The brother of the final victim of Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley is expected to hear today whether the discovery of suspected human remains is crucial to the investigation.
The remains were found by an author who had been researching the murder of Keith Bennett, a 12-year-old boy who went missing in 1964 and whose body has never been found.
Writing on Facebook last night, Alan Bennett expressed doubt that the findings will turn out to be the remains of his brother Keith.
“I cannot escape the feeling that we have been here before but all should be clear and final by sometime tomorrow.”
Author Russell Edwards told the Daily Mail he believed he had located the youngster’s makeshift grave following “extensive soil analysis” which indicated the presence of human remains.
The Greater Manchester Force is carrying out initial investigations on a remote part of Saddleworth Moor, in what could be a major breakthrough in a case that has been open since the early 1960s.
Keith was one of five victims of Brady and his accomplice Hindley, who sexually assaulted, tortured and murdered children over two years in the 1960s.
Suspected remains linked to Moors murders being investigated by police
Brady and Hindley’s bitter war of words revealed
Brady and Hindley’s bitter war of words revealed
While the bodies of four of their victims were discovered buried on Saddleworth Moor in the south Pennines, the schoolboy’s remains have never been found.
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Keith was taken on 16 June after going to visit his grandmother’s house in the Longsight area of Manchester. Brady told Hindley he sexually assaulted and strangled the boy.
Despite a plea to Brady from Keith’s mother, Winnie Johnson, to reveal the details of where her son’s body was, holding back the information was believed to be Brady maintaining a last element of control.
Mrs Johnson died in 2012 without fulfilling her wish to give him a proper Christian burial.
Brady confessed to Keith’s murder but claimed he could not remember where he was buried.
Brady and Hindley’s other 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.
The killers were caught after the Evans murder and Lesley and John’s bodies were recovered from the moors.
Hindley died in jail in 2002 at the age of 60, while Brady died in a high-security hospital in 2017 aged 79.
