THE parents of missing Hampshire schoolboy Daniel Nolan may never know for certain whether bones found on a Solent beach are his.

Police DNA tests have broken down without proof that the remains found nearly nine weeks ago on the foreshore at Warsash are Daniel's, the Daily Echo can exclusively reveal.

It was hoped that the forensic results would provide the key to a mystery which has baffled the closely-knit Hamble community and end the agonising wait for the Nolan family.

Now scientists are set to start new DNA tests on the bones - but police have admitted these.

Daniel's parents, Pauline and Greg, have bravely said that the news has given them more hope that their son is still alive.

Mrs Nolan said: "This means that Dan is still very much a missing person. In a way this gives me more hope. We have all been holding our breath waiting for the forensic test results - now we can get out and get going again.

"It has been a very intricate process because the actual bone marrow in the bones which were found had disintegrated into ash. I have been given to understand that there is some more DNA work that they can do but it is a one in 500 chance of getting the correct person because it just goes through on the maternal line. This will not give a definite yes or no, it will just give an indication.

"It would be nice for them to do that because if there isn't any profile connected with me we will know it is definitely not Dan. But if there is, it doesn't mean to say it is him either."

It is now nearly 16 months since the King Edward VI schoolboy, then aged 14, disappeared after going to the main pontoon at Hamble foreshore on a late night fishing trip with pals.

No trace of him has been found, but police said they were keeping an open mind about whether the bones found near Hook-with-Warsash nature reserve in February were those of the missing Hamble teenager.

But Mrs Nolan said her husband had been adamant at the time and was still convinced that the discovery of about 18 human bones had no connection with Dan.

"While the initial pathologist said the bones had been in skeletal form less than four years, the expert that they brought in afterwards said she would not put an age on the bones.

"All the experts around Hamble find the situation very strange and say that had Dan fallen into the river he would not have ended up where the bones were found.

"I still firmly believe that he is out there somewhere and we still go on with the basis that we haven't got any bad news so we will keep on with the good news.

"Somebody doesn't fall into the Hamble River with layers of specialist clothing on and wind up as bones just over a year later at a site where paupers have been buried," said Pauline.

But Mrs Nolan admitted that waiting for results of the DNA testing had been extremely wearing.

"Out of the last 16 months, I think the last weeks waiting for them have been awful," she said.

Tomorrow Mrs Nolan will appear on BBC Breakfast television for the launch of the National Missing Persons Helpline's "Missing Month" where she will launch another appeal for information about her missing son.

A police spokeswoman told the Daily Echo that the initial test conducted by the Forensic Science Service had proved inconclusive, adding: "They haven't been able to abstract DNA from the sample they currently have."

But she said the service would now concentrate on DNA methods using the maternal line.

"This will provide a very strong indication of whether the bones do belong to Dan or another youth whose DNA we have on our database. Although it is not 100 per cent conclusive we will be able to establish, to a high probability, who it is."