The UK police announced it has stopped investigations into the disappearance of Ben Needham, the toddler who vanished on Greece’s island of Kos 35 years ago.
Ben, from Sheffield, was just 21 months old when he went missing in July 1991, while staying at a farmhouse with his grandparents. His mother, Kerry Needham, who was working at a local hotel at the time, has spent the last 35 years searching for answers.
Years of investigation for Ben Needham
Initial inquiries in 1991 failed to locate Ben, and investigators originally suspected he had been kidnapped.
In 2012, following family complaints regarding the original handling of the case, the Home Office granted SYP £700,000 to reopen the investigation. Land excavations on Kos yielded no DNA evidence. British detectives returned to Kos for a subsequent three-week search in 2016, but no trace of the toddler was ever found.
Greece takes over investigations
According to The Mirror, Kerry Needham was notified of the decision via a video call with her family liaison officer, an experience she described as “devastating” and leaving her “heartbroken and sobbing.” The UK police informed her that future inquiries are now solely the responsibility of Greek authorities.
In a statement to The Independent, South Yorkshire Police clarified that while Greek authorities “have full primacy over the investigation,” the UK force will continue “to allocate resource to Ben’s case, in the form of a Family Liaison Officer and a detective acting as a single point of contact.”
“A devastating step backwards”
Ms. Needham fears that shifting the entirety of the operational burden to Greek police, whom she believes “have only ever wanted this case to go away,” will effectively end the search for her son.
“South Yorkshire are the only ones I can rely on to make sure that information goes to the right place,” Ms. Needham said, noting that there are still avenues left to explore. “It will stop me from getting to the truth…If my police are taken away from me, what am I going to do with that information? All of my blood, sweat, and tears would have been for nothing.”
Related: Man Claims He’s Missing Toddler Ben Needham Who Disappeared in Greece
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