For thirty-nine years Winnie Johnson
has endured every parents worst nightmare. Winnie lives
with the unbearable knowledge that her son Keith is not
only missing, but is presumed murdered. People can try
to imagine what Winnie is going through, but they know
in their heart, her pain is a thousand times worse than
anything anybody could ever begin to imagine.
Who can forget the images on our TV screens, when police
thought they had found the bodies of Holly Wells and Jessica
Chapman buried near woods in Cambridgeshire? For thirteen
hours the families were plunged on an "incredible
rollercoaster" of emotion as they veered from despair
to optimism in perhaps the most tense and traumatic night
of their lives.
But when the news came, shortly before 6.20am, that both
of the mounds feared to be shallow graves were badger
setts, the relief was short-lived. As Leslie and Sharon
Chapman said: "In the early hours came immense relief...
but the questions start again."
Speaking less than three hours after the families heard
the news, Mr Wells said: "It's been an incredible
rollercoaster of a night. It's been extremely upsetting.
We were obviously fearing the worst but we're still here
to carry the fight - and while there's still a glimmer
of hope, we shall carry that fight on."
The Chapman's said, "It was obviously a very tense
and traumatic night. We were frustrated at the length
of time it took although we do understand the need to
preserve a possible crime scene. Then in the early hours
of the morning came immense relief."
The night of uncertainty began shortly before 5pm, when
family liaison officers arrived at the families’
homes, just 500 metres from each other in Soham, to tell
them of the disturbed earth found at Warren Hill. The
Wellses knew to expect the worst when a sombre-looking
Detective Sergeant Chris Mead, one of the two liaison
officers assigned to them on 24-hour call, arrived several
hours earlier than he was expected. "I didn't need
to say very much, they knew something wasn't right,"
he explained.
Sitting the couple down, he told them: "We have found
two mounds of earth. The suggestion is they may be the
graves of Holly and Jessica." He added that the mounds
had been in a wooded area in which screams had been heard
three hours after the girls vanished. As they talked through
the likelihood of the mounds being graves, Holly's 12-year-old
brother Oliver walked in and was gently told what had
happened.
Grandparents and relatives were rung, and joined them
to keep an all-night vigil. For Mr Wells' mother, Agnes,
the night was "absolutely horrific". "Just
imagine if you thought your grandchild was dead? It was
one of the longest nights of my life," she said.
"We were all in tears. We had to prepare for the
worst."
Television and radio news was shunned. Detective Chief
Inspector Andy Hebb called from the scene with each development.
"No one ate. No one slept. They talked or sat in
silence, drank coffee, paced the floor, and then paced
it again," Mr Mead said.
A similar scenario was being played out at the Chapman
home, where DC Stevens, himself a young father, broke
the news. Here, Jessica's sisters Rebecca, 16, and Alison,
14, were given detailed information alongside their parents,
and close family members joined them. "It was a very
long and tense evening. There was a vigil. No one slept.
There was very little conversation. It was a quiet, solemn
affair," Mr Stevens said.
A video was put on but no one watched it. Then, just before
4am, came a call from Mr Hebb, still encamped nine miles
away at the cordoned-off scene, to tell them that forensic
archaeologists had finished excavating the first mound
and that it appeared to be a badger sett - as did the
second. At the Wells home, the family were "very
tired and emotional but pleased their worst fears hadn't
been realised", Mr Mead said.
"It was a bloody nightmare, but it was sheer relief,"
Mr Wells' father Gerald said. "But now that's gone
away, and it's hard to stop yourself from fearing the
worst again." At the Chapman's', cups of tea were
made and hugs given - but the overwhelming feeling, after
relief, was one of flatness."Mrs Chapman is very
shocked by everything," Mr Stevens said. "It
answered one question: was it Jessica? But then immediately
asked another: "Where are they?"
Two days later, just after 1pm on the thirteenth day of
their wait, the families of Jessica Chapman and Holly
Wells were told that the most dreadful outcome appeared
to have been confirmed, the bodies of their 10-year-old
daughters had been discovered. It was two hours before
the grim news was released to the media. For those two
hours the families grieved alone, but at around 3pm people
began weeping in the streets as an entire town grieved
alongside them.
Behind closed doors the Chapman's - Sharon, 43, and Leslie,
51 - huddled with their two other children. The Wells
- Nicola, 35, and her husband Kevin, 38 - had their 12-year-old
son Oliver to comfort too. It had only been just over
24 hours since Jessica and Holly's parents had pleaded
with the abductor or abductors of their children to send
them home. 'They are not their children, they are our
children and we want them back,' Leslie Chapman had said.
His wife had poignantly described the atmosphere in the
Chapman house. 'The noise in my house - it's so quiet,
so quiet. There's loads of people coming in and out, in
and out, and yet it's just so quiet.' Nicola Wells, a
legal secretary, seemed close to collapse, clutching her
husband's hand as she told reporters how she still held
out hope. No decent thinking person in the country was
not moved by the horrific discovery. People who had never
even known the girls or their families, wept.
Despite the out pouring of grief, their was a general
feeling that, `at least the girls had been found`. The
not knowing had appeared to be more unbearable than the
confirmation that Holly and Jessica had died. That traumatic
and heartbreaking roller coaster ride had lasted thirteen
days, it will never really stop, the pain of their loss
will never subside but the families do have answers, some
kind of closure.
For Winnie Johnson the ride has rolled on and on for thirty
nine long, painful years. Winnie has endured more than
14,235 endless nights each as painful as the thirteen
the 13 the families Holly and Jessica suffered. Brady
and Hindley say they abducted and murdered Winnie’s
son Keith but did they? Brady has confessed to five other
murders, none of which have been investigated, proven
or disbelieved.
I personally believe Brady and Hindley did murder Keith
but in a civilised society we do not take somebody's word
that they have murdered a child and then not bother to
gather the evidence or look for the body do we? I'm afraid
that's exactly what Greater Manchester police have done
and continue to do. Nobody has been charged in relation
to Keith's death and therefore we have a murdered boy
lying in an unmarked grave that police can't even be bothered
to investigate.
It is a national disgrace and a blight on our so called
civilised society. Winnie Johnson is not getting any younger
and like the mother of any murder victim she is entitled
to answers so she can have some sort of closure on the
tragedy she has endured.
Through this site, a registered charity which is currently
being set up and a forthcoming book entitled, Suffer the
Children (all of O`Mahoneys proceeds from the book are
being donated to that charity) we aim to raise the money
needed to find Keith Bennett. Winnie Johnson will have
sole control of the charity funds.
Previous admirable attempts have failed to find Keith
so he can be given a decent burial instead of the one
provided by his vile murderer Ian Brady. We believe if
the right people, such as forensic scientists and archaeologists
are employed and the finances are in place to cater for
an exhaustive search, finding Keith can and will be achieved. |
