No further leads in search for Sarah Benford's body after failed Kettering forensic dig

Police say they are no closer to finding Sarah Benford’s body despite receiving further information as a result of a failed forensic dig in Kettering.

Officers searched a piece of land near Valley Walk in late 2021 after receiving a tip-off that the remains of the teenager, who went missing aged 14 in 2000, were buried in the open space.

The probe ended in heartbreak after detectives – who had initially said they were confident of finding Sarah’s body – concluded that she was not there.

A number of people came forward with information because of the search and police pursued dozens of lines of inquiry as a result. But officers say the new information they received as part of their murder investigation came to nothing.

Detective Superintendent Joe Banfield, who led the search, said: “The dig in the Valley Walk area of Kettering, which was conducted at the end of 2021, was in response to credible information that Sarah may have been buried at that location. Unfortunately she was not found.

“As a result of the media coverage and the policing activity carried out, a number of people came forward with further information. This information has been pursued but has sadly led to no further lines of enquiry that will help us locate Sarah.

“Sarah went missing more than 22 years ago now but we will never give up trying to find her body and, potentially, tracing her killer or killers.

“We would still appeal to anyone with any information to contact us, either by calling 101, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.”

Nobody has ever been brought to justice over Sarah’s killing despite eight arrests, multiple searches and TV appeals. During the 2021 dig police said they had no current suspects.

Hopes that Sarah’s devastated family would finally have some closure and be able to lay her to rest were raised two years ago when police received a tip-off from a member of the public. Detectives would not be drawn on the nature of the source, or how they came to know about the teenager’s death, but officers were told that her remains were buried in the area of open space near the River Ise.

A 70m by 70m piece of land was sealed off and areas of ‘anomaly’ were dug up as part of a meticulously-planned operation using flyovers, site surveys and archaeological experts.

Specialist search dogs, trained to sniff out the scent of human remains, were also brought in three days into the operation. But after two weeks police and experts concluded that her body was not there and no evidence was found that could lead detectives to her killer.

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.

She spent 41 of her 150 days in care missing and was repeatedly failed by the authorities who failed to see her as a victim of exploitation by drug dealers and sex offenders.

On April 6, 2000, 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.

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. The investigation was upgraded to a murder inquiry in 2003 when police said they no longer believed Sarah was alive.