British police searching for Ben Needham, the toddler who disappeared 25 years ago on a Greek island, have found an “area of decomposition”, they revealed today.
Detective Inspector Jon Cousins, from South Yorkshire police, said the decomposing matter, which has yet to be identified, has been found.
Forensic scientists in Aberdeen, who are analysing the decomposed samples, have reportedly been unable to rule out whether they were human remains.
A search of land around the farmhouse on Kos where Ben was last seen alive has also found a fig tree that historic photographs show was not there in July 1991 — the month he went missing
“There were signs of some decomposition,” DI Cousins said. “We have found a number of patches that are of interest to us. What I want to do is discount that they may be human waste from the farmhouse itself.
“It is groundbreaking work, we are able to narrow down the decomposed matter to specific animals. One of the samples have been revealed to be canine remains and another is a specific species of bat.”
He added: “There are nutrients in the soil that are consistent with the decomposition of something. The scientists have been unable to determine what it is.”
Ben went missing aged 21 months on July 24, 1991, and has never been seen since. His family had moved from Sheffield to Kos in search of a new life.
He was being looked after by his grandparents Eddie and Christine Needham at the time while his mother Kerry was at work at a nearby hotel. She has fought a long campaign to get the case reinvestigated. Last year the Home Office granted extra funding weeks after she threatened to sue then Home Secretary Theresa May.
Officers began a fresh search earlier this month after a witness came forward to claim that Ben may have been accidentally run over by a digger and buried.
Today’s breakthrough comes four days into the dig at the farmhouse, near the village of Iraklis. DI Cousins said the search, with assistance from Greek officials, was benefiting from advances in forensic science.
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