Cold case of Sarah Benford reopened after 21 years as police evacuate search site

The teenager was last seen in 21 years ago.

Northamptonshire Police have reopened the case of Sarah Benford, over two decades since she was last seen in 2000. A murder investigation was launched after the 14-year-old went missing from a Northampton care home in April 2000, but no body or trace of the teenager was ever found. Police now hope that they might finally be able to bring Sarah some justice and find the person responsible for her disappearance. Only a few years ago in 2016, police searched a woodland area just outside the town Sarah lived in but did not find Sarah's body. According to BBC News officers have said that new intelligence gathered by its Major Investigation Team has led to a search at a 70m by 70m area in Valley Walk. The area has been evacuated for at least the next week, but possibly longer if police find evidence pertinent to the Sarah Benford case. Police search teams and forensic archaeologists are currently combing the area by using ground penetration radar equipment deployed to assess any movement on the section of land under investigation. Det Supt Joe Banfield of the Northamptonshire Police said of the case;

"We have never given up trying to find her body and, potentially, tracing her killer or killers."

During the first inquiry launched in 2000 after Sarah's disappearance, several arrests were made as well as searches in Kettering, London and Wales, but nobody has ever been charged. Police now hope that this new intelligence that they have received will finally give them the answer as to what happened to 14-year-old Sarah and some day soon bring the culprit responsible to justice.