KERRY Needham boarded a flight back to Greece convinced she’d finally found her long lost son Ben – who vanished as a toddler – alive and well.
This man was the right age and childhood photos showed he looked the spitting image of the missing tot, and completely different to his own family, but what happened next would leave both traumatised.
DNA tests would ultimately prove unequivocally that the man, who we’re referring to as Alexis – from northern Greece – was not missing Ben, and initially Kerry struggled to accept it, convinced someone had “tampered” with the samples.
She told The Sun: “We had a connection, it was strange. He felt like he was Ben, and I was certain – but he just wasn’t and it tore me apart.”
The pair have remained close, and still speak over social media, with Kerry, now 53, saying she would be “proud” if he’d turned out to be her son.
But, such was the trauma of that episode, now over 10 years later, she says: “I can’t put myself through that again.”
It comes as she awaits DNA testing on another man in the US who also believes he could be Ben.
Kerry, now living in Turkey, revealed to The Sun in January the American stranger’s partner had emailed her saying he believed he could be the missing Brit.
She’s refusing to let herself get carried away, having seen scores of people come forward over the years – including three last year alone.
The mum-of-two, originally from Sheffield, who was just 19 when Ben disappeared, said while the limbo is hard, getting her hopes up isn’t worth it.
“I don’t anymore, it’s too painful,” Kerry explained. “Without sounding callous, these days it’s more like an elimination process.”
But of the dozens of people who have come forward, Kerry said the only one who she was convinced about was Alexis – the Greek man – in 2015.
“It absolutely devastated me,” she explained. “We had four separate DNA tests because I just couldn’t believe it was not Ben.
“He was the same as well, and it tore me apart.”
That was the last time she allowed herself to get her hopes up.
“I had to go ‘you can’t do this to yourself anymore… you can’t let your emotions run away with you’.”
Alexis – who Kerry has never identified – came from a wealthy family with gypsy heritage.
“They were all dark skinned and dark eyed, and he was blonde and blue eyed,” she explained.
A work colleague of his had contacted Kerry on his behalf through her Help Find Ben Needham page on Facebook.
“He really didn’t want his family to find out he’d gone down the road of thinking he’d been stolen – we had to keep it low profile for his sake,” she explained.
After speaking back and forth, and seeing photos of him as a child and now, all of which seemed to match the different age progressions created over the years, Kerry asked him to send his toothbrush in the post for testing.
She gave it to South Yorkshire Police, who have been running the search on the UK side since Ben vanished in 1991, but it was quickly quashed.
“It came back negative and I wasn’t satisfied with that,” she said. “I just couldn’t believe it.”
Kerry asked if Alexis had packed the toothbrush himself, or if anyone else could have tampered with it – paranoid something had happened to nullify the result.
After admitting he’d given it to his work colleague to package, Kerry made arrangements to meet him in Greece.
“I said we need to do this face to face,” she explained.
Kerry and her mum Christine then flew out to meet Alexis.
“I know it sounds really strange, it was like I’d found him,” she explained. “He felt the same.”
Alexis didn’t speak English, and they communicated with a translator, as well as a friend of friend of Kerry’s.
“The connection was just unreal – he was Ben,” she continued.
They then had a series of private blood tests done, and even flew Kerry’s daughter Leighanna over to Greece to attempt a sibling DNA match.
“We waited about three weeks for the results,” she explained.
During that time, the Needhams remained in the area and Kerry met up with Alexis multiple times.
“He was just amazing,” Kerry said. “He thought he was Ben. The likeness between myself and him and my daughter and him was strong, and we had a connection.”
But again there was disappointment, with Kerry admitting it was “soul destroying for both of us”.
Still not convinced, the mum took another two swab samples from Alexis’ mouth and took them back to South Yorkshire Police, but again the results were negative.
Kerry said: “I had to then accept that it wasn’t him. It was really upsetting, and from then I can’t do that anymore.
“I can’t get close enough and I can’t let my emotions run away with me or even try and build up some kind of relationship with the person for their sake as well as mine.”
She added: “It’s a painful process for both parties.”
But even now, despite all the alleged sightings and possible candidates coming forward, she says Alexis is the only person who’s had her convinced.
“I’ve never had that feeling apart from that one,” Kerry said.
The pair have even remained in touch, and he once helped follow up a possible lead in his local area in the years since.
“There’s no other person that I’ve had that connection with or kept in contact with. Never,” said Kerry.
“It’s something I can’t explain. He was absolutely adorable, I would’ve been so proud if he’d have been Ben.
“I’m so proud of him for what he’s achieved in his life and the person he is.
“He’s just a really lovely man. I’ll hold him close to my heart for the rest of my life.”
Fast forward to today, however, and despite her best efforts, Kerry says in her “down moments”, as she waits for the results of the latest match – the man in the US, “I think please God, let it be him”.
She said: “He knows he’s adopted, at least, and he just wants to find out who he is.”
She almost had to put the mystery American out of her mind completely when, after forwarding his correspondence to police, she lost contact for several weeks.
“We were starting to think it was a hoax,” Kerry admitted this week. “Not in a bad way, but you do get people coming forward claiming to be Ben – they tell you all this information and it turns out not to be true.
“We were kind of thinking this is going to be another one of those.”
But, miraculously, the man’s girlfriend got back in touch last week.
“The girlfriend emailed back apologising, and gave an explanation as to why she’s not been in touch,” said Kerry.
“They still wanted to go ahead with the DNA test, and explained a few things about his adoption and having problems getting hold of his birth certificate and some other things, which does sound distressing.”
Kerry passed the message back to South Yorkshire Police – and now a DNA sample will be taken and the process will have to go through Interpol.
Kerry is in the dark as to when the result might come back – the last time she went through this was in 2024, when yet another man, this time from Denmark, came forward for testing, which ultimately also ended in disappointment.
“I know it’s going to be a slow process,” explained Kerry. “Even with the last one in Denmark, that one took about six or seven weeks, and that was only Europe, so I have no idea.
“Anything going via Interpol takes a long time.”