By Mark Simpson
Geoff Knupfer has been working on a number of the ‘disappeared’ cases in recent years.
The retired detective leading the coastline search for republican murder victim Peter Wilson was also involved in the search for the bodies of the Moors murder victims in England.
Geoff Knupfer served with Greater Manchester Police for 30 years before becoming a senior investigator in the search for Northern Ireland’s so-called ‘disappeared’.
In the 1980s, Mr Knupfer helped to lead the search for the bodies of the victims of the Moors murderers, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley.
He also heard Hindley’s confessions to a number of the murders.
Brady and Hindley buried the bodies of their young victims on the remote Saddleworth Moor, between Manchester and Leeds, in the early 1960s.
The body of one of their victims, 12-year-old Keith Bennett, has never been found.
Mr Knupfer, a retired detective chief superintendent, has been working on a number of the ‘disappeared’ cases in recent years.
He is now in charge of the search in County Antrim for the remains of 21-year-old Belfast man Peter Wilson, who died in August 1973.
The IRA was accused of killing him, but until now there were no clues as to where his remains were buried.
Mr Knupfer and his team from the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims’ Remains recently received a tip-off, and are now carrying out an inch-by-inch search of the north end of the beach at Waterfoot in County Antrim.
Speaking at the digging site, he reflected on the search for the Moors murder victims.
He told the BBC: “The desire of the families is absolutely clear in all of these cases. They want closure, and they want somewhere to grieve. They want a Christian burial – and a grave to visit.”
Techniques have improved since the 1980s when he was involved in the search for the Saddleworth Moor victims.
“Those really were the early days of using archaeology as an investigative tool in the UK,” he said.
“We have learned an awful lot in the intervening period.
“As someone once admirably described it, we’re not looking for museum exhibits. We’re actually looking for human remains to return to a family.”
The process now involves ground-penetrating radar, forensic archaeology, geophysics and geochemistry.
Readings and measurements from the beach at Waterfoot are being fed into a computer network which analyses the data, and tries to pinpoint the best places to dig.
Under Geoff Knupfer’s instructions, full-scale digging of the site will not begin until the initial assessment of the area is completed next week.
The family of Peter Wilson have been told that the process could be quick or take a very long time.
And just like the family of Keith Bennett in England, they know it could all end in huge disappointment.
Nonetheless, the presence of an experienced investigator like Geoff Knupfer has given them grounds for hope.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Sky high: The BBC joins Dr Johannes Fritz and his flock on a leg of their odd migration
“Yes, people think we’re crazy,” says Johannes Fritz, with a wry smile.
And surveying the scene, it is easy to see why.
We are in a playing field, in a small village in Austria, close to the Slovenian border.
In it stands a makeshift camp, with all the usual outdoors paraphernalia.
But it is the large aviary, containing 14 northern bald ibis and two human “foster parents” who are gently tending to their avian flock that really draws your attention.
That, and the microlights parked nearby.
For the past couple of days, this unassuming spot has been home to the Waldrapp team, “Waldrapp” being another name for the northern bald ibis.
But the group will not be staying here for long: they are part-way through a month-long effort to take these birds on a 1,300km flight from Germany to Italy.
However, this is no ordinary migration. The scientists are teaching the birds their route by getting them to follow a microlight.
Building trust
The project forms part of a wider conservation plan to save this critically endangered bird, explains Dr Fritz, leader of the Waldrapp team.
The northern bald ibis has not fared well in the wild
The northern bald ibis was once common throughout Europe, northern Africa and the Middle East.
But today, because of habitat loss and hunting, it has vanished from Europe, leaving diminished populations in Morocco, and just a handful of these distinctive birds in Syria.
Along with other groups around the world, the Waldrapp team is looking into the feasibility of reintroducing birds born in captivity into the wild.
But it is not as simple as opening a cage and setting them free.
Without any knowledge of their migration route, which is usually passed on by their parents, the zoo-born birds cannot survive.
The foster parents spend all day in the aviary with the birds
So, inspired by a similar project in America called Operation Migration, the scientists teach them their flight plan instead.
But it is a time-consuming process. It begins in spring. As soon as the birds hatch, they are introduced to their new human foster parents.
Then for the next few months, the human stand-ins spend almost every waking hour with the birds, feeding them, grooming them and playing with them.
Sinja Werner, one of the two foster parents in this year’s team, says: “We try to be their parents, as best as we can. It’s important that they trust you.”
Finally, this bond becomes so strong that the birds are willing to follow their parents anywhere. Even if they are sitting in a microlight.
Extreme schemes
While no doubt expensive, people-power heavy and time intensive, the Waldrapp project forms part of a growing movement that is taking conservation further than it has ever gone before.
Gone are the days when saving the flora and fauna was just about safeguarding habitats and putting species protection plans into place.
“Species are so low in numbers that the only way to deal with their survival is through more intervention”
Professor John Fa Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust
Thanks to the fact that we are in midst of the biggest extinction crisis since the dinosaurs were wiped out, some researchers are saying we have to go further.
As well as concentrating on the traditional methods, they claim that we need to invest in and embrace more extreme, more experimental approaches, from hands-on reintroduction programmes like these, to shifting species around the globe and even cloning.
Professor John Fa, director of conservation science at Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, says: “We are talking about over 6,000 species under threat, we are talking about pollution increasing, we are talking about habitat fragmentation, we are talking about invasive species. There are many, many threats and these threats are still there.
“In some situations, species are so low in numbers that the only way to deal with their survival is through more intervention, and I think it is pushing us with coming up with more innovative ideas, it is pushing us into coming up with extreme ideas.”
And this project certainly fits the bill. The next morning, we get to witness the team in action.
The idea is to get the birds to follow the foster parent in the microlight – but it does not always work
As dawn breaks, the camp emerges from the darkness into a hive of activity, getting ready for a planned 200km flight that should take the team across the border into Slovenia.
The final preparations are made, and foster parent Sinja takes one last look at her birds before climbing into the microlight.
With a quick burst of speed, it powers across the dewy meadow before gliding up into the air, the fog-drenched countryside becoming ever more distant below.
The aviary opens, and the birds also take to the skies, encouraged by their adoptive mother who repeatedly yells into her loudspeaker: “Here Wileys, come come”.
But, it soon becomes clear that the “Wileys”, an affectionate nickname for the birds, need a bit more convincing.
Every now and again the foster parent’s efforts seem to be working, and the birds gather in a tight V-shaped formation behind the aircraft.
But moments later they scatter, accompanied by increasingly desperate yells from above, pleading with them to come back.
This bizarre mid-air procession continues back and forth for the next 90 minutes, but today, just like naughty children, the birds simply will not do what they are told.
Finally, the team calls it a day, landing a measly 10km from where they set off.
Back on track
A few weeks later, Dr Fritz gets back in touch.
The team travelled only 10km along their planned route
After this early setback, he said, the birds started to behave, eventually completing their 1,300km migration and arriving in Italy in record time.
He said: “The migration 2010 was fantastic and extraordinary.
“For the first time, the flight speed and the flight distances are fully comparable with that of the wild migrating birds.”
With the migration now complete, this flock now have their “flight plan” in place, hopefully allowing them to make their own unassisted migration back to Germany when the time comes for them to breed.
But whatever the future holds for these birds, one thing is certain: these kinds of hands-on conservation efforts are far from easy – or predictable.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Mr Wormsley alleged that Mr Hands had lied to EMI 
