Nearly 35 years after toddler Ben Needham vanished without a trace on the Greek island of Kos, his mother, Kerry Needham, is making one final, desperate appeal.
In a deeply emotional new documentary, Kerry insists she still believes answers are out there—and she is pleading with anyone who knows the truth to finally come forward.
The heartbreaking story is told in Ben Needham: Lost in Paradise, the opening episode of Disney+’s new six-part series 20/20 Britain’s Most Notorious Crime Investigations, which revisits one of the UK’s most enduring missing-person cases.
A Mother Still Searching After Decades
Speaking candidly in the documentary, Kerry returns to Kos, the island where her 21-month-old son disappeared in July 1991.
Standing near the place where her life changed forever, she admits the memories remain overwhelming.
“I hate coming back here. It makes me shake. It makes me feel physically sick. Coming back here makes me relive that day.”

Despite decades of investigations, media appeals and international searches, Kerry says one simple fact keeps her hope alive:
Ben has never been found.
“No body has ever been discovered,” she explains, refusing to accept that the case is over.
The Day Ben Vanished
At the time, Kerry and her young family had moved from Sheffield to Kos to join her parents, who had relocated in search of a better life.
On the morning Ben disappeared, his grandmother Christine took him to visit his grandfather Eddie and uncle Stephen, who were renovating an old farmhouse.
Ben happily played outside with his two beloved Dinky toy cars.
Just moments later, he was gone.
The family initially believed another relative had taken him home.
When they realised nobody knew where he was, panic quickly turned into one of the largest missing-child searches Greece had ever seen.
Despite exhaustive efforts, Ben was never located.
A Case Filled With Conflicting Theories
Over the years, investigators pursued countless leads.
Witnesses reported possible sightings across Europe.
One prison inmate claimed Ben had been taken by a travelling Roma family.
Police issued age-progression images that kept hope alive for years.
Then, in 2012, South Yorkshire Police reopened the investigation and returned to Kos for an extensive search.
After years of forensic work, detectives concluded the most likely explanation was that Ben had been accidentally struck by a digger operated by local construction worker Konstantinos “Dino” Barkas, who later died in 2015.
Investigators believed the accident had been covered up and that Ben’s body had been secretly buried elsewhere.
One of Ben’s toy cars was recovered during excavations, and early forensic examinations suggested it had come into contact with decomposed human tissue.
For detectives, it appeared to support their theory.
Dino’s family has consistently denied those conclusions and rejected any suggestion that he was responsible for Ben’s disappearance.
The Discovery That Changed Everything
Years later, advances in forensic DNA testing produced a stunning development.
Scientists re-examined the biological material found on Ben’s toy car.
The result shocked everyone.
The DNA did not match Ben.
For Kerry, the phone call changed everything.
Instead of bringing closure, it reopened every unanswered question.
She recalls being told investigators were sorry to deliver the news.
But her reaction was very different.
“If it wasn’t Ben, then the accident didn’t happen,” she says.
“You never found his body. All you found was a toy car.”
To Kerry, the new DNA findings meant there was still no definitive proof that her son had died.
An Emotional Plea to the People of Kos
As the documentary reaches its powerful conclusion, Kerry delivers a heartfelt message directly to anyone who may know what happened all those years ago.
Fighting back tears, she says she will never stop searching.

“Ben is still a missing person in my mind.”

She then makes one final appeal.

“I appeal to the people of Kos—tell me the truth. Tell me what happened. Tell me where he is if you can, and I will go away.”

Until that day comes, Kerry says she has no intention of giving up.
Nearly 35 years after Ben disappeared, the questions that have haunted one family—and captivated an entire nation—remain unanswered.
For Kerry Needham, the search for her little boy is far from over.