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

  • #281
Today, search team about to move up to second site of interest, which is approx 2 mins away from the farmhouse.
Just watched a live video on ITV Calendar, DI Cousins explaining that there are about 20 depositions of rubble ? on this site, which they are going to investigate. They will use radar to check.
This site investigation has come about as a direct result of the new witness information.
Some of the rubble from the site where Dino was digging was brought to this area, about 1 or 2 days after Ben disappeared.

Video not yet up on Calendar, I just happened to catch it live. It will be posted up later


video link now up ..... https://www.facebook.com/BENNEEDHAMGREECE/posts/1496199540393910
 
  • #282
Mark Witty ‏@markwittyitv 19m19 minutes ago

@itvcalendar high shot of second excavation site - tipping area for rubble two mins away from kos farmhouse


Ben second site.jpg
 
  • #283
Could this be the day?
 
  • #284
  • #285
  • #286
Could this be the day?


I really waver between thinking they are right, and Ben is buried here and thinking that Ben was abducted.

The interview with Eddie is very interesting - and sad - but he personally does not believe Ben was killed by the digger. He says that as soon as he and Christine realised Ben was missing and began to search, he went to the area where the digger was ( the workmen had already gone ) and saw nothing untoward.

I just hope they get some answers at the new site and with taking the ground radar let's hope it will be quick, if there is anything to find.
 
  • #287
I really waver between thinking they are right, and Ben is buried here and thinking that Ben was abducted.

The interview with Eddie is very interesting - and sad - but he personally does not believe Ben was killed by the digger. He says that as soon as he and Christine realised Ben was missing and began to search, he went to the area where the digger was ( the workmen had already gone ) and saw nothing untoward.

I just hope they get some answers at the new site and with taking the ground radar let's hope it will be quick, if there is anything to find.

BBM.

Has this been stated anywhere, Alyce? This would be key info if true. If Dino and crew weren't there how could he have an accident?

I think I've found the location of this second site on Google maps. It is where I believe/deduced something else was.....
 
  • #288
It is the first time I have ever heard that information, re the workmen having already gone.
Unless of course it just means that they had gone by the time Eddie and Christine went to the work area. I think they would most likely have searched around the immediate farmhouse first, the olive grove at the back etc. So I suppose it could have been 20 minutes or more before they went to the area where the digger was.

Again, I am just surmising here, as I have seen conflicting reports of where Dino was actually digging. If he was digging immediately to the left of the farmhouse, then I would have expected Eddie to go there quickly, with it being close to the patio and driveway of the farmhouse. However, if it was further up or down the lane ( as I have also seen reported ) then it may well have been some time later by the time Eddie got to the digging site.
 
  • #289
Don't forget Ben had been gone about 3 hours (iirc) before anyone realised he was gone. The grandparents assumed he'd gone with Stephen and it wasn't until later on that they twigged he wasn't with any of them. Much valuable time lost.
 
  • #290
Don't forget Ben had been gone about 3 hours (iirc) before anyone realised he was gone. The grandparents assumed he'd gone with Stephen and it wasn't until later on that they twigged he wasn't with any of them. Much valuable time lost.


Christine ( grandmother ) realised he was gone after 2 or 3 minutes. She said it suddenly went quiet outside.
She and Eddie and Michaelis ( farmhouse owner ) and Danny ( younger son ) all searched immediately round the farmhouse - and I am thinking that it must have been during this search that Eddie looked at the digging site. But could have been half an hour or so into the search, by which time it would be after 3pm and quite possible the diggers had gone for the day.

After an hour or so of searching, they decided that Ben must have gone off with Stephen.
 
  • #291
Christine ( grandmother ) realised he was gone after 2 or 3 minutes. She said it suddenly went quiet outside.
She and Eddie and Michaelis ( farmhouse owner ) and Danny ( younger son ) all searched immediately round the farmhouse - and I am thinking that it must have been during this search that Eddie looked at the digging site. But could have been half an hour or so into the search, by which time it would be after 3pm and quite possible the diggers had gone for the day.

After an hour or so of searching, they decided that Ben must have gone off with Stephen.

Yes, sorry, I wasn't clear. They knew he had gone, but not that he was missing (if that makes sense!).

Slightly strange to search for an HOUR (which is a bloody long time if you're worried a kid is missing) before just leaving it and making a very strong, and time critical, assumption.

I am not casing aspersions on the searchers, more that I wonder if it really was an hour. Because by then you'd be considering the worst and surely you'd set off to try and find Stephen.
 
  • #292
I agree Cags. I cannot understand that part. Searching for an hour or so and then saying oh its ok he must be with Stephen ( reasonable assumption ) but then not going to check straight away.
 
  • #293
I agree Cags. I cannot understand that part. Searching for an hour or so and then saying oh its ok he must be with Stephen ( reasonable assumption ) but then not going to check straight away.

I know. Fortunately I've never lost my kids for any length of time, but I would imagine every minute would feel like an hour.

I got lost on a beach in Wales when I was a kid (I came out of the sea and wandered up into the dunes looking for pretty shells, totally oblivious) but by the time I was found 20 minutes later the coastguard had arrived, my parents were beyond frantic and pretty much the whole beach was looking for me. My mum, who had already assumed I had drowned, said it was by far the longest and worst few minutes of her life and was physically sick when I got back, I got the bollocking of a lifetime. At no point would anyone have said "oh lets just assume she's looking for shells" and gone back to whatever they were doing.

Anyway, it's by the by, I just wonder whether it really was 2-3 minutes and if it really was an hour. Those timings are important as they narrow the options for what could have happened that day. Dino said he could have hit Ben so he must have been there at the time in question, but apparently was gone a few minutes later when Eddie went to check.

Hmmmm. I don't know what to think any more, and I hope this latest search brings some new direction in this mystery...
 
  • #294
I think it's easy for someone to think, oh it was only 2 or 3 minutes when it's actually longer. Have done it so many times myself ( not when searching for someone ) and have been amazed when another person has said, do you realise it was actually 20 mins or so.

I think the timing is crucial and if Eddie and the others began their search around the farmhouse, then it could easily have been later on by the time he got to the dig site, by which time the diggers had departed.
As you say, Dino said he could have hit Ben, so he must have still been working at 2.30pm ish.

One thing that Christine said was that when they couldnt find Ben then they couldnt imagine any other option apart from him being with Stephen. She said words to the effect that it was such a remote, but safe, place to be, that if he was not wandering nearby he must have gone with Stephen.
Eddie said that had they been in the UK their thoughts would have been different.

The other thing I read, was that when they went back to Kos to do a reconstruction, about 5 years later, they used Kerry's daughter to act the part of Ben. She was about the same age then and looked very similar. The grandparents said that when Leighanna walked away from the farmhouse they were horrified to see how far she was able to walk in such a short time...they had never thought that a child of that age would have been able to go so far.
When they had searched in 1991, they had stopped searching when they got part way down the lane, because they said that Ben surely could not have got further than this, whereas the reconstruction proved that he could have.
 
  • #295
  • #296
I just found an old video about a reconstruction of the day Ben disappeared, made around 1996.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4Ka3Pq3dVKc

On the day Ben disappeared, he was playing outside and his grandparents were inside keeping an eye on him. They realised they hadn't seen him for a couple of minutes, ancient outside and looked up and down the lane, but he was not there. The boy's uncle had just left on his moped, so the grandparents assumed that he had taken Ben with him. It wasn't until he returned alone several hours later that they realised Ben was missing and called the police.

In the reconstruction, the toddler was easily out of sight of the house in a couple of minutes. So Ben had several hours to wander, get lost, get into an accident or get picked up by someone.
I wonder if there were any ponds or rivers nearby and if they were thoroughly dredged?

I can't find any verified cases of toddlers ever being abducted for an underground adoption black market, or abducted and sold by "gypsies".

A really good video of the reconstruction, done 4 years after Ben disappeared.
 
  • #297
There was reporting today that they will now move to another site to dig there. Does this mean they finished searching the ground under the knocked-down extension and fig tree and found nothing?
 
  • #298
Hi Elainera, they were on the second site yesterday, but I believe they were also still at the farmhouse, checking the ground underneath the foundation and fig tree.
Have not yet seen any updates today, off to have a look now.
 
  • #299
I know it's the Star, so not the best news outlet, but there's a bit more detail here re when the rubble was dumped at site number 2


According to the source, digger driver Konstantinos “Dino” Barkas – dumped rubble at the site on the same day the tot vanished.

DI Jon Cousins - "We have been told that rubble from work at the farmhouse was brought down here either the day or days after Ben went missing.

During the initial and subsequent police searches, Dino failed to tell cops of the site.


Kerry also claims Dino had no reason to visit the dump that day.

She added: “He already had a big mound of building waste which he had been using throughout that day and previous days.

“The only reason to go elsewhere was to hide something.

“It frightens me that he took rubble from that site when we were out of the way at Kos police station.

Were they moving him when we couldn’t see their comings and goings?”

Police were alerted to Dino’s fly-tipping site in June this year – but samples had to been taken to determine which rubble was dumped in July 1991.



http://www.dailystar.co.uk/news/lat...r-buried-Kos-building-dump-digger-Dino-Barkas
 
  • #300
Same news but also gives a timescale for the new site - 4 to 5 days going through the rubble


Kerry said she is now convinced Ben’s body would have been moved from the spot where he died.

She added: “I think the police are right. There was an accident and his body was taken and may have been hidden elsewhere.

"Seeing this new site has made it even more real – the fact the police are convinced he’s dead.

“Nobody would look for him in that area they are now digging. They would always go back to the scene of the crime in Iraklis.”



http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ben-needhams-mum-reveals-wanted-8995046
 

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