MISSING toddler Ben Needhamâs mum faces an agonising months-long wait for DNA test results on a man who believes he is her son.
But Kerry Needham â whose son vanished 35 years ago on the Greek island of Kos â has now cut all contact with the person claiming to be Ben.
Mum-of-two Kerry, from Sheffield, received an out-of-the-blue email from the American manâs partner this January.
Cops are set to test DNA belonging to Ben â who was just 21-months-old when he disappeared in July 2004 â and the man who claims to be him.
Now Kerry faces an agonising wait, with a number of authorities across the globe â including Interpol and Greek police â involved in the process.
Speaking to The Sun, she said: â It usually does take quite a few months. Thereâs a lot of red tape protocol and things like that to go through.
âHeâs given us information about his parents, the adoption agencies⊠I imagine they would do a full background check before DNA is taken.
âThat might take a little bit of time. DNA is done on a triage system. So it could be sat there waiting two or three months before itâs even looked at.â
But she revealed she has stopped speaking with the man â and is reluctant to build a relationship in case the tests come back negative.
Kerry added: âOnce it goes to the police, I leave it at that. Iâve done my bit and I canât have any more contact with that person until itâs a yes or a no.
âThatâs like building a relationship with somebody that might not necessarily warrant building a relationship with.
âSo now thatâs it. Once Iâve done my part, it gets passed to the police and then thatâs it.â
Kerry also admitted she has concerns for the welfare of the adopted man claiming to be Ben if the DNA is not a match.
She said a negative result would be âmore traumaticâ for him because âhe believes he is Benâ.
The heartbroken mum was dealt a hammer blow last week when she claims South Yorkshire Police informed her they were dropping the case.
She says they told her the case was being handed over to Interpol and Greek authorities, throwing the future of the search into uncertainty.
Cops however have insisted they are continuing with the probe, and told The Sun they have offered to meet with Kerry.
Kerry told how she and the senior investigating officer (SOI) had planned to meet the Greek public prosecutor with hopes of building a joint team.
It has been ongoing for almost 35 years, since toddler Ben vanished without a trace while in the care of his grandparents, Eddie and Christine.
Kerry had relocated with Ben to the Greek island of Kos to start a new life with her parents when the tragedy struck.
But despite numerous theories and sightings over the past three decades, defiant Kerry is convinced her son was snatched by people traffickers.
In 2012, the digger theory emerged, suggesting Ben had been killed when a digger accidentally crushed him in an olive grove behind the farmhouse.
An anonymous tipster claimed digger driver Konstantinos âDinoâ Barkas told him on his death bed he was responsible and buried Benâs remains.
However, multiple excavations, including at all sites he was permitted to dump waste on the island, have failed to find any trace of the toddler.
Kerry and her family remain desperate for answers into what is one of Britainâs and Greeceâs longest missing persons case.
Timeline of the Ben Needham missing person case
Here we take a look at the search for missing Ben:
- July 24 1991: Ben Needham vanishes while playing near the grounds of a farmhouse in the Iraklis region of Kos, which his family are renovating. His mother, Kerry Needham, and grandparents raise the alarm with local police and conduct a full search of the area.
- July 26 1991: Eyewitness reports claim a boy matching Benâs description was found at the local airport on the day he disappeared. That boy has never been traced.
- September 1991: The Needham family return to England but vow to continue the search.
- June 2003: The Metropolitan Police issue an image of what Ben might look like at age 12-14 years old.
- 2004: An anonymous businessman offers a reward of ÂŁ500,000 for information leading to Benâs safe return.
- October 2010: Another public appeal is made by Benâs mother in the run-up to what would be his 21st birthday.
- May 2011: The BBC airs a programme called Missing 2011, which includes a piece on Benâs story and the campaign to find him.
- September 2011: Greek police on Kos officially re-open the case and grant the family a face-to-face meeting with the islandâs prosecutor.
- October 2012: South Yorkshire Police in Kos begin digging up mounds around the property where Ben went missing to look for his remains.
- December 2013: Benâs mother accuses then-Prime Minister David Cameron of not giving her case the same backing as he gave the parents of Madeline McCann. It comes as a dossier is produced containing reports from eight witnesses, none of who know each other, who all saw a boy possibly matching Benâs description with the same Greek family.
- December 2014: Lawyers representing Benâs family say they may take legal action to try to force the Government to make a decision about funding a new police investigation.
- January 2015: The Home Office agrees to fund a team of British detectives to help search for the toddler.
- March/April 2015: Three generations of Ben Needhamâs family travel to Greece to follow up a âstrongâ lead that a man living there believes he may be the missing Brit due to having no photographs of himself under the age of two and no knowledge of where he was born. The man is later ruled out.
- May 2015: Benâs family make a fresh appeal on Greek television for information regarding the disappearance.
- May 2016: The Sun reveals how members of the police operation went on an eight-hour booze-up in Kos during the latest stage of the investigation.
- September 2016: Benâs family are told to âprepare for the worstâ by detectives leading the investigation, amid the belief the 21-month-old was crushed to death by a digger â the driver of which died in 2015. It comes as police arrive in Kos to begin excavation work in the belief the boyâs remains may be buried near the farmhouse.
- October 15, 2016: On the penultimate day of a three week search at two locations â Site 1, near the farmhouse, and Site 2, a landfill site â an item which is believed to have belonged to Ben is discovered.
- October 16, 2016: After digging up more than 800 tonnes of soil, the excavation work comes to an end with any items of interest sent back to the UK for forensic analysis.
- October 17, 2016:Â South Yorkshire Police DI Jon Cousins announces the discovery of an item that backs up their theory Ben died following an accident near the farmhouse on the day he disappeared.
- July 24, 2017: It emerges blood was found on a sandal and toy car belonging to Ben. The sandal was found in 2012 at the site where Konstantinos âDinoâ Barkas was operating a digger, while the car was discovered in 2016 at another spot. No further information emerged. Benâs mum makes another heartbreaking appeal for information.
- November 28, 2018: Forensic experts say the toy car found in the Kos dig does not belong to Ben.
- July 25, 2019:Â Benâs mum, Kerry Needham, calls on the person with a âsecretâ about her missing toddler to come forward, saying it was ânever too late to do the right thingâ.
- July 2021: Police probe the claims of three witnesses that a blonde boy found on a beach wearing a white t-shirt, âcrying desperatelyâ and speaking English 587 miles away in Corfu couldâve been the youngster.
