After years of failure and heartbreak, what next in search for Sarah Benford?

"This isn't a last-chance saloon," says lead detective
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The detective in charge of the operation to find Sarah Benford says their failed forensic search was not the last throw of the dice.

Detective Superintendent Joe Banfield announced a two-week dig would be ending without success on Tuesday (November 30) after a team of experts concluded the missing teenager's body was not buried in an area near Valley Walk in Kettering.

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After telling this newspaper he was expecting to find her remains when the major operation began Det Supt Banfield spoke of his disappointment at drawing a blank at a media briefing.

Several areas of the site were excavated.Several areas of the site were excavated.
Several areas of the site were excavated.

But he insisted they have not given up hope of finding the body of Sarah, who went missing aged 14 in 2000, and have other lines of enquiry to pursue.

He said a number of people had been identified that they will be speaking to and taking statements from to find out what they know.

He said: "This isn't a last-chance saloon. Like I said on day one any murder investigation is never fully filed.

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"Yes, they'll go through phases where there will be lots of lines of enquiry to pursue but we aren't going to file this.

Sarah, pictured at primary school.Sarah, pictured at primary school.
Sarah, pictured at primary school.

"As a result of this we're not going to put this down and not think about it again. This investigation has learnt a lot in the past two weeks.

"There are other lines of enquiry for us to pursue and we'll be looking at those and how they relate to the information we've discovered over that 20-year period."

Sarah was under the care of children's home Welford House in Northampton when she went missing, and was known to the police.

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But she was repeatedly failed by the authorities who failed to see her as a victim of exploitation by drug dealers and sex offenders.

Det Supt Banfield.Det Supt Banfield.
Det Supt Banfield.

On the last day she was seen (April 6, 2000), while high on drugs, Sarah phoned her mum Vicki from a house in Hampden Crescent, Kettering. Vicki begged police to collect her and take her back to the care home.

They refused to pick her up - not for the first time - despite Vicki's desperate pleas.

Documents later handed to this newspaper said police officers had told care home staff they 'could not and would not' collect her and would not 'take her to Kettering Police Station to babysit her'.

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Det Supt Banfield admitted there had been a number of failings but said it would be a very different story if the same happened in 2021.

The site today.The site today.
The site today.

He said: "Twenty years ago policing and children's social care was entirely different and it's very easy for us to look back and say 'that wasn't a very good response'.

"But that was the response in 2000. It would be a very different response should a 14-year-old girl go missing today in the county, 100 per cent different.

"There's processes in place, there's learning that's happened that will fundamentally change how we dealt with it from day one."

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But it will likely be of little comfort to Sarah's devastated family, who have had their hopes of both closure and justice raised and dashed yet again.

This month's search, which saw a 70m by 70m piece of land taped off for areas of excavation, is the latest in a series of police operations which have not resulted in making that crucial breakthrough.

In 2003, the year the inquiry was upgraded to a murder investigation, several houses in Kettering were searched.

The garden at previous suspect Richard Jenkins' south Wales home was also dug up - with the former Kettering man telling our reporters the investigation ruined his life.

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Police spent several days at the remote Finedon Sidings and seized several exhibits.

In 2016, detectives searched for Sarah's body near Warkton.

But despite more than 5,000 lines of enquiry and eight arrests police have never found Sarah's body or charged anyone over her disappearance - and have not been able to finally solve the puzzle of who killed her and where she is buried.

Det Supt Banfield said: "We can't get away from the fact that in 20 years we haven't been able to answer those questions and that is very disappointing."

Officers had been told that Sarah's body was buried at Valley Walk by a 'credible source' - who is not a suspect - but Det Supt Banfield would not be drawn on the nature of the information.

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He said they had a "high level of assurance" from experts, after their forensic search, that she was not buried there and that it would be "futile" to carry on digging.

Anyone with information about Sarah Benford's disappearance should call police on 101.