Martina vows to find body of last missing moors victim (From Echo)

Martina vows to find body of last missing moors victim

10:00am Saturday 4th July 2009

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CRIME writer Martina Cole has vowed to help a desperate mum find the body of her murdered son.

Martina, 50, from Benfleet, is hoping to end the 45-year search for the body of 12-year-old Keith Bennett.

The youngster was one of five children who lost his life at the hands of brutal moors murderers Myra Hindley and Ian Brady during their reign of terror in the Sixties.

All of the victims were buried on Saddleworth Moor, near Oldham, but the body of Keith has never been found.

Police called off their official search for his body this week, but now the millionaire crime author, whose novel the Take has just been shown as a drama on Sky One, has vowed to restart the search.

Keith’s mum Winnie Johnson, 75, from Manchester, said: “I am so grateful Martina has shown an interest.

“I get emotional every time I go on the moors, but if it leads to Keith I’ll do it.”

Martina, who has written 15 novels, mainly on London’s gangland, and sold eight million books worldwide, is hoping to film the search for Keith’s body for a documentary.

The author is hoping to use hi-tech equipment to carry out a dig on the moors.

Martina fronted a TV series last year called Ladykillers which documented Hindley’s crimes.

Speaking about the programme at the time, she told how she was touched by Winnie Johnson’s plight.

She said: “Sometimes it could be very sad, when you think of someone like Winnie Johnson, mother of Myra Hindley’s victim Keith Bennett, who is still looking for her son up on the moors after all this time.”

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