Scientific advances lead to identification of body from 1995

The mother of Lewis Haines has now been told that parts of her son's body were found in the River Don in Sheffield a few months after he went missing.

At the time, police lacked the technology to positively identify the 19-year-old, who was last seen leaving a city centre nightclub in June 15 years ago.

Lewis's mother Julie Haines, 57, has suffered the agony of not knowing what happened to her son. His father, her husband Tony, has since died.

She said the identification had been made by the South Yorkshire Police cold case review team, which continually revisits cases which remain unsolved.

Mrs Haines, of Swallownest, Sheffield, said: "The police told me that when Lewis went missing there was not the technology we now have to identify people.

"They had carbon dating which was done to try to put an age on the body but the results came back saying that it was too old to be Lewis so it threw the police off the scent," she said. "The cold case review team is working its way through murders, rapes and missing people and asked for the remains to be examined again and because of advances in science a DNA match for Lewis came back.

"I felt shock at first because for years and years we have had to live without knowing what happened to him and I never knew about the remains.

"I have been to hell and back over the years not knowing what happened to Lewis but now there can be some closure.

"I am just sad that this happened after Lewis' dad's death – Tony never got over the disappearance and died without ever knowing what happened."

She held a private cremation service and has organised a memorial and remembrance service for family and friends at All Saints Church, Aston-cum-Aughton, at 2pm on Friday.

Det Sgt Ian Harding, from South Yorkshire Police's cold case review team, said: "A very extensive police inquiry took place at the time and has been reviewed many times since. The inquiry found no evidence that Lewis had met with foul play."

An inquest into the death has been opened.