The daughter of Scottish aid worker David Haines, who was beheaded by Isis terrorists, is planning a mission to Syria to bring back his remains.
As the 10th anniversary of his murder approaches, Bethany Haines has revealed that she will never admit defeat in the battle to return David to Scotland.
She told the Daily Record: ‘The drive to find my dad will never stop as long as I live.’ Her quest is based on detailed witness testimonies and collaborations with other victims’ families.
These have led her to identify sites in the Syrian desert which she is prepared to personally excavate. Bethany, 27, also revealed she is planning a memorial next month in David’s home city of Perth to mark the anniversary and celebrate his life.
The mother-of-one’s stance is different to David’s brother Michael, who told at the weekend how he has accepted that the remains of the humanitarian worker may never be brought home.
Bethany Haines, 27, pictured, has vowed to locaste the body of her slain father David Haines, who was murdered by Isis in 2014
David Haines, pictured in 2012, was murdered by the notorious terror group while he was working in Syria for a French aid
Bethany, who was just 17 when her dad’s gruesome death was beamed to the world in a sick Isis video, says that watching the video was the worst moment of her life.
But she believes it is powering her resolve to fulfil a debt she believes she owes to her father. She said: ‘We are getting closer, and we are getting more and more information and there are very promising leads we can follow.
‘It is being checked and verified and we are confident in a couple of places, so it is just about kind of being able to do boots-on-the-ground stuff. The aim now is to arrange support in Syria for actual physical searching, with spade and shovel if need be, and with the right people to help identify remains, in terms of DNA etcetera.’
The political landscape has been thrown into chaos by the Israeli-Hamas conflict. Bethany said: ‘The situation in Gaza has made travel impossible but I’m speaking to people who I believe can make things happen with the logistics of going into Syria and providing security for the people that are involved in it. It is something that will be done, I hope, in the near future.’
She added: ‘We are confident in the information we’ve been given by a number of sources. It’s not just kind of one person saying, ‘Oh, by the way, X marks the spot.’ It’s been multiple sources this has come from, and we are confident that they are in a certain area.
‘I’m looking at maps, at Google Earth, looking at specific areas that have been detailed via sources, and homing in to see any change in the way that things look. I’m looking for any disturbance in the earth in a specific area, which could imply a possible mass grave.’
A month after the film had been posted online, Bethany forced herself to watch the video of her father’s execution on September 13, 2014. He was working for a French aid agency when he was abducted by Isis. She believes it has given her strength and determination she would not otherwise possess.
She said: ‘It was the worst moment my life. I don’t think being told about my dad’s death was as bad as actually seeing it, because you finally have to accept that there is no coming back.’
Bethany feels unable to forgive the monsters who tortured her dad and the other innocent hostages including fellow Briton Alan Henning and US aid workers Kayla Mueller, James Foley, Steven Sotloff and Peter Kassig.
She met British-born Alexanda Kotey, one of four British Isis militants dubbed ‘The Beatles’, at the time of his trial in Virginia in 2022.
He told her that her dad’s last words to his killer Mohammed Emwazi, dubbed ‘Jihadi John’, were ‘make it quick’. Bravely, David had accepted the inevitability of his own death. But she rejects any notion Kotey may feel regret for her dad’s murder.
Bethany said: ‘It takes a certain kind of person to be able to forgive and I’m not that person. I feel entitled to bear this grudge. They’ve not asked for forgiveness. Until they ask for it, it’s not ever going to be something that I’d be willing to consider.’
She feels bitter about efforts to distort the truth on the location of mass graves by Kotey – dubbed ‘George’ by the captives – and El Shafee Elsheikh, known as ‘Ringo’.
She said: ‘They are in jail, they have given their stories, which seem to change every time they’re asked, that’s not helpful. They could come out and say where my dad is but they don’t. It’s more of a power thing, being able to hold on to bargaining chips that might see them getting over to the UK to serve their sentences here.’
El Shafee el-Sheikh, left, and Alexanda Kotey, right, were both members of Isis. The British terrorists were part of a terror cell which was dubbed ‘The Beatles’
David Haines, pictured, had been held hostage by Isis for more than 18 months before he was murdered by the terror group in September 2014
Bethany said her priority in life now is her nine-year-old son Aiden, who looks like his grandad. She said: ‘Aiden knows that his grandad David was a man doing very good things, killed by bad men while he was helping people. He knows the reason I had to go to America to the Kotey trial to make sure that he went to jail.’
Partly in pursuit of her quest to find her dad, Bethany will travel to France next year to observe a trial of six Isis guards who had a part in his death. She said: ‘I expect to submit a victim impact report, as I did in Virginia, but I wish to hear for myself every detail of French suspects’ testimony.’
Bethany said a number of French people are alleged to have been holding her dad and other hostages, such as John Cantlie as well as Jim Foley and Stephen Sotloff, prior to their murders. She said: ‘They are believed to have been the daily guards. ‘The Beatles’ would kind of come once a week, then ‘The Beatles’ took over.
‘But a few still remained, providing food for them and whatnot, doing interrogations. They may have been involved in burying bodies.’
A memorial was held in Perth after David’s death but Bethany believes the 10th anniversary – on a date to be arranged next month – will provide a fitting moment to reflect.
She said: ‘Marking the anniversary is really important to me because I still want people to remember not the orange jumpsuit, not ‘Jihadi John’ who killed dad, not Isis, not the beheadings of dad and other hostages. I want them to remember him for the man he was, which is kind of why I planned this memorial service.
‘I want to erase that image of dad as a skinny prisoner of war-looking guy about to be beheaded by ‘Jihadi John’.’ Bethany hopes the service can be in Perth Congregational Church, which her dad was heavily involved in as an elder and a scout leader.
She added: ‘The first memorial we did, which was quite soon after my dad’s death, I was 17 and I wasn’t really a part of it. And my mum and I weren’t in a space to be doing that so it was all kind of a blur, and I feel like this time I want to do it my way.’
David’s older brother Mike dealt with his grief by founding a charity to combat extremism and speaking to schools about tolerance and forgiveness.
He told the Daily Record how he has found closure over the murder of his inspirational and much-loved brother – despite accepting that the family may never find his remains. He said: ‘I don’t need David’s body to find closure.
‘I accept that his remains lie somewhere in the Syrian desert. I understand that many people would find it hard to move on, knowing that their loved one could lie in a mass grave, discarded and badly treated, because it’s inhuman, an affront.
‘But in finding forgiveness for Isis I realised I had to accept many things that I can’t change. I don’t need David’s remains. I don’t need a place to go to remember him, because he walks with me every day, everywhere.
‘It is part of the process for me, that allows me to break free of the hold Isis had over me while I felt hatred for them.’
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