A police scene on Saddleworth Moor where experts were searching for the body of Moors Murders victim Keith Bennett has been closed with no evidence to indicate human remains.
On Friday afternoon, Greater Manchester Police confirmed the scene was being closed following the completion of the excavation by accredited forensic experts.
The search concluded there was no evidence to indicate the presence of human remains, the force said.
Archaeologists began searching the area last week after author Russell Edwards - who was researching Keith’s 1964 murder by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley - said he believed he had located the 12-year-old’s makeshift grave.
It is said Mr Edwards commenced his own dig – close to where the other Moors Murders victims were found – and uncovered an object that could be part of a human jaw or skull.
Keith was last seen by his mother in the early evening of June 16, 1964 after he left home in Eston Street, Longsight, Manchester, on his way to his grandmother’s house nearby.
Brady and Hindley murdered five people in total, and three were later found buried on Saddleworth Moor.
The victims were: Pauline Reade, 16, who disappeared on her way to a disco on July 12, 1963; John Kilbride, 12, who was snatched in November the same year; Lesley Ann Downey, 10, who was lured away from a funfair on Boxing Day 1964; and Edward Evans, 17, who was axed to death in October 1965.
Brady and Hindley were caught after Edward’s murder, and Lesley and John’s bodies were recovered from the moor.
The killers were taken to Saddleworth Moor to help police find the remains of the other victims, but only Pauline’s body was recovered.
Brady claimed he could not remember where he had buried Keith.
In 2009, police said a covert search operation on the moor, which used a wealth of scientific experts, also failed to discover any trace of the boy.
Hindley died in jail in 2002 at the age of 60 and Brady died in a high-security hospital in 2017 aged 79.
In 2012 – 48 years after Keith’s death – his mother Winnie Johnson died aged 78 without fulfilling her wish to give him a Christian burial.
On Friday afternoon Sarah Jackson, Assistant Chief Constable at Greater Manchester Police (GMP), said: “Since 1964, Greater Manchester Police has remained committed to finding answers for Keith Bennett’s family.
“We have always said that we would respond, in a timely and appropriate manner, to any credible information which may lead us towards finding Keith. Our actions in the last week or so are a highly visible example of what that response looks like, with the force utilising the knowledge and skills of accredited experts, specialist officers and staff.
“It is these accredited experts and specialists who have brought us to a position from where we can say that, despite a thorough search of the scene and ongoing analysis of samples taken both by ourselves and a third party, there is currently no evidence of the presence of human remains at, or surrounding, the identified site on Saddleworth Moor. However, I want to make it clear that our investigation to find answers for Keith’s family is not over.
“We understand how our communities in Greater Manchester feel about this case, the renewed interest in it and the shared desire to find Keith.”
Senior Investigating Officer Detective Chief Inspector Cheryl Hughes added: “In response to the report [of potential human remains] made on September 29, officers met with the member of the public who later provided us with samples and copies of the photographs he had taken. He also took officers to the location from which he had obtained these and provided grid references.
“The items given to us by the member of the public have been examined by a forensic scientist and though this hasn’t yet indicated the presence of human remains – more analysis is required. With regards to the photograph, we have sought the assistance of a forensic botanist.
“We are now utilising the knowledge and skills of a forensic image expert to put a standard anthropological measurement to the object to assist with identification. At this stage, the indications are that it would be considerably smaller than a juvenile jaw and it cannot be ruled out that it is plant-based.”
She stressed that the case remains open, adding: “It will not be closed until we have found the answers his family have deserved for so many years.”
