Editing Moors murders (section)

=== Later investigation ===
Since Brady and Hindley's arrests, newspapers had been keen to connect them to other missing children and teenagers from the area. One such victim was Stephen Jennings, a three-year-old [[West Yorkshire]] boy who was last seen alive in December 1962; his body was found buried in a field in 1988, but the following year his father, William Jennings, was found guilty of his murder.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/news/11916049.Life_for_man_who_killed_son_in_1962/ |title=Life for man who killed son in 1962 |website=Evening Times |date=24 May 1989 |access-date=20 September 2018 |mode=cs2}}</ref> Jennifer Tighe, a 14-year-old girl who disappeared from an [[Oldham]] children's home in December 1964, was mentioned in the press some forty years later but was confirmed by police to be alive.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/moors-murder-victim-is-alive-940525 |title=Moors murder 'victim' is 'alive |last=Linton |first=Deborah |date=20 April 2010 |access-date=20 September 2018|mode=cs2}}</ref> This followed claims in 2004 that Hindley had told another inmate that she and Brady had murdered a sixth victim, a teenage girl.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/news/north-east-news/myra-told-victim-no-5-1606764|title=Myra told of victim No. 5|last=Chronicle|first=Evening|date=14 February 2004 |access-date=20 September 2018|mode=cs2}}</ref>

In 1985, Brady allegedly told [[Fred Harrison (author)|Fred Harrison]], a journalist working for ''[[The Sunday People]]'', that he had killed Reade and Bennett,{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=252|ps=none}} something the police already suspected as both lived near Brady and Hindley and had disappeared at about the same time as Kilbride and Downey. [[Greater Manchester Police]] (GMP) reopened the investigation, now to be headed by [[Chief superintendent|Detective Chief Superintendent]] Peter Topping, head of GMP's [[Criminal Investigation Department]] (CID).{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=10|ps=none}}

On 3 July 1985, DCS Topping visited Brady, then being held at [[HM Prison Gartree]] in [[Leicestershire]], but found him "scornful of any suggestion that he had confessed to more murders".{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=13|ps=none}} Police nevertheless decided to resume their search of Saddleworth Moor, once more using the photographs taken by Brady and Hindley to help them identify possible burial sites. In November 1986, Bennett's mother wrote to Hindley begging to know what had happened to her son, a letter that Hindley seemed to be "genuinely moved" by.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=260–261|ps=none}} It ended: "I am a simple woman, I work in the kitchens of [[Christie Hospital|Christie's Hospital]]. It has taken me five weeks labour to write this letter because it is so important to me that it is understood by you for what it is, a plea for help. Please, Miss Hindley, help me."{{sfnp|Topping|1989|pp=42–43|ps=none}}

Police visited Hindley – then being held in [[HM Prison Cookham Wood]] in [[Kent]] – a few days after she received the letter, and although she refused to admit any involvement in the killings, she agreed to help by looking at photographs and maps to try to identify spots she had visited with Brady.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=262|ps=none}} She showed particular interest in photos of the area around Hollin Brown Knoll and Shiny Brook, but said that it was impossible to be sure of the locations without visiting the moor.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|pp=43–52|ps=none}} Home Secretary [[Douglas Hurd]] agreed with DCS Topping that a visit would be worth risking despite security problems presented by threats against Hindley.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=264–265|ps=none}} Writing in 1989, Topping said that he felt "quite cynical" about Hindley's motivation in helping the police. Although Winnie Johnson's letter may have played a part, he believed that Hindley, knowing of Brady's "precarious" mental state, was concerned he might co-operate with the police and reap any available public-approval benefit.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=44|ps=none}}

On 16 December 1986, Hindley made the first of two visits to assist the police search of the moor.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=55|ps=none}} Police closed all roads onto the moor, which was patrolled by 200 officers, some armed. Hindley and her solicitor left Cookham Wood at 4:30&nbsp;a.m., flew to the moor by helicopter from an airfield near [[Maidstone]], and then were driven, and walked, around the area until 3:00&nbsp;pm. Hindley had difficulty connecting what she saw to her memories, and was apparently nervous of the helicopters flying overhead.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=264–265|ps=none}} The press described the visit as a "fiasco", a "publicity stunt", and a "mindless waste of money",{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=266|ps=none}} but DCS Topping defended it, saying "<!--We had taken the view that -->we needed a thorough systematic search of the moor&nbsp;... It would never have been possible to carry out such a search in private."{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=266|ps=none}}

On 19 December, David Smith, then 38, spent about four hours on the moor helping police identify additional areas to be searched.<ref>{{cite news |last=Smith |first=Ian |title=Witness helps in search of moors|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/newspaperRetrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DateAscend&tabID=T003&prodId=TTDA&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&searchId=R2&searchType=AdvancedSearchForm&currentPosition=64&qrySerId=Locale%28en%2C%2C%29%3AFQE%3D%28tx%2CNone%2C11%29%22ian+brady%22%3AAnd%3ALQE%3D%28da%2CNone%2C6%29%3E+1970%24&retrieveFormat=MULTIPAGE_DOCUMENT&userGroupName=mclib&inPS=true&contentSet=LTO&&docId=&docLevel=FASCIMILE&workId=&relevancePageBatch=IF500361939&contentSet=TDA&callistoContentSet=TDA&docPage=article&hilite=y |work=The Times |via=find.galegroup.com |date=20 December 1986 |page=3 |issue=62646}} {{subscription required}}</ref> DCS Topping continued to visit Hindley in prison, along with her solicitor Michael Fisher and her spiritual counsellor, Peter Timms, who had been a [[prison governor]] before becoming a [[Methodist]] minister.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=266|ps=none}} On 10 February 1987 Hindley formally confessed to involvement in all five murders,{{sfnp|Topping|1989|pp=72–75|ps=none}} but this was not made public for more than a month.<!-- because of a Topping clampdown on publicity -->{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=268|ps=none}} The tape recording of her statement was over seventeen hours long; Topping described it as a "very well worked out performance in which, I believe, she told me just as much as she wanted me to know, and no more".{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=153|ps=none}} He added that he "was struck by the fact that [in Hindley's telling] she was never there when the killings took place. She was in the car, over the brow of the hill, in the bathroom and even, in the case of the Evans murder, in the kitchen"; he felt he "had witnessed a great performance rather than a genuine confession".{{sfnp|Topping|1989|pp=146–147|ps=none}}

[[File:Hollin brown knoll a635.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A flat, desolate, moorland under a cloudy sky, covered in long grass. A road divides the image, from the foreground to the horizon.|During the 1987 search for Pauline Reade and Keith Bennett, Hindley recalled seeing the rocks of Hollin Brown Knoll silhouetted against the night sky.]]

Police visited Brady in prison again and told him of Hindley's confession, which at first he refused to believe. Once presented with some of the details that Hindley had provided of Reade's abduction, Brady decided that he too was prepared to confess, but on one condition: that immediately afterwards he be given the means to commit [[suicide]], a request with which it was impossible for the authorities to comply.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|pp=157–158|ps=none}}

At about the same time, Johnson sent Hindley another letter, again pleading with her to assist the police in finding the body of her son Keith. In the letter, Johnson was sympathetic to Hindley over the criticism surrounding her first visit. Hindley, who had not replied to the first letter, responded by thanking Johnson for both letters, explaining that her decision not to reply to the first resulted from the negative publicity that surrounded it. She claimed that, had Johnson written to her fourteen years earlier, she would have confessed and helped the police. She also paid tribute to DCS Topping, and thanked Johnson for her sincerity.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=268–269|ps=none}} Hindley made her second visit to the moor in March 1987. This time, the level of security surrounding her visit was considerably higher. She stayed overnight in Manchester, at the flat of the police chief in charge of GMP training at [[Sedgley Park, Greater Manchester|Sedgley Park, Prestwich]], and visited the moor twice.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=269|ps=none}} Hindley confirmed to police that the two areas in which they were concentrating their search—Hollin Brown Knoll and Hoe Grain—were correct, although she was unable to locate either of the graves. She did, though, later remember that as Reade was being buried she had been sitting next to her on a patch of grass and could see the rocks of Hollin Brown Knoll silhouetted against the night sky.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|pp=160–164, 171–172|ps=none}}

In April 1987, news of Hindley's confession became public. Amidst strong media interest [[Lord Longford]] pleaded for her release, writing that continuing her detention to satisfy "mob emotion" was not right. Fisher persuaded Hindley to release a public statement, which touched on her reasons for denying her guilt previously, her religious experiences in prison, and the letter from Johnson. She said that she saw no possibility of release, and also exonerated Smith from any part in the murders other than that of Evans.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|pp=270–274|ps=none}}

[[File:Moors murders map.jpg|thumb|upright=3|center|alt=A map of the area in which the bodies of three of the children were found|Saddleworth Moor showing where three of the victims' bodies were found, and the general area searched for the body of Keith Bennett]]

Over the next few months interest in the search waned, but Hindley's clue had focused efforts on a specific area. On 1 July, after more than 100&nbsp;days of searching, they found Reade's body {{convert|3|ft|m|1}} below the surface, {{convert|100|yd|m|-1}} from where Downey's had been found.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=274|ps=none}} Brady had been co-operating with the police for some time, and when this news reached him he made a formal confession to DCS Topping,{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=276|ps=none}} and in a statement to the press said that he too would help police in their search. He was taken to the moor on 3 July but seemed to lose his bearings, blaming changes in the intervening years; the search was called off at 3:00 pm, by which time a large crowd of press and television reporters had gathered on the moor.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|pp=188–196|ps=none}}

[[File:HoeGrain.jpg|thumb|right|alt=A small valley cuts through desolate moorland, under a blue sky|Hoe Grain leading to Shiny Brook, the area in which police believe Bennett's body is buried{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=253|ps=none}}]]

DCS Topping refused to allow Brady a second visit to the moor{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=276|ps=none}} before police called off their search on 24 August.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=223|ps=none}} Brady was taken to the moor a second time on 8 December, and claimed to have located Bennett's burial site,<ref name="GuardianBradySearch2">{{cite news |last1=Lewis |first1=James |title=Ian Brady resumes search for boy's grave |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/186810484/citation/EFD20ADE3D154A64PQ/17 |access-date=1 September 2019 |work=[[The Guardian]] |date=9 December 1987 |page=3 |mode=cs2 |url-access=subscription}}</ref><ref name="TimesBradySuccessClaim">{{cite news |title=Brady "success" |url=https://gdc.gale.com/gdc/artemis/NewspapersDetailsPage/NewspapersDetailsWindow?documentId=GALE%7CIF0503145794 |access-date=1 September 2019 |work=The Times |issue=62948 |publisher=Times Digital Archive |date=10 December 1987 |page=2 |mode=cs2 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> but the body was never found.{{sfnp|Cummins|Foley|King|2019|p=18}}

Soon after his first visit to the moor, Brady wrote a letter to a [[BBC]] reporter, giving some sketchy details of five additional deaths that he claimed to have been involved in: a man in the [[Piccadilly (ward)|Piccadilly]] area of Manchester, another victim on Saddleworth Moor, two more in Scotland, and a woman whose body was allegedly dumped in a canal.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=206|ps=none}} Police, failing to discover any unsolved crimes matching the details that he supplied, decided that there was insufficient evidence to launch an official investigation.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=232|ps=none}}<ref>{{cite news |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/august/4/newsid_2491000/2491917.stm |title=1987: Moors murderer claims more killings |date=4 August 1987 |access-date=20 September 2018|via=news.bbc.co.uk|mode=cs2}}</ref> Hindley told Topping that she knew nothing of these killings.{{sfnp|Ritchie|1988|p=276|ps=none}}

Although Brady and Hindley had confessed to the murders of Reade and Bennett, the [[Director of Public Prosecutions (England and Wales)|Director of Public Prosecutions]] (DPP) decided that nothing would be gained by a further trial; as both were already serving life sentences no further punishment could be inflicted.{{sfnp|Topping|1989|p=249|ps=none}}

In 2003, the police launched Operation Maida, and again searched the moor for Bennett's body,<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/police-call-off-search-for-moors-murder-victim-1726527.html|title=Police call off search for Moors murder victim|date=1 July 2009|work=independent.co.uk |access-date=22 September 2017|mode=cs2}}</ref> this time using sophisticated resources such as a US [[reconnaissance satellite]] which could detect soil disturbances.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.standard.co.uk/news/spy-satellite-used-in-fresh-bid-to-reveal-moors-murderers-final-secret-their-last-victims-body-6865470.html|title=Spy satellite used in fresh bid to reveal Moors Murderers final secret|date=6 June 2008|publisher=standard.co.uk |access-date=22 September 2017|mode=cs2}}</ref> In mid-2009, the GMP said they had exhausted all avenues in the search for Bennett, that "only a major scientific breakthrough or fresh evidence would see the hunt for his body restart".<ref name="BBCSearchOff">{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8127883.stm|title=Moors victim mother's Brady plea|date=1 January 2009|work=BBC News|access-date=1 July 2009|mode=cs2}}</ref> It was stated that any further participation by Brady would be via a "walk through the moors virtually" using 3D modelling, rather than a visit by him to the moor.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.sky.com/story/704613/brady-banned-from-fresh-moors-searches|title=Brady Banned From Fresh Moors Searches|last=Parmenter|first=Tom|date=2 July 2009|work=[[Sky News]]|access-date=24 September 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121005031753/http://news.sky.com/story/704613/brady-banned-from-fresh-moors-searches|archive-date=5 October 2012|mode=cs2}}</ref> Donations from the public funded a search by volunteers from a Welsh search and rescue team in 2010.<ref>{{cite news|title=Moors Murders: Donations fund search for Keith Bennett|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/8591178.stm|work=BBC News|date=27 March 2010|access-date=27 March 2010|mode=cs2}}</ref> In 2012, it was claimed that Brady may have given details of the location of Bennett's body to a visitor; a woman was subsequently arrested on suspicion of preventing the burial of a body without lawful excuse, but a few months later the [[Crown Prosecution Service]] announced that there was insufficient evidence to press charges.<ref name="location">{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-21415723|title=Ian Brady's mental health advocate will not face charges|date=11 February 2013|work=BBC News|access-date=9 June 2014|mode=cs2}}</ref> In 2017, the police asked a court to order that two locked briefcases owned by Brady be opened, arguing that they might contain clues to the location of Bennett's body; the application was declined on the grounds that no prosecution was likely to result.{{refn|{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-47217878|title=Moors Murders: 'Unlock Ian Brady's briefcases' plea|date=13 February 2019|access-date=2 February 2020|work=BBC News}} }}

On 30 September 2022, Greater Manchester Police began a search for human remains on the moor after receiving information from amateur investigator and author Russell Edwards,<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 September 2022 |title=Police to begin dig for Moors murder victim 58 years after he went missing |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/moors-murders-keith-bennett-ian-brady-myra-hindley-b2183368.html |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=The Independent }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-63091544|title=Moors Murders: Search for Keith Bennett's body restarts|date=30 September 2022|accessdate=1 October 2022|work=BBC News }}</ref> who had reportedly found a skull.<ref>{{Cite web |date=30 September 2022 |title=Police dig for Moors victim Keith Bennett after skull reportedly found |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/sep/30/police-dig-moors-murder-victim-keith-bennett-skull-found |access-date=30 September 2022 |website=The Guardian }}</ref> After seeing a photograph of a jaw bone, a spokesperson for the police said, of the identity of the remains, that it was "far too early to be certain".<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-manchester-63091544|title=Moors Murders: Search for Keith Bennett's body restarts|work=BBC News|date=30 September 2020|access-date=30 September 2020}}</ref> On 1 October the police reported that no further remains had been found.<ref>{{Cite news |date=1 October 2022 |title=Moors Murders: No remains yet found in search for Keith Bennett |language=en-GB |work=BBC News |url=https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-63101655 |access-date=1 October 2022}}</ref> On 7 October the police announced they had ended their search without finding any sign of human remains.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2022/oct/07/search-ends-saddleworth-moor-keith-bennett-no-remains-found|title=Search ends for Moors murder victim Keith Bennett after no remains found|date=7 October 2022|website=The Guardian}}</ref>