Family of Peterborough schoolboy Rikki Neave say they do not know who has been arrested on suspicion of his murder

Ruth Neave, 47, gave her reaction to the news with husband Gary Rogers, 55, from an upmarket hotel just miles from where her son was killed more than 20 years ago.

Mr Rogers, who is Ruth’s full-time carer, said the couple were told shortly before 7am - just minutes after an arrest had been made.

He said: “At five to seven in the morning to have two liaison officers standing on your doorstep after being woken up by them is a shock.

“They said ‘we need to come in and talk to Ruth’.

“They very nicely insisted to come in, it was a case of ‘we do need to come in’.

“So we both got her out of bed quickly, put the dogs in the kitchen and went and sat down.

“They sat us down in the front room and told us straight away they had made an arrest within the last five to ten minutes.”

The couple, who live in Cambridgeshire, revealed they do not know who has been arrested.

Ms Neave declined to speak, instead nominating her husband to comment for her, but looked sombre throughout while wearing black sunglasses to cover her eyes.

She was dressed in brightly coloured tunic along with a white shawl and beige scarf, from the gardens of the hotel in March, Cambs.

Mr Rogers, who was wearing jeans, a grey shirt and a striped tie, spoke on behalf of his wife.

He added: “All they told us is that it’s a man in his 30s from Peterborough.”

The pair were not told if the suspect was arrested before or if he was known to the police previously.

Speaking about the moments just after they were told the news, Gary said: “We just sat and looked at each other.

“It was surreal, that’s the word I’ve been looking for all day, it was surreal.

“I always knew if I could get people to listen to the evidence which I’ve got in the files - we would get here.

“As for what happened here today they kept it very quiet from us.”

He added later in the day the pair were reflecting on the news, he said: “We sat there asking ourselves has this really happened?”

The couple hope advances in technology will help the investigation.

Mr Rogers said: “They are using 3D imaging, for the first time ever.

“They are able to take an image of the area at the time and regress it back to a point of time.”

This enables the police to recreate the woodland were Rikki was discovered and the shops where he was last seen.

Mr Rogers added: “Both me and Ruth want to thank Cambridgeshire Police lead investigators.

“Our reaction this morning was total shock. We didn’t know this was coming. This has come straight out of the blue for us.”

Mr Rogers met Ms Neave eight years ago at Histon Football Club and the pair paid £600 for the police’s case file on Rikki’s death to review the investigation themselves.