Search for Moors Murders victim Keith Bennett ends after seven days as no human remains found

A new search for the body of Moors Murders victim Keith Bennett has ended without any remains being found. Police insist they were justified in spending seven days excavating an area near Dovestone Reservoir but a senior officer today pledged their investigation to "find answers for Keith's family" was not over.

They began the dig last week after cops were shown a photograph taken at the site by author and amateur sleuth Russell Edwards. He had shown it to other experts, who said it appeared to show part of a child's jaw bone.

The Manchester Evening News understands Mr Edwards, who was working with a team he had gathered to carry out his own search, did not see the jaw bone at the site but noticed it when analysing photographs taken during the dig. None of his team actually saw the apparent jaw bone in the soil - only on a photograph.

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After Greater Manchester Police commissioned their own independent forensic experts and anthropologists to scrutinises the photograph, they decided it was enough evidence to warrant a search. However, an intense search, which went beyond the original 5ft by 3ft plot identified by Mr Edwards, failed to find any 'visible evidence' to suggest the presence of human remains. It has now been called off.

Speaking after the decision to call the dig off, Detective Chief Inspector Cheryl Hughes said the search for Keith, who went missing after being abducted and killed by Ian Brady and Myra Hindley on June 16, 1964, "will not be closed until we have found the answers his family have deserved for so many years."

In a detailed statement, she also revealed Mr