Remains of Briton Steven Cook found down well in Crete

Steven Cook's family says "the fog can lift at last" as preparations are made to bring him home, 12 years after he went missing.

Steven Cook went missing on Crete in 2005
Image: Steven Cook went missing in Crete in 2005
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The remains of a British holidaymaker who went missing in Crete more than a decade ago have been found in a well on the island.

Steven Cook, from Sandbach in Cheshire, had been on a night out with friends in Malia during his first trip abroad when he disappeared in 2005.

His parents, Norman and Pat, put up a €7,000 (£5,900) reward for information but despite TV appeals in both Greece and the UK, he was never found.

It had been the 20-year-old's first holiday without his family.

Cheshire Police were told about the remains earlier this month and say forensic tests carried out at a local hospital have confirmed they belong to Mr Cook.

Arrangements are now being made to bring him back to the UK.

Mr Cook had been drinking with friends but left a pub alone at the end of the night.

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He was last seen in a bar asking for directions to his hotel before walking off in the wrong direction.

Following the discovery his family said they would be bringing Mr Cook home to say their "farewells".

Posting on the Find Steven Cook Facebook group, they said: "Having a loved one go missing is a vacuum full of pain.

"If they are no longer with us then the idle mind imagines horrors of 'what ifs' in order to account for them being alive and not in touch.

"The 'not knowing' hurts but not as much as the thoughts that your imagination conjures in the dark hours whilst also having to try and quench the flames of 'what ifs', rumours and gossip that becomes accepted as fact.

"Knowing that Steve is now coming home is an end to all of that and the fog can lift at last.

"In getting Steve home then we have truly found him again, and he will now continue to live through the shared memories of all that knew him."