RUSSELL Edwards, the man 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.”
The author from Birkenhead, Wirral, discussed the latest as police revealed they have not yet found human remains following the reported discovery of what Russell believes to be Keith’s skull 60 years after he was killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
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. Our paths crossed on the Ripper work actually and I said our pathways were meant to cross.
“She gave me information that really led me – to putting the pieces together in great detail. Ian Brady told 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.”
Russell 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.
Russell 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.”
Russell, who is described as having a lifelong obsession with unsolved cases, contacted Greater Manchester Police at 11.25 am on September 29, claiming he had found the skull of 12-year-old Keith.
The teenager was one of five youngsters killed by Ian Brady and his partner Myra Hindley in the 1960s. He disappeared on 16 June 1964 while on his way to see his grandmother in Manchester.
The infamous couple tortured and killed five youngsters over a period of two years and buried four of their victims on Saddleworth Moor in the Pennines but Keith’s body is the only one that has not been recovered.
Since Russell’s claims, Greater Manchester Police has confirmed they were searching the famous Saddleworth Moor following reports of suspected human remains being found.
Speaking more about his discovery, 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.
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