Each week, the world of archaeology, geology, and science in general makes a number of

startling discoveries about our past that isn't necessarily reported to the general public.

These are cultures that we don't know about, science that we haven't discovered, and other

archaeological phenomenon that is unusual and just too much to report on. Hey, this is Cliff,

your host of Earth Ancients, and each Saturday we present a new topic that defies logic

that isn't covered in the news because it's just too amazing and brings us closer to questions about our past. Join me as we explore Earth's ancient past with writers, scientists, and research investigators. That's Earth Ancients, voted the number one ancient history podcast in the country. You know, I'm going to In the mid-1990s, Beckton was in in the midst of London's Docklands Transformation.

The old industrial East End was being reinvented street by street, estate by estate.

The Docklands Light Railway had extended to Beckton in 1994,

connecting the area to Canary Wharf's gleaming towers and the financial district beyond.

Where the vast Bechtin Gas Works had once dominated the landscape, new housing estates

now spread across former Brownfield land. The prefabricated homes that were built after the war

were now being swept away to make room for modern developments. The Terraced Council estates along Tolgate Road remained largely unchanged.

They were located just off the roundabout where the old route leads down to the Thames

and the abandoned East End docks.

It was here on a cold Sunday afternoon in October of 1994 that nine-year-old Daniel Hanley

was fixing the chain on his bicycle. He was a helpful boy from a troubled home, the kind

of child who earned pocket money carrying shopping bags for customers at the local supermarket.

He set out on his bike that afternoon, with his mother's permission to visit his best friend. He had no clue. There were predators circling the estate, hunting for a boy just like him. I'm Daniel Charles Hanley was born to parents Maxine and David on the 2nd of October,

1985. He was the fourth of five sons in a family that would eventually stretch across a small council flat in East London.

He was a boy who moved through the world at full speed.

Always on his bike, always with his hands dirty, always somewhere he wasn't supposed to be, but somehow always welcome.

His grandmother might have said he had restless feet.

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