Book may solve moors murder body mystery

AUTHOR Carol Ann Lee hopes there will be a breakthrough in the hunt for Keith Bennett.

‘Fresh details’ in hunt for Keith Bennett

A NEW book on the Moors Murders could lead to the discovery of victim Keith Bennett’s body.

Killers Ian Brady and Myra Hindley have never revealed exactly where they buried the 12-year-old, who was snatched in 1964 in Longsight, murdered and buried on Saddleworth Moor.

But author Carol Ann Lee, from York, hopes that fresh details uncovered during her work on book “Witness” — using the first in-depth interviews with key figure David Smith — could herald a breakthrough and answer his family’s prayers.

Mr Smith, Hindley’s brother-in-law, has confirmed that places where the child killers claim Keith could be buried are areas that they took him to and that he remembers clearly.

While the police have previously taken Mr Smith to the moors they never went to the area identified and only took him during winter when the land was covered in snow and unfamiliar. The area has not been searched before.

The information is not included in the book to prevent people carrying out their own searches.

But it has been passed on to Keith’s brother Alan Bennett, who has led searches and is investigating further.

Mrs Lee said: “There’s a couple of things David has mentioned that tally with the area that Brady and Hindley talked about to police. He’s also been able to talk about certain other spots in that area that will help Alan.

“Hopefully there will be a breakthrough. Alan’s very hopeful. That’s been the most valuable part of writing the book.”

Mr Smith reported the couple to the police after witnessing the murder of 17-year-old Edward Evans in their house and helping them store the body.

He was chief witness for the prosecution but many people regarded him as involved after Brady and Hindley accused him.

He suffered abuse but there was no evidence against him and Hindley later confessed they lied in an attempt to reduce their sentences. Mr Smith alerting the police ended the killing spree and he provided vital evidence.

She said: “David really wanted the truth out there There was never anything that I put to him that he wouldn’t or couldn’t answer. His recall is fantastic.

“It was traumatic but he has always said, ‘I’m not a victim, I’m a survivor. The children were the victims, I lived through it.’

“There were times when he got quite upset. He has never spoken about it in that kind of depth before. It helped him come to terms with it all. He wanted to know why him and what Brady saw in him. It helped him answer a few questions.

“David has always been seen as further involved than he was. This is the true David Smith in the book. I would just like people to read it and think about things a bit more.”

In 1987, after Brady and Hindley admitted killing Keith and 16-year-old Pauline Reade, from Crumpsall, detectives took them back to the moor to find the bodies but only Pauline’s remains were found.

Police abandoned the hunt in 2009 and the investigation is now dormant .

The killers also murdered John Kilbride (12) and Lesley Ann Downey (10).

Hindley died in prison in 2002, aged 60, while Brady is a prisoner in high- security Ashworth Hospital in Merseyside.

Mrs Lee will be discussing the book at Manchester Waterstones, Deansgate, tomorrow, from 7 to 8pm. She will also be appearing during the Oldham Literary Festival in September.

LEE wrote a critically-acclaimed biography on Hindley, “One of Your Own”, last year and gained the trust of David Smith to gather his account.

Born after the murders, she remembers it dominating the news when she was growing up and, she says, she was motivated to tell the story properly and get the facts right.

“David is very pleased with the book, as I am.

“I wrote the book on Hindley in as much depth as I could but I think the picture of Brady and Hindley that emerges through David’s book is much stronger.”