Missing for 21 years, search for boy on Greek island begins

A team of British experts are expected to begin their search today for the body of Ben Needham who went missing 21 years ago on the Greek island of Kos.

Ben vanished on the island in July 1991 when he was 21 months old after his mother and grandparents moved there from Sheffield.

Despite a number of possible sightings and a range of theories about what happened, no trace of him has ever been found.

The new search, led by South Yorkshire Police, is to be centred on a large, grassy mound close to where the youngster went missing. One theory is that the mound consists of building material dumped there the day Ben vanished and that he could have been accidentally buried beneath it.

JCB operators working there at the time have now told police some of the rubble was not searched properly.

Ben's mother, Kerry Needham, who has spent two decades looking for her son and has consistently said she believes he was abducted and is still alive, told the Daily Mirror she is praying the police dig fails to find him.

It is close to a farmhouse next to the one his grandparents were renovating in 1991.

"If they find his bones my life will be finished," she told the paper.