 of Brady's victims were buried in the 1960s (PA)

Keith was the third victim of notorious child killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.

He was last seen by his mum on June 16, 1964, after he left home in Longsight, Manchester, on his way to his gran's house nearby.

He was one of five youngsters Brady and Hindley murdered.

Pauline Reade, 16, John Kilbride, 12, and Lesley Ann Downey, 10, were all buried on Saddleworth Moor and their bodies later unearthed.

(PA)

But the evil pair died without revealing where his body was buried.

His heartbroken mum Winnie, who dedicated her life to finding his body, died aged 78 having never discovered his final resting place.

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