Toddler, Ben Needham from Sheffield disappeared in Greece on the 24th of July 1991 when he was just two years old.
Ben's heartbroken mother, Kerry, has never given up hope that her son was alive. However, now british investigators on the island of Kos where the boy disappeared from just outside his grandparent's home, have told her to "prepare for the worst," that Ben may, in fact, have died 25 years ago.
Kerry has revealed that detectives believe the 21-month-old may have tragically been crushed to death by a digger.
Reports state that a forensic team have been combing two sites close to the home of Kerry's parents.
The breakthrough in the case came when the friend of the workman believed to be responsible came forward and revealed his information.
The digger-operator believed to have crushed little Ben died of stomach cancer last year just before the investigative team from South Yorkshire Police arrived on the island to reopen the case.
The friend maintains that the death was accidental. According to reports, the deceased digger driver had been employed to clear land for a local builder, also a friend of the Needham family, at the time of the accident. The area was searched in 2012 but now in light of this new testimony investigators have return to the site.
Kerry Needham is now in limbo as the area is re-examined for signs of an accident:
“I have spent all these years desperately hoping for that fairytale ending and for Ben to walk through that door... Now the horrible reality is Ben could be dead, and he could have been dead all these years,” she told the Daily Mirror.
“They are no longer looking for a missing person. How do I cope with that? My mother's instinct has always told me he was alive. What if I've been wrong all this time?”
Main image via South Yorkshire Police
