Excavations begin on Monday in the search for missing toddler Ben Needham following a new line of inquiry that he may have been accidentally crushed by a digger on the Greek island of Kos 25 years ago.
His mother, Kerry Needham has said the notion her son was dead never entered her "worst nightmares" until a mystery tip-off to police this year.
Investigators on the Greek island where Ben vanished have already told her to “prepare for the worst” as excavation work - which police have warned could be painstaking - begins in the search for possible remains.
It is feared Ben may have been crushed to death by a digger near a farmhouse his grandparents were renovating in July 1991.
Konstantinos Barkas, also known as Dino, was clearing land with an excavator close to where Ben was playing on the day he vanished and may have inadvertently caused the death, a friend of the builder reportedly told police following a TV appeal in May.
The driver reportedly died of stomach cancer last year, months before detectives from South Yorkshire police arrived on the island for a renewed investigation.
Barkas’s widow, Varvara, strongly dismissed any suggestions her late husband had killed Ben in an accident.
Kerry Needham, from Sheffield, told the Daily Mirror: "Not even in my worst nightmares has Ben ever been dead ... until now. I've been waking up and finding my pillow wet with tears.
She added she was “angry” when police told her about the tip-off and she now lives in fear that each day will bring the “worst news possible”.
A variety of theories on his fate and reported sightings have arisen since his disappearance and Needham had been holding out hope she would one day be reunited with her son.
South Yorkshire Police has confirmed that its team, led by Detective Superintendent Matt Fenwick, will begin searching a specific site on Kos, starting on Monday. But it warned progress could be painstaking, with the first dig expected to last up to 12 days.
Detectives are said to have carried out initial inquiries at the site, with experts testing soil and surveying the area with drones.
Last week, Fenwick said: “There will be planned operational activity at two locations on the island that have been identified as areas of interest to the investigation.
“We continue to keep an open mind and have updated Ben’s family about certain lines of inquiry we’re currently exploring.”
PA