The Mystery of Ben Needham

I did read your post Hope and it gave me pause for thought about what happened to Ben.
I had nothing relevant to post in reply though so I was reluctant to make a comment as I had nothing worthwhile to add.

My feeling is that all posts and opinions or suggestions are valuable. Not having an acknowledgement certainly doesn't mean noone has read or considered that post and its relevance.

I look for your posts because I know you have a great deal of useful knowledge and information about both Maddie and Ben, but I do understand your feelings of your post being overlooked when it contained important suggestions.

I certainly didn't overlook it Hope and I doubt it went unnoticed by others either.
Please, please keep posting here you have such a valuable input.

b xx

Apologies from me, Hope, as well. I genuinely must of missed your post at the time as the 'water theory' is something I didn't really think about myself until the other day when it was mentioned. I'd like to explore that line of thought further as well...

The Ben thread was very fast moving at the time with news breaking and updates etc. I try and read and take on board everyone's posts but inevitably there will be ones that I miss. And unfortunately that particular one of yours was the one I did. So a big sorry from me.

... So going back to water drum / barrel. Is there a direct reference to it at all in the book and if so can it be quoted in full on here?

Eta - why has it come out in that layout? I didn't mean it to? Mods?

Here you go!

Ben had discovered a water barrel and after he’d skimmed his cars along the surface he’d started scooping bowlfuls out to mix potions with dirt and leaves. When he tired of that, the next scoop was tipped straight over his own head. I suppose it was pure instinct to try to cool down in that savage heat. Even so, the look of shock on Ben’s face as the water soaked him made it look like he’d jumped into a shower of ice. Stephen saw it happen and burst out laughing. Everyone else joined in when they saw the drowned rat dripping in front of them. That was enough for Ben. That boy lived for laughter. He thrived on it. So, uncomfortable as he was, what did he do? Scooped another bowl of water onto his head. The laughter was even louder this time, more so when he yelled, ‘I’m so funny!’ Of course, he carried on dousing himself until Mum put a stop to it and dried him off. She hung Ben’s shorts from a tree to dry and told him not to get anything else ruined because there were no spares. Ben didn’t care about wearing only a T-shirt and little buckled sandals any more than he did about being wet. He just loved being a showman. With that little performance over, Ben moved onto his next escapade. This involved jumping on the gravel mounds, then taking handfuls of the stuff through the house and dumping them out the other side. Every couple of minutes he’d be back. Even when he wasn’t in sight, his laughs and imaginary conversations with his tools could still be heard.

Testing

No idea why it is doing that Andrew?

Not just me then. A strange one. A forum glitch then I take it.

Looks like it, the headers at the bottom are in italics too.  I have tried other topics and they are ok, this happens sometimes on threads, no idea why.

Mo wrote:Here you go!

Ben had discovered a water barrel and after he’d skimmed his cars along the surface he’d started scooping bowlfuls out to mix potions with dirt and leaves. When he tired of that, the next scoop was tipped straight over his own head. I suppose it was pure instinct to try to cool down in that savage heat. Even so, the look of shock on Ben’s face as the water soaked him made it look like he’d jumped into a shower of ice. Stephen saw it happen and burst out laughing. Everyone else joined in when they saw the drowned rat dripping in front of them. That was enough for Ben. That boy lived for laughter. He thrived on it. So, uncomfortable as he was, what did he do? Scooped another bowl of water onto his head. The laughter was even louder this time, more so when he yelled, ‘I’m so funny!’ Of course, he carried on dousing himself until Mum put a stop to it and dried him off. She hung Ben’s shorts from a tree to dry and told him not to get anything else ruined because there were no spares. Ben didn’t care about wearing only a T-shirt and little buckled sandals any more than he did about being wet. He just loved being a showman. With that little performance over, Ben moved onto his next escapade. This involved jumping on the gravel mounds, then taking handfuls of the stuff through the house and dumping them out the other side. Every couple of minutes he’d be back. Even when he wasn’t in sight, his laughs and imaginary conversations with his tools could still be heard.

Much appreciated, Mo. For some reason I had a vision of one of those big water barrel's / containers in my mind. Not at all if a toddler could have easy access to it and scoop bowlfuls out of it. Very alarming indeed.

Also was this water barrel mentioned by either of them in the 'somebody knows' documentary? I have watched it more than once but can't recall off the top of my head....

Just thinking of Ben's height then and the height of a "water barrel" if he was skimming his cars and scooping water out of it.

Wonder if 'water barrel' is perhaps misleading.  In Mediterranean countries with sparse rainfall rainwater is often collected in containers, but these can be anything to swimming pool size to smaller tank size.

Maybe we think of a water barrel inaccurately being similar to those 250 litre rainwater storage drums in the UK ?
I'd be interested to know the size of this 'barrel'.


ETA - Wonder if they were on mains water there ?

Are there any sized water barrels that a 22 month old toddler could reach into?  I can`t find any.

So, did he wee his shorts as Christine said or did they get wet when he poured water over himself?

Maybe it was something similar to this....

Since Kerry wasn't there - she was working - everything she's been told about Ben and her family that day is hearsay from her parents.

Including the descriptions of Ben playing, Ben running backwards and forwards with handfuls of gravel, Ben drenching himself with water, etc etc etc.

If Ben had drenched himself with water over his head, why would they remove his shorts to hang them up to dry? Surely they'd remove his t-shirt as well, as it would be as wet as the shorts?

And if it's that hot a day, why not just let him run around in damp clothes - they'd soon be dry anyway, wouldn't they?

I still want to know more about this water container he was playing with - I share Hope's idea from a few weeks ago that this needs to be looked into further.

Just looking at a few old images of the farmhouse.

This one is not dated (but clearly around 1991) and appears to have a red water container there....

Thanks Andrew, I think old photos may hold clues here.
I could be wrong, but I'm thinking that water on this island was delivered by tankers to properties.  Therefore properties need large water storage containers probably underground.  
This property being old and uninhabited maybe hadn't such facilities yet, but the water needs to have come from somewhere and been stored somewhere.  One or two barrels wouldn't have been enough really - mixing concrete for the building work etc would have used that in no time.
There should have been a larger storage area somewhere I would have thought.
Also the sewage business has always concerned me - there must have been some cesspit on the property surely?
I understand the police did dig up something like that, but was there another one / is there another one ??

From the quote in the book that Mo posted...

Would a 21 month year old really say 'Im so funny'....

When I read the word 'dousing', I automatically thought of something else as well. Something flammable that would more than likely be left lying about in a work type environment.

Yes, Canada. Interesting point about the T-shirt. That would be wetter than the shorts if played out as she states...

Hiya Bluebell, yes you would think that work carried out in those sort of conditions then there would be large sources of water stored somewhere in the vicinity.

There was also the area at the front of the house (that was discussed ages ago) but I can't remember if we established what it was. I will find a pic.

This is a picture posted up by, TTWO, on page 20 of the original thread. There are a few water barrels there.

Michaelis was still at the farmhouse and searched outbuildings with Eddie, do you think if there had been anything untoward with the water barrel Michaelis would have seen it? After searching it was decided Stephen had taken him so Kennie and Michaelis continued working for another hour. Just wondering if the water barrel was actually a steel drum - a bit more fitting with a building site.

Please no apologies esp Canada. I am lying here in tears as a post that took me 2 hours to write vanished before I sent it. It's my stupid laptap and it keeps happening.
For those that believe can you say a little prayer for me tonight, God Bless you all and may the truth about Madeleine and Ben be known. xxx

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