Saddleworth moor search for Keith Bennett latest: author says investigators have been ‘looking in wrong place’

A writer who has spent the last seven years investigating and trying to find the grave of Keith Bennett believes people have spent many years “looking in the wrong place.”

Russell Edwards contacted Greater Manchester police last week after he and his team found what they believe was a human skull on Saddleworth Moor.

Keith was one of five youngsters killed by Ian Brady and his partner Myra Hindley in the 1960s in what became known as the Moors murders.

Greater Manchester police have been searching the area since last Thursday but, in an update at the weekend, said they had not found anything confirmed as human remains yet and were keeping an open mind. New footage shows police using a drone over the moor on Sunday.

However Keith’s brother Alan has said he does not believe Keith’s body is in that location: read more here.

What did Russell Edwards say?

Speaking with Anne Diamond and Stephen Dixon on their breakfast show on GB News, Russell explained why he was drawn to a particular location in the Moors and how everybody else was “looking in the wrong place”.

He said: “They’ve been looking at Hoe Grain and Shiny Brook, where Myra Hindley said they took Keith. But, I’ve been helped by one of the former authorities on the story, and she gave me all the information many, many years ago.

“She gave me information that really led me to putting the pieces together in great detail. Ian Brady told (police chief) Peter Topping after the first visit that he wanted to go and specifically look at Eagle Rock and the view of the reservoir. When the landowner took me out to show me the murder scenes, where the bodies were discovered, I’ve got to say I’m very sympathetic to this.

“He pointed out Eagle Rock to me and it all just fitted in. Keith has got to be near John Kilbride, the second victim.”

Mr Edwards focused his search on the Eagle Rock area of the moors, where Brady is thought to have revisited with a former GMP detective after his imprisonment in 1966.

Mr Edwards continued: “I firmly believe that the boys are buried one side and the girls are buried the other (in the land). Something that’s very significant was car parking spaces. There’s only two-lane traffic, so you’re not going to put your car on the main road. So you’re going to park your card to the side, where one parking space is and where John is and where we found the evidence of Keith’s remains and on the other side round the corner is where they found Lesley Ann Downey. So that is how I put it all together.”

Mr Edwards, who is described as having a lifelong obsession with unsolved cases, contacted Greater Manchester Police at 11.25 am on Thursday 29 September, claiming he had found the skull of 12-year-old Keith.

Keith disappeared on 16 June 1964 while on his way to see his grandmother in Longsight.

Keith’s body is the only one of the Moors murders victims that has not been recovered. His mum Winnie died in 2012 without being able to bury her son.

Speaking more about his work, Russell said: “We were looking for elements in the summer that shouldn’t be there and on that assessment, we got calcium, phosphorus and magnesium, so evidence of skeletal remains. It was me that actually found that spot through seven years of relentless work. On the day we found what looked like material, hair, and tissue, that’s what’s left in the body outside of the skeleton and we took a sample of that and gave it to the police.”

Russell went on to explain that an archaeologist confirmed that the teeth discovered matched someone who was of similar age to Keith as it only had one molar.