Greece Greece - Ben Needham, 21 mos, Isle of Kos, 24 July 1991

[Alyce]

Just adding the pic once again, to show the original farmhouse and the extension - as per Jerrica's link on previous page

I was going to ask a question but I have now answered it to myself !

 

[Alyce]

I don't believe the 'missing' shorts and toys have anything to do with Ben's disappearance at all. I think in all the confusion and emotional turmoil that went on for days if not longer someone simply forgot that they had been put away earlier, or hung on that tree on another day, or some such. The shorts/toys disappearing make no sense with either scenario, abduction or accident.

I believe he's buried there somewhere. Why would the friend make up a story like that? To somehow spoil Dino's reputation postmortem? I think this friend is telling what he heard from Dino.

I could quite understand the toys disappearing - Ben could have had them in his hands when he wandered off or was abducted.

But I cant get round the shorts situation. Surely that day will be framed in Ben's grandmothers mind for ever. I can't see her making a mistake re the shorts. It was, by all acounts, an unplanned visit that she made that day to the farmhouse, hence probably why she didnt think to take a change of clothes for Ben. That kind of detail would stick in the mind surely.

Also, I would be very interested to hear comments from the owner of the farmhouse ( who , according to reports was there, having lunch with Ben's grandparents and uncle on that day ). As far as I know, he has never said anything ( though he no doubt made statements at the time ) but his recollections would be useful to know.

 

[Elainera]

I'm confused now. If they plan to search under the extension of the farmhouse would that mean they have not ruled out that a family member was responsible for Ben's disappearance? Surely Dino or any other stranger would not walk onto the property, kill Ben right there, and then leave him somehow hidden/buried in an area where soon an extension was to be built?

 

[Alyce]

I agree Elainera. If Ben was killed accidentally, I cannot see why the person who killed him would then bury him next to the farmhouse.
And, being as Ben's grandparents were searching the area for a time, immediately after Ben disappeared, then it would mean that the killer would have to keep the body with him for a while, and then go to the site later, when the grandparents had departed on that day.
Doesnt make sense - they would be far more likely to take him elsewhere immediately and bury him at a place that no one would ever think to search.

And, as you say, they would also run the risk of building work unearthing the body at a later date.
Which leads to the question, if this extension was built after Ben disappeared, then surely the site has already been dug over ?

 

[shadowdancer]

I just don't know what to make of this anymore.

I just hope that they uncover the truth of what happened to Ben, but I have a nasty feeling that the truth is going to be extremely difficult for Kerry to bear. I do worry for her.

 

[Alyce]

Ah ...... I have just watched the latest ITV news video.

Here's the link. It includes a short press conference by DI Cousins, where he is talking about the ongoing negotiations with the family who own the farmhouse for permission to knock down part of the extension, which was built 12 months after Ben disappeared.

The part they are talking about is the far left side of the building in the pic ( not the more modern right hand side, which I had thought it was )

Makes more sense now as that extension is right next to the fig tree, which also appeared after Ben disappeared.


https://www.facebook.com/calendarnews/

scroll down to the link from 7 hours ago Ben Needham briefing Day 8, then go to about 6.30 mins into the video. This shows close up of the extension.

 

[Elainera]

I find it very odd that they want to check under the extension. Maybe they just want to cover all bases, now that they have permission to dig, and not leave anything out and then later regret it.

But surely these plans must be very unsettling for Ben's mom. It is one thing to think that maybe he was snatched by a passing car, or he was killed by accident a little further down the road. But to think that someone hid him right next to the farmhouse, that's an entirely different and even more disturbing possible scenario.

 

[MelmothTheLost]

Not only do the sandals give searchers something very specific to search for, but maybe to also help the searchers connect emotionally to the search, especially if they only show up as otherwise unrecognizable bits and pieces.
Something very specific and personal about a missing person's shoes, imo, speculation.

They look like bog standard Jesus sandals (aka desert wellies) to me, so I don't know why they needed to make a pair.

 

[TheTruthWillOut]

Also, I would be very interested to hear comments from the owner of the farmhouse ( who , according to reports was there, having lunch with Ben's grandparents and uncle on that day ). As far as I know, he has never said anything ( though he no doubt made statements at the time ) but his recollections would be useful to know.

RSBM.

Sadly the farmhouse owner died just before the UK Police did the first digs in 2012 and they never got a statement off him. Apparently he moved to Australia to join his son shortly after Ben went missing.

Here is a short comment from him at 43 seconds in which I find interesting:

[video=youtube;TKyUQEcdlUA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TKyUQEcdlUA[/video]

 

[Alyce]

Thanks so much for that link and update Truth ....

I cant quite catch everything that the owner says, after he talks about giving Ben the cola, there is something else he says, before he then says that Ben went outside.... was that the bit you meant ?

 

[JerricaBenton]

Is this the guy Michealis who had lunch with the Needhams when Ben went missing?

 

[TheTruthWillOut]

Thanks so much for that link and update Truth ....

I cant quite catch everything that the owner says, after he talks about giving Ben the cola, there is something else he says, before he then says that Ben went outside.... was that the bit you meant ?

The interesting thing for me (according to the subtitles) is that Stephen leaves with Ben still inside eating/drinking at a table even if for a few seconds. I thought he was playing outside or coming and going playing with the hose and a stick when Stephen left.

It would be so helpful to have original first statements from those there but I highly doubt we'll ever see them. I assume the UK Police have seen them and that's important thing. I still say the thing that sticks out that doesn't fit with an accident/cover-up by third party or abduction is the missing shorts and cars. Though I notice in one article today about demolishing a small part of the farmhouse they have all of a sudden been mentioned.

Is this the guy Michealis who had lunch with the Needhams when Ben went missing?

Yes, I believe so.

 

[Alyce]

I think ( and this is the bit I couldnt hear very well ) that Michaelis says that Ben wanted to go somewhere or do something ?

and then to me it seemed as though he was saying that Ben went outside very shortly after Stephen did, so the evidence that Stephen gave, about Ben asking for a ride on his bike, would follow on from that, if Ben was only a few seconds behind him.

I see what you are saying though - all the evidence I have heard previously was that Ben was running in and out, playing - not inside with the adults. although it could be that he just came in for a few minutes, and that was when they gave him the cola. ?

 

[Alyce]

This is an interesting read - talking about the documentary that was made and included Stephen's hypnosis sessions. Mrs Alden was the psychologist who undertook the hypnosis.


Much of the material not shown was taken up with procedures aimed to help Stephen with his problems. According to Mrs Alden, at the end of the 5 days he felt much better – ‘as if a weight had been lifted’.
He recalled details of the day of Ben’s disappearance, which were corroborated, and he recalled that when he drove away from the farmhouse he encountered a truck carrying concrete. The programme’s director was able to find confirmation of this detail. (There may be nothing unusual in this: Stephen may at one time have been able to remember all the details that now emerged but the passage of time (10 years) had made recall more effortful.)

Unfortunately Stephen was unable to retrieve any memories of seeing Ben as he left the farmhouse and rode off. It emerged that he felt guilty about not looking back as he rode off, as he might have seen something important.
The final session of hypnosis ended when Mrs Alden asked Stephen to imagine viewing the scene of his departure from the farmhouse from a detached position. He refused and ended the session himself.
This was obviously a distressing moment for him and, very correctly, Mrs Alden had made it clear that he should halt the proceedings if things were becoming too much for him.



http://www.mheap.com/missing.html

 

[pol100gk]

The house owner said that after Ben's uncle got up and went outside, Ben also went outside. This is also what his grandparents have said - that Ben was playing, going out to the patio, coming back, going back out after a few minutes etc. In the book that Kerry wrote about Ben's disappearance, there is mention of a lady in one of the other houses who saw Ben outside after Ben's uncle left. She was in her kitchen, doing the dishes and saw the uncle leaving, saw Ben still playing but when she next looked up, he was gone.

 

[CoverMeCagney]

I really do hate to ask this, but does anyone think there's a chance Stephen took him on that bike and had an accident?

 

[Elainera]

I think it's possible Ben ran after Stephen, trying to catch up, and lost his way.

 

[Ekkwhine]

I think it's possible Ben ran after Stephen, trying to catch up, and lost his way.

My youngest is two at Christmas and is terrible for trying to chase after people she's fond of. Her grandfather in his car when we were visiting last weekend was the scariest. I had no idea she'd gone, I was literally just hanging her coat up in the porch and she was next to me, we'd passed my dad on the way in, he was just getting in his car. She said her goodbyes etc and we went in. The door we'd entered was behind me and there is a door directly to the right. Its a small room, maybe ten feet square. In the time it took me from removing her coat and turning to put it up on a hook she'd gone, taken off down the track. My dad's car stopped and I thought he'd forgotten something and was about to reverse back up so shouted and ran flapping my arms. Luckily he'd stopped because he'd seen her in his mirror. A definite heart stopping moment.

Though they're not particularly fast at this age in that you could run and catch them pretty easily they are quick as in impulsive. If she hadn't stuck to the dead centre of the track and instead gone into the spinney I would have glanced out the door, not seen her, headed into the house to check there and given her precious seconds to get into heavens knows what in the undergrowth. I can see how a small child could very easily be lost quickly in a small area. Especially if the urgency wasn't apparent at the very beginning as you assume they're with X or Y in another room etc.

Sent from my MotoE2(4G-LTE) using Tapatalk

 

[Littlegreenlady]

I really do hate to ask this, but does anyone think there's a chance Stephen took him on that bike and had an accident?

I thought that was one of the theories at the time? If I remember correctly, that's one of the reasons Stephan was hypnotised, because they thought he might have taken him, or even hit him as he rode off.

Stephen was the last of the family to see Ben. "He said: 'Bike, bike,' and I said, 'No chance, go to Grandad.'" Then Stephen got on his bike and didn't look back.

Because of this, when he was questioned by the police he was singled out. They said that his moped looked as if it had been involved in an accident. Stephen told them about a minor crash a few days before, when he'd swerved to avoid some tourists on quad bikes, which explained the lack of indicators and a smashed fairing. But they weren't satisfied. "You fall off, kill the child, bury him?" the policeman said. The questioning had gone on like this for days. "They tried to break him," was how Eddie had put it, "but there was nothing to break."

https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2009/mar/29/missing-child-ben-needham

 

[JerricaBenton]

I don't think Stephen took him in the bike. I do think Ben tried to follow him and met an unfortunate end.

ETA - I don't think Stephen would allow his sister & parents go through 25 years of pain and misery, I think he would have cracked by now. After reading Kerry's book, they seem a close family that have gone through absolute hell.