Police dig for Ian Brady and Myra Hindley victim as skull is reportedly found after 58 years

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By Carina Murphy

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Police believe they may have found the graves of Ian Brady and Myra Hindley's murder victim Keith Bennett.

Bennett was just 12 years old when he was abducted by the murderous duo in 1964 from his hometown in Manchester, England.

Almost six decades later, police are digging on nearby Saddleworth Moor for his remains after a child's skull was reportedly found in the area.

According to the Guardian, an unexpected breakthrough in the case prompted forensic anthropologists from Greater Manchester Police to begin looking at samples from the area and materiel found buried beside the skull.

The hope is that investigators will turn up a DNA match for Bennett, who was the only victim of the 'Moor's Murderers' whose remains were never found.

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Credit: PA Images / Alamy

Between 1963 and 1965, infamous killers Brady and Hindley abducted and murdered five children. Brady was eventually caught alongside the body of their final victim - 17-year-old Edward Evans.

Following the pair's arrest, police dug up the remains of Pauline Reade, 16, John Kilbride, 12, and Lesley Ann Downey, 10, who were all buried within relative proximity of each other on the Moors.

Only 12-year-old Bennett was never found, and - after the death of Hindley in 2002 and Brady in 2017 - the search for his remains was eventually dropped by police.

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Ian Brady. Credit: World History Archive / Alamy

That is, until this week when a tip-off from author Russell Edwards - who has spent the past seven years painstakingly researching the cold case - led police to what they now suspect is Bennett's final resting place.

Edwards - who famously unmasked serial killer Jack the Ripper in one of his books - located the site by theorizing that Nazi-obsessed Brady was trying to create a Swastika shape with the bodies of his victims.

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Brady identifying where he buried his victims with police. Credit: Trinity Mirror / Mirrorpix / Alamy

Having pinpointed what he believed to be Bennett's grave, Edwards began to dig and unearthed a skull that experts believe belonged to a child around 11-12 years old.

Just hours after receiving a call from the author, Greater Manchester Police sent a team of officers and forensic experts to Saddleworth Moor on Thursday night (September 29). While they are still waiting for confirmation that the remains found there are Bennett's, three separate experts have already confirmed that the bones belonged to a human.

Featured Image Credit: 4 season backpacking / Alamy