According to reports, the mother of missing toddler Ben Needham says she has been told by British investigators that her son may have been crushed to death by a digger, in the Greek island of Kos.
South Yorkshire police confirmed its officers planned to return to the Greek Island of Kos, where the 21-month-old went missing in 1991, to excavate two sites after fresh leads.
Kerry Needham, Ben’s mother, who has held out on hope for the past 25 years that her son may be alive, told the Daily Mirror a friend of a digger driver on Kos told police he believed a now-deceased workman, named Konstantinos Barkas may have been responsible for her son’s accidental death.
She told the newspaper: “What they had to tell me was the last thing they would have ever wanted to. They think my Ben could be dead and buried. They are no longer looking for a missing person. How do I cope with that? My mother’s instinct has always told me he was alive. What if I’ve been wrong all this time?”
“I have spent all these years desperately hoping for that fairytale ending and for Ben to walk through that door. Now the horrible reality is Ben could be dead and he could have been dead all these years.”
Forensics teams are reportedly set to begin excavating at two sites close to where Ben, from Sheffield, was last seen as he played near his grandparents’ home on the Greek island.
A Greek media appeal made by officers in May prompted the latest leads, which have been investigated over the past three months.
DS Matt Fenwick, leading the investigation, said: “There will be planned operational activity at two locations on the island that have been identified as areas of interest to the investigation.
“We continue to keep an open mind and have updated Ben’s family about certain lines of enquiry we’re currently exploring. A dedicated policing team continues to work extremely hard to find answers for his family and keep them fully informed and supported throughout the investigation.” The force said officers would travel to Kos in the coming weeks to follow up the new lines of inquiry.

source: theguerdian.com