Detectives follow 'dozens' of leads in search for teen Sarah Benford who disappeared from Northampton children's home 22 years ago

Detectives investigating the murder of a Northamptonshire schoolgirl Sarah Benford 22 years ago say they are pursuing dozens of new lines of inquiry following last year's failed dig for clues.

Forensic teams scoured land for two weeks looking for remains of Sarah Benford, who was just 14 when she went missing from a Northampton chldren's home on April 6, 2000.

Nobody has ever been charged with her killing despite eight arrests.

But a Northamptonshire Police spokeswoman said: "Investigations into the murder of Sarah Benford carries on.

"Since excavating land in the Valley Walk area of Kettering in November 2021, we continue to follow up a number of lines of inquiry that came about as a result of information provided to us by members of the public during the dig.

“It was a credible piece of intelligence that led us to that area in Kettering so it was bitterly disappointing not to find her there and to therefore be able to provide her family with that much-needed closure.

“Though we didn’t find her on this occasion, that doesn’t mean that the investigation will stop or hold any less importance.

"Clearly someone out there knows what happened to Sarah all those years ago and we would urge anyone with new information to contact us on 101 or, in confidence, via the Crimestoppers hotline on 0800 555111.”

Sarah was under the care of Northamptonshire County Council’s children’s services, staying at Welford House in Northampton, when she disappeared.

But the teenager frequently went missing from the home and was repeatedly failed by authorities who failed to see her as a victim of exploitation by drug dealers and sex offenders.

Staff at the home and doctors did not raise eyebrows when she admitted meeting people for sex and injecting herself with heroin.

On the last day Sarah was seen, police refused to respond to a call from her frantic mum Vicki after the teenager had phoned high on drugs from a house in Kettering.

According to documents later handed to this newspaper, officers told care home staff they 'could not and would not' collect her and would not 'take her to Kettering Police Station to babysit her'.

Hopes that Sarah's body would finally be found were raised following a tip-off that she was buried in the area of open space close to the River Ise.

Detective Superintendent Joe Banfield, who led the operation, said the source was credible and sealed off an area of land slightly smaller than a football pitch.

Specialist search dogs were also sent in but the dig was called off after two weeks with nothing found.