The Mystery of Ben Needham

In this Mirror article http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ben-needhams-grandfather-reveals-spoke-8860116 Eddie states he asks Dino to come and "put a road in". Below is a map posted a couple pages ago. Is the road shown in it and if so where?



I've been reading articles and watching a couple of old Ben Needham case videos and I've got some ideas of what may have gone on (especially reading stuff being stated in articles the last few days/weeks) but I hesitate to say anything until/unless something solid is found.

... I know what you mean, TTWO. I feel a bit uncomfortable airing a few theories on the 'public' thread myself.

Not sure about the road, re: your question about the road.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/30/search-for-missing-british-toddler-ben-needham-resumes-in-greece/

Snipped:

“My main task is to identify in space and time the areas associated with Ben’s disappearance. I’m confident we will find traces. It’s just a matter of time,” Dr Karl Harrison, a British forensic archaeologist working with the police, told The Telegraph.

His company, Preston-based Alecto Forensics, has helped identify victims from the mass casualty terrorist attacks of September 2001 in the US and the July 2005 London bombings, as well as victims of massacres in the Balkans and the Haiti earthquake of 2010.

Dr Harrison also worked on the investigation into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann in Praia da Luz in Portugal, but says the Needham search is easier because it is being conducted over a smaller area – just the field and olive grove either side of the farmhouse. “As a site, it is relatively unchanged and undeveloped. We are looking for general clutter, from old drinks cans to food packets with English writing on the packaging and children’s toys.”

https://twitter.com/itvcalendar/status/781942582070894592

A video update of today's events etc...

On pg 11 of thread Seahorse has a link to Kerry's blog,Oct 2007. Niggles, why did they not ask the lady in the villa, surely she heard the shouts, this seems to be a witness saying Ben did not go on the bike with Stephen unless Stephen came back for him, why did the family not use this to try and clear Stephen's name?

It says the police dug through the farmhouse rubble the next day.

It also says Christine bringing them for lunch had done this many times before.

This search seems off somehow.

If anyone would like to see what the area looked like in 2011 and have a look around here is the Google Street View link starting at the farmhouse:

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/@36.8771901,27.3187884,3a,75y,288.3h,69.88t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sFC26kkJbkFRJffR-0XCvFg!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

Cheers. I'm always fascinated with 'street view'. I found myself wandering off down towards the beach as I wanted to check it out. Couldn't get back though.

Will have another inspection closer by.

I'm not sure if it's me... but you don't really realise just how close by that farmhouse is until you see it on street view.

I thought that as well, Andrew. It is literally 30 feet away.

It is.

What's the caged off area at the front I wonder? The cesspit was the other side at the back I think...

No idea, Andrew. I guess seeing as even since 2011 the farmhouse has been renovated could it be that caged area is the old cesspit and the one we think we see now is a new and relocated one?

It looks to me, as though there had been some kind of small building there. An outhouse is a possibility. It may have been demolished or fell down then the area fenced off to contain dogs. Sadly this is not unusual in the Med.

Andy Lines ‏@andylines 4m4 minutes ago
Police are now searching the exact area where digger driver Dino Barkas was working the day #BenNeedham went missing.

https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1343304905702007

Day 6 press briefing about to start.

ETA - it's an earlier recording. Not live.

Danny Savage ‏@dannysavage 6m6 minutes ago
Day 6 of search for #BenNeedham focusing on exactly where digger driver was working that day. Clearing trees to dig ground. @BBCLookNorth

I was watching an old tv doc posted by Sallypelt over the way. Apologies if it has already been posted here. Don't have time to check.


What seemed odd to me was that they all sat down to a typical Greek lunch. A meze consists of several different dishes and is quite elaborate in its preparation. Who supplied it because Christine didn't mention taking anything with her? Did the owner live in the property? I doubt it because it looked pretty derelict back then. But my big question is why was Ben not brought in to eat? Or something taken out to him? Christine mentioned that it was going on lunchtime when she set out.
Where are Ben's cars and why did they not notice his shorts were gone? If they thought Ben had wandered off how on Earth would he have been able to get his shorts down from the tree? That alone should have rung an alarm bell. Even if they thought Stephen had him surely they would have tried to find him to make sure.
Something isn't adding up.

Thanks Chirpy. I shall watch this at my leisure. It's from 2001 so there won't be any mentions of you-know-who - thank goodness.

It is down to them though (amongst others) that I am no longer as trusting in believing what we're told about anything. I'm sure it didn't occur to me back in 1991 to doubt the Needhams' accounts but now it's clear that something wasn't right all along.

P.S. First discrepancy I've noticed within a few minutes - how did Ben's shorts get wet? The story was always that he was pouring water over himself with a hosepipe but here it says he'd wet himself in the usual way of children!

So why no change of clothes or nappy - assuming he was even wearing one; there's no mention of that.

I watched the first few minutes of it and, well, why would you let a 21mth old child play outside with nothing covering his bottom? Maybe that was normal back then but... ? Inside ok but outside at a work place??

He was 21 months old which makes all the difference!

Freedom wrote:He was 21 months old which makes all the difference!

Whoops, thanks Freedom, nearly 2yrs, and it does make a difference

I was only joking about the age making a difference!

I wouldn't let a toddler of any age play outside half naked.

Just started watching the doc Chirpy posted and straight away some discrepancies. First though this picture from the Sun shows the farmhouse was derelict and the whole area was full of piles of breeze blocks and cement mixers etc. A dangerous place for a toddler.



So Christine says in the doc that she, Ben, Danny and the dog make their way up to the farmhouse at around 11:30-12:00. Ben is playing and then at some point they have lunch so I guess 13:00 or later he goes missing?

Yet in this Mirror article Eddie says it was mid-morning (i.e. before Ben was even there) that he asked Dino to come down and put in a road/dig a hole: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ben-needhams-grandfather-reveals-spoke-8860116

Am I missing something here?

Another thing that surprised in just the first 10 minutes of the doc is that Eddie found a toy car on the ground and Christine then mentions the two dinky cars Ben had with him. Seemed this was the first time Eddie had been told about this 10 years later?

Does anyone know if there are any statements from the farmhouse owner that made lunch that day? Hopefully there is something from him in the doc. Will keep watching.

No, there is nothing from him.

So they had lunch in a derelict building? Very odd.

Freedom wrote:No, there is nothing from him.

So they had lunch in a derelict building? Very odd.

So it isn't just me that finds the whole situation odd! I assume the owner of the farmhouse had talked to Police and just hasn't talked publicly/to the press? Is he still alive today do you know?

I think I've read that he has died but as yet I haven't found a link.