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Our family, my dad Eddie then 42, my mum Christine 38, my two younger brothers Stephen 17 and Danny only 11 years old at the time, myself -I was 19- and my little son Ben, originally from SHEFFIELD England, UK, had decided to move to the island of KOS in Greece.
Unfortunately, our then newly adopted country had other plans for us.
On July 24, 1991, our family was destroyed by a mindless act.
Our beloved Ben (3 months short of his 2nd birthday), was abducted, by a criminal.
It was just a normal day for our family.
July 24, 1991
My dad and my brother Stephen had gone to work, they were restoring an old farmhouse in the remote village on the island, called Heracles.
I had also gone to work, at the "Palm Beach" Hotel, situated near the beach, where I worked as a waitress.
Ben was at home with my mum, as she was always looking after him during my long working hours.
Around lunchtime, my mum with Ben and Danny, went to the farmhouse where my dad and Stephen were working, to have their lunch.
Nothing unusual about this, they had done so, many a time.
The table was set indoors, Ben was playing with his toys, just outside the doorway and he kept running in and out of the house, getting water and pouring it over himself. It was a scorher of a day, at 42°C or about 105ºF.
It was about 14:30, when my dad, told Stephen he can have the rest of the day off, because some building material had not arrived, so there was nothing else to do there.
As Stephen was leaving the farmhouse, on his moped/motorbike, Ben was playing quite hapilly. Ben looked up at Stephen, -he wanted to go with him-, but Stephen told him to "Go inside to grandpa".
A few minutes later, -no more than 5 minutes-, my mum had noticed that Ben was quiet, and she went outside to check.
BEN WAS NOT THERE!
My dad went around to the back of the house and my mum walked the driveway, looked down the lane, but could not see Ben anywhere.
My mum then, shouted "Eddie can you see Ben?".
They continued calling his name while walking around the area around the farmhouse, for more than an hour.
NO RESPONSE! NO SIGHT OF BEN!
BEN HAD VANISHED!!!
My parents took a few minutes to gather their thoughts and came to the conclusion that my brother Stephen must have taken Ben with him, for a little ride on the moped.
My mum remarked: "How stupid of Stephen not to tell us"
My mum then decided to walk back home and look for them on her way there, she thought that Stephen and Ben might be home already.
Dad stayed behind to put his tools away and then join my mum at home.
When my mum arrived home, there was no sign of Ben, but she knew that Stephen had been back as he had left the petrol for the generator.
Stephen, had not left a note to say where he would be though.
My mum was really furious with him.
Dad arrived home around 16:30 and there was still no sign of Stephen, so he decided to check in my apartment, as Stephen used to live with me.
Stephen was there, but not Ben!
Stephen said to my dad: "Ben was playing at the farmhouse when I left".
My dad and Stephen, raced back home to tell my mum that Ben had not been with him.
Worried sick, they went straight to the police in the city of Kos, as the time was about 17:30.
The police took my parents back to Heracles to search the area, one more time.
Just as I was finishing work, around 22:00, my mum arrived at the hotel with the police to inform me that my boy had gone missing.
Courtesy of the police, we all went back to the farmhouse, to continue the search. This time a lot of volonteers offered to assist us searching for Ben as well.
A police officer asked myself and my dad, to go back to the police station, to give more details about Ben and to present all our passports, which we did, straight away.
One policeman named Christos Bafounis, asked my dad to meet some police officers at the docks at 03:00, as the ferry to Athens would be there and they could check the vehicles and the passengers boarding.
While we we
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Kerry Needham 0 ReplysThank you