Kettering detectives expecting to find Sarah Benford's body after tip-off

The detective in charge of a huge operation over Sarah Benford's murder says he expects her body will be found during a forensic dig in Kettering.

A piece of land near Valley Walk is currently taped off for excavation after Northamptonshire Police received a tip-off that the teenager is buried there.

Officers have spent months meticulously planning a two-week operation, which started today (Monday), after they received the 'community intelligence' earlier this year.

Detective Superintendent Joe Banfield would not be drawn on the source but said officers are expecting to find Sarah's body.

He said: "If we did not think this information was credible we would not be here today."

The investigation into Sarah's disappearance, the force's biggest ever cold case, began after she went missing from a care home aged 14 on April 6, 2000.

Despite a number of arrests and searches her body has never been found and nobody has ever been charged with her murder.

Today Det Supt Banfield told this newspaper they did not have any current suspects.

A team of more than 70 police and forensics officers will now go through the 70m by 70m area of open space, popular with dog walkers, over the next two weeks using specialist equipment.

Today a cordon surrounded the site with fencing being put up around the perimeter this afternoon to screen work off from public view.

A number of tents have been erected inside the cordon, with small red, white and yellow flags being placed on the ground. A welfare pod has also been set up just over the bridge over the River Ise.

Scene guards will surround the site around the clock with officers marking out 'anomalies' in the ground - areas which are different from those around it - before using ground penetration radar equipment to assess any movement.

Det Supt Banfield said they would be taking each anomaly one by one, with specialist operators working on them before forensics teams use trowels and hand tools to dig.

If Sarah's body is found, they will be conducting a forensic post-mortem examination to look for clues over who killed her. Det Supt Banfield said, realistically, he does not think she could still be alive.

He said: "We are hoping there will be some forensic evidence but it's really difficult to say until we know how she was buried or what she has been buried in.

"We're keeping an open mind."

Police have been working with Defence Science and Technology Laboratory with site visits from forensic experts, surveys, historical pictures and flyovers used to plan the operation.

They are in contact with Sarah's mum, Vicki, and Det Supt Banfield said he was determined to bring closure for her.

He said: "It's horrendous that we have not been able to provide her with the answers that she really desperately wants.

"We owe it to Sarah, her family and her friends."

Detective Sergeant Julie Gallagher, who has worked on the cold case for the past seven years, was at the site this afternoon as the forensic investigation began.

She has been working as the Benford family's liaison officer and said they are 'fully supportive' of today's operation.

She said she is 'always positive' that they'll be able to find Sarah's body, adding: "We just really want to help the family to be able to take Sarah home."

Sarah had been under the care of Northamptonshire County Council’s children’s services at the time of her disappearance and had been staying at Welford House in Northampton.

By the time she turned 14 she'd been in three different children's homes, used drugs and regularly went missing, but she was repeatedly failed by the authorities who failed to see her as a victim of exploitation by drug dealers and sex offenders.

When she admitted meeting people for sex and that she was injecting herself with heroin neither staff at Welford House nor a doctor she saw raised eyebrows, despite her being just a child.

On April 6 she visited her mum Vicki in an amusement arcade in Kettering town centre, where she worked. They argued and that was the final time Vicki saw her daughter,.

Later that day, while high on drugs, Sarah phoned her mum from a house in Hampden Crescent, Kettering. A frantic Vicki begged police to collect her and take her back to the care home.

But police officers were not concerned about her runaway attempts. 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'.

What followed was one of the force's biggest ever missing persons investigations. TV appeals were launched and Sarah's face was plastered on milk cartons and on the side of lorries.

There were some sightings in the days after her disappearance in Cherry Road and Highfield Road. But despite more than 5,000 lines of enquiry, more than 600 statements, almost 1,000 reports, eight arrests and several searches over 20 years - including just up the River Ise at Warkton - the investigation has so far drawn a blank.

Det Supt Banfield said: "I am clear that somebody local knows how she died and somebody local knows who killed her.

"I would urged these people to come forward 20 years on and tell us what they know."

Northamptonshire Police has set up an incident number for anyone with information relating to Sarah’s disappearance, who should call 101. The incident number is 359 of 10/11/2021.