Police searching for the last known victim of Moors murderers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley say have not found any human remains – but are continuing work to excavate the site.
Suspected human 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.
His findings were reported to Greater Manchester Police (GMP), which is investigating.
In an update on Saturday, GMP force review officer Cheryl Hughes said: “Following information received which indicated that potential human remains had been found on the Moors, specialist officers have today resumed excavation of a site identified to us.
“This information included photographs of the site and show what experts working with the informant have interpreted as a human jaw bone. No physical evidence of a jaw bone or skull has been examined.
“However, based on the photographs and information provided, and in line with GMP’s usual practice to follow-up any suggestion of human burial, we began our search of the site of interest.
“We have not found any identifiable human remains but our work to excavate the site is continuing.
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
“Conditions are difficult and it may take us some time to fully complete the excavation but we are committed to ensuring this is undertaken in the most thorough way possible.”
Writing on Facebook last night, Keith Bennett’s brother Alan 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.
GMP 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.
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.
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.
