Sponsored by
Video: Tears of Moors murder victim's mum, as police finally call off search
MOORS murderer Ian Brady is the last hope in finding the grave of his victim Keith Bennett, police said today as they admitted defeat after 45 years.
And, as previously unseen photos taken by Brady of Myra Hindley close to the burial sites of the couple's other four victim's were released, the boy's mother begged the killer for help to find her son before she died.
Keith, aged 12, vanished on June 16 1964, after waving goodbye to his mother, Winnie Johnson, as he walked to his gran's house in Manchester. He never arrived.
He was abducted by Brady and Hindley, taken to Saddleworth Moor above Manchester, sexually assaulted, killed and buried.
He was the third of the couple's five young victims, all murdered during their killing spree in mid-60s Manchester.
The pair signposted their chilling deeds with photographs of Hindley smiling while standing or crouching over the graves of their victims.
Police used the newly released photos for a covert five-year intensive search of one area, Shiny Brook.
Brady, 71, had refused to help - dismissing detectives with a wave of his hand from his bed when they visited him at Ashworth High Security Hospital in Merseyside.
Using high-tech equipment detectives scoured and dug around a 72,000 sq metre area of the desolate moors - but could not find the body.
Today Mrs Johnson broke down in tears as she appealed to her son's killer to end her 45 years of torment.
The frail pensioner, 75, said: "I'm pleading with him to get to me or the press or the police and tell me where Keith is, it is the last time it will be done.
"I appreciate what the police have done, they have done a lot of work in the last three to four years ... they have done their best, they can't do any more, they have got nowhere else to look - it is up to Brady now to do what he can for me to get Keith back."
She then broke down in tears as the photo of Hindley and live pictures of Saddleworth Moor flashed up on TV screens where she was speaking at the police HQ in Ashton-under-Lyne, Greater Manchester.
"It is not fair, oh dear God, I can't talk now. It is not fair on me, what I have had to go through.
"I did not ask him to be picked up and murdered.
"I want Keith found before anything happens to me because I want to give him a decent burial.
"It's a nightmare, it's been a nightmare for the last 45 years how I have carried on - 45 years in limbo.
"He knows where he is and won't tell anyone.
"If he's got any decency or respect for anybody it should be me."
Detectives from Greater Manchester Police had launched a special investigation, Operation Maida, in 2003, a year after Hindley died in prison, to try to find Keith Bennett's remains.
The covert operation - designed to avoid the glare of publicity - was set up as the force believed it needed to explore every angle so it could satisfy itself it had done everything possible for Keith's mother.
Today, on the 22nd anniversary of finding the remains of another victim, Pauline Reade in 1987, they said the mystery would remain unsolved - unless Brady co-operated.
Officers reluctantly announced the investigation had entered a "dormant phase" after all avenues available in the inquiry had been exhausted.
The case was not closed but it could only progress if there was a scientific breakthrough - or if Brady revealed where he had buried Keith, police said.
They would not allow the psychotic killer to return to the Moors, fearing it could feed his twisted ego, but said he could assist by identifying the location using 3D maps of the area.
"If he (Brady) wants to take the opportunity to do the decent thing then we will listen, but there will be no deals," Det Chief Supt Steve Heywood, head of GMP's serious crime division said.
"This is his final opportunity to come forward and give the information he knows where Keith Bennett is.
"It has to be something substantial though."
He added investigators would not subject themselves to the "whims" of a "psychopath" in returning to the scene of the murders which he last visited in 1986.
"I am not taking Ian Brady back on the moor," he said. "He will not be released.
"All the experts we have spoken to have advised against doing so."
David Kirwan, Mrs Johnson's solicitor, said: "We are naturally disappointed that Greater Manchester Police has decided to call off its search, but we have always maintained that the only person who can end Winnie Johnson's 45-year nightmare is Ian Brady.
"So today I am calling on Ian Brady to declare that he will do what he says he can do."
Brady and Hindley were convicted in 1966 of murdering Lesley Ann Downey, 10, John Kilbride, 12, and Edward Evans, 17.
Two decades later he admitted murdering Pauline Reade, 16, and 12-year-old Keith Bennett.
In 1986 both killers were taken separately to the moors bordering Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire to help the search, and a year later the remains of Pauline were found, but the search for Keith proved fruitless.
Scientists told police it was likely some of Keith's body would still be preserved because of the nature of the moorland peat.
Soil samples were taken from key areas and examined before searches got under way using spades and shovels, dogs trained to identify human scent and highly sophisticated searching equipment.
As well as officers from GMP, the investigation called on the support and resources of clinical psychologists, imagery experts, search advisers, geologists, geophysicists, geochemists, archaeologists and anthropologists.
The search physically stopped in November 2008 and following a review this year it was decided the operation would cease and only resume if new information came to light.
The failed search for Keigh Bennett
June 16, 1964: Keith vanishes as he walks to his grandmother's house in Longsight, Manchester. He accepted a lift from Myra Hindley, who drove him to the moors, where he was sexually assaulted and strangled to death by Ian Brady.
Mid-1980s: Hindley agrees to help police locate the site where Keith was buried. She and Brady are taken - separately - back to the moors to assist with the search.
2001: Hindley draws a map of the area where she believes Keith's body was buried and gives it to BBC filmmakers.
November 15, 2002: Myra Hindley dies, aged 60. Winnie Johnson, Keith's mother, vows to keep up the search for her son's body.
2003: Detectives attempt to interview Brady at Ashworth Hospital, the high security psychiatric unit where he is held, about where he buried Keith. But the killer refuses to speak to them.
2004: BBC broadcasts The Moors Murders Code, which claims to reveal a secret code used by Brady to hide Keith's body.
2005-2008: Police periodically search the moors during a secret operation to locate Keith's remains.
2006: Winnie Johnson hires Liverpool solicitor David Kirwan and launches a renewed bid to find her son's body.
July 29, 2008: Police searching for Keith's remains discover bones on Saddleworth Moor. The bones turn out to be from a sheep carcass.
July 1, 2009: Greater Manchester Police call off the search for Keith's body unless new information is forthcoming.
Email to a friend
Print this page- Three-inch blanket of snow heading our way today
- Alan Shearer in list of favourites for Leeds and England jobs: Latest odds
- Barnsley’s Keith Hill invokes Fawlty Towers over link with Leeds job
- McCormack feels United search can be narrowed down
- Redfearn throws down gauntlet as queue builds at Elland Road
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: -2 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: South
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 2 C to 5 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North west
