The mother of long-term missing teenager Damien Nettles is working with the charity Missing People to re-launch search efforts on the 26th anniversary of his disappearance.
Damien, aged 16 at the time, was last seen by his family on the evening of 2nd November 1996, when he had arranged to go to party in East Cowes. He left the family home just after 19:00. From there, his father drove him to his friend’s house in West Cowes. Damien and his friend then went to the floating bridge to go to East Cowes, to a girl’s house who was having a party.
After leaving the party, Damien was seen at multiple locations in West Cowes. After buying chips at Yorkies Chip Shop, he engaged in conversation with a group of men who were later identified as Army members. Damien’s last positive sighting was in the early hours of 3rd November 1996 on CCTV walking, alone, eating chips on the High Street in West Cowes.
At the time of his disappearance, Damien was described as white, 6ft 3in with a slim build, brown eyes and short brown hair. He has a V-shaped scar on his chin. Damien was last seen wearing blue jeans, a black fleece-style jacket and black boots. He was also carrying with a small instant camera.
Since his disappearance, Valerie, Damien’s mother, has worked tirelessly with friends and family to keep search efforts for Damien alive, in the hopes that he will be found safe and well. She has also sought publicity support from Missing People.
Valerie and Damien’s sister, Sarah Nettles, have recently been the driving force behind Missing People’s preventative ‘Missing on a Night Out’ campaign, launched in September this year. The online campaign, targeted towards new university students anticipating Freshers’ Week, was created in response to Damien’s disappearance on a night out and the resulting effect on his family, friends, and wider community.
Explaining the lasting impact of Damien’s missing, Valerie said:
“So many people in our family and his friends and wider community are affected by the ripple effect of his going missing. There is a name for this – it is ambiguous loss. If only he understood the dangers. If only we all had.”
Article continues below this advertisement “We have not given up on finding out what happened to Damien. We encourage anyone with information to contact Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.”
To help the search, the public can visit Damien’s web appeal here, from where they can report a sighting, download his Missing appeal as a poster, and share it as widely as possible, via Facebook or Twitter.
A website dedicated to Damien, created by his family, can be visited here: https://www.damiennettles.uk/.
Somebody knows something , but 26 years keeping a secret is id imagine very hard to do , let’s hope the answers are found for this lads and family’s sake
The documentary on tv was very interesting.
You are quite right, someone or many persons must know something.
For years I believed him to be in the pond at big mead but they recently drained that.
A knock on the door for you soon , the law.
probably just went to the mainland.
we all know who did it but proving it is another matter
Back
Then people carried money, change. He was so messed up on drink and drugs he went to the front and went in the sea either on purpose or mistake as didn’t even know what he was doing at the chippy. With the weight of the change in his coat, and does anyone know what the tide was like back then, he went under and washed out plus held down with change in pocket. Not everyone comes back up
With a sad remark you have made you are certainly a suspect,I’m sure you be having a knock on your door very soon.
Don’t be so ridiculous! If you can’t say anything relevant don’t bother – have a bit of respect for his family.
The trouble with cases like this where someone goes missing and is never found is that the family can never move on never knowing if he’s still alive somewhere or dead. I hope the family get closure on this some day.