Missing Ben Needham’s mum remembers her ‘beautiful boy’ on his 27th birthday – as cops release pic that ‘proves he is dead’
Kerry admits chances of him being alive are 1% after his toy car is dug up on island where he vanished
THE family of missing Ben Needham are remembering their "beautiful, cheeky boy" on his 27th birthday today - hours after cops released a picture of the toy car they say proves he died on a Greek island 25 years ago.
Ben disappeared while on holiday on Kos aged 21 months.
Mum Kerry told the “I’ve always pictured him alive but this birthday is going to be so dreadful because I know the chances of him being dead are 99%.
“We are still in this horrible limbo. Normally we mark the day by buying a birthday card and lighting a candle but this year what can we do?
“Under normal circumstance when someone has died you’ve got somewhere to go and remember them but we haven’t got that special place.
“It’s really difficult. We will just try and remember the beautiful, cheeky boy he was.”
The Matchbox car was dug up on October 15 near the farmhouse where the family, from Sheffield, were staying in 1991.
Officers showed it to Kerry, 43, who confirmed her son was playing with it on the day he vanished.
Det Insp Jon Cousins said: “It was an emotional time for all of us.”
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Cops are now sure Ben was accidentally killed by a digger driven by builder Konstantinos “Dino” Barkas, who died last year.
Ben was then secretly buried elsewhere, they believe.
Devastated Kerry vowed to keep looking for his body.
She said: “I want to tear up the whole island to find him. I can’t say goodbye until I know exactly where he is.”
Speaking to the , once the search had been called off, Ben's mum said further reports had corroborated the theory.
She added: “One man has taken a secret to his grave. Police believe that.
“They know enough information to know that happened. Someone else has come forward who was a teenager working for Dino.
“He learnt about Ben and asked Dino a few times and he kept saying, ‘No not possible’ but then in 2012 this person asked Dino about it again and he admitted to him in 2012: ‘I don’t know for sure but yes it’s possible.’"
The devastated mum said she hoped the digger driver suspected of killing her son is “burning in hell”.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain last week she said: “We need those answers whether they are good or bad.
“Unfortunately, it looks like we are going to get a bad one.”
When asked if that answer would give her a sense of closure, Kerry said: “In a way yes because then we’ll know.
"You know 25 years living and not knowing where your child is, is torment.
"I don’t like to say it but then at least we would know and it would be closure and he can be laid to rest and we can remember him as he was.”
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