Cold-case breakthrough in 29-year mystery of missing Lee DNA hope to find teenager’s killer
Twins take tall family to new heights
A BREAKTHROUGH in DNA could solve the 29-year-old cold-case murder of schoolboy Lee Boxell.
The football-mad 15-year-old vanished in September 1988, after telling a pal he was going to a match.
After nearly three decades, Lee’s tormented parents feared they would die without knowing what happened to him.
But scientific advances have enabled forensic experts to produce a DNA profile of Lee from tiny samples on his belongings, including his Sutton United scrapbook.
Now his profile will be added to the National Missing Person DNA database to be checked for a match with any human remains that are found.
Dad Peter, 70, a retired civil servant, said: “It’s amazing they have been able to do this.
“Of course I don’t want Lee to be found dead.
“But we desperately want to know what happened so we can grieve. The pain of not knowing is unbearable.”
Lee, of Sutton, south London, vanished after telling a pal he might go to see Crystal Palace because Sutton United were away at Blackpool.
Mum Christine, 75, wrote last month to the non-league club’s manager ahead of their historic 5th round FA Cup clash with Premier League giants Arsenal to say how proud her son would have been of them.
Christine, who has a daughter and two grandchildren, said: “I miss him so much.”
Police have focused on a possible sighting of the teenager walking towards Cheam.
An unofficial youth club there is now known to be a haunt of paedophiles.
Detectives fear Lee was murdered when he tried to stop other kids being abused.
In 2014 three men and a woman were arrested but released without charge. THE family of the UK’s tallest couple is rocketing up in the world with the addition of adorable twin boys.
Not-so-tiny tots Gabriel and Ezra are already following in the footsteps of their huge parents and siblings.
Even when they were born four weeks prematurely by caesarean they weighed 6lb 3oz and 5lb 8oz, well above average for twins.
Now, 17 months on, Ezra at 2ft 9in and Gabriel, an inch shorter, are in the tallest 10 per cent for their age.
But they have a long way to go to catch their brothers and sister – Lucas, 11, is 5ft 4in, Eva, eight, 4ft 8in and Jonah, four, is 4ft 1in.
They are all chips off the old blocks as Keisha and Wilco van Kleef-Bolton were only surpassed as the world’s tallest married couple by a Chinese pair last year. Keisha, 37, is 6ft 5in and software developer Wilco, 36, is 7ft.
Keisha, of Dagenham, Essex, said her babies are already wearing clothes for three year olds and “may turn out to be the world’s tallest twins”.
She said they may become the world’s tallest family which “would be really cool as long as everyone is healthy”. Keisha had been using contraception after a difficult pregnancy with Jonah and said: “It was a shock to not only find out I was pregnant but this time with two.”
Former basketball player Keisha said: “With five kids, including twin babies, we don’t get out a lot at the moment. Everything is so busy. But I absolutely love it.”
Keisha, who needed a caesarean as Ezra was breach and Gabriel was transverse, vowed: “My pregnancy with them was extremely difficult so, hopefully, it will be my last.”