DNA identifies Rotherham body after 15 years

The family of Lewis Haines have finally been given answers about his disappearance following a night out in June 1995.

A body pulled from the River Don a few months later could not be linked to Lewis (19) until now.

South Yorkshire Police’s Cold Case Team revisited the case using new techniques which confirmed that the remains belonged to the Swallownest youngster.

His father Tony died without knowing the truth but mum Julie was able to bid a final farewell with a memorial service in Aston a week ago.

Sgt Richard Fewkes said: “It’s a very positive story. We are aware that this was something the family have had to live with for many years.

“We hope that the fact we have now been able to make this identification is of some comfort to them.”

Lewis had been out in Sheffield when he went missing after leaving the Uropa nightclub on Eyre Street and never came home. A police search and national TV appeals followed.

The Maltby-based Cold Case Team employs newly developed technology to revisit unsolved cases from across the region.

With criminal inquiries, the aim is to bring people to justice, often years after

it appeared that they had escaped unpunished.

But the aims are different in missing persons cases and the successful outcome here allowed the grieving family finally to hold a funeral for Lewis.

Det Sgt Fewkes said: “The team has taken on board the review of quite a number of cases.

“Among these have been stranger rapes, homicides, missing persons and identifying remains. The latter two are where the Lewis Haines case comes in.

“Remains were found in the River Don in the mid-1990s. There was nothing particularly suspicious about the find. It’s not uncommon for a police force to have to deal with this.

“It was investigated thoroughly and it relied on forensic science for identification. But it wasn’t advanced enough at that time for the police to say who the remains belonged to.

“The technology of carbon dating the bones tended to suggest this was someone quite significantly older.

“As a result, we couldn’t say that this was connected at all to Lewis Haines going missing.”

He added: “DNA advances in the past few years have allowed us to use other techniques to make the link.”

An inquest into Lewis’s death was opened last week.