Disappearance of Damien Nettles

Damien Richard Nettles, born 21 June 1980, disappeared from Cowes, Isle of Wight, on 2 November 1996 at the age of 16. He was last seen on CCTV walking alone along the High Street just after midnight, eating chips he had bought from a fish and chip shop. Nothing has been seen of him since that night.

On the evening of his disappearance, Nettles attended a party in East Cowes with his friend Chris Boon, having been driven there by his father. After leaving the party, the pair travelled back to West Cowes by ferry, attempted unsuccessfully to enter pubs, and parted ways at Northwood Park. Nettles then returned to the High Street, bought chips, and was seen by several witnesses over the following hour, including an incident in which he appeared to try to open the doors of a parked car and an encounter on a bus in which he reportedly attempted to photograph the driver with a camera that has never been recovered. A witness also described a brief, disjointed encounter with a person matching his description near a supermarket bus stop.

Witnesses who saw Nettles that night described him as appearing heavily intoxicated and possibly confused. Allegations were made, including by a former girlfriend, that Nettles may have had involvement with drugs, though this was not confirmed. CCTV footage from the High Street that might have shown his final movements was later reported lost by police, a failure that has been a significant point of criticism in the handling of the case, along with the loss of the night's call log and duty records, and the initial classification of Nettles as a missing adult rather than a missing child.

The investigation has remained open for decades. As of 2011, eight people had been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder or murder in connection with the case; all were released without charge. Arrests included five men detained in May 2011, a further man in July 2011, and a man and a woman detained in November 2011 following a search of a property in Gurnard. A £20,000 reward offered by Hampshire Constabulary in 2013 produced further information but no resolution, and the family's request to extend the reward was declined.

An informant later told Nettles's mother, Valerie, that a local drug dealer had fatally struck Nettles during an argument and that his body had been concealed and later buried; police investigated but concluded the informant could not be trusted. The named individual in these rumours died in 2002. Public campaigns pushed for searches of Parkhurst Forest and Gurnard, which police declined to carry out. Nettles's mother has published a book about the case and rejected theories that he fell into the sea, believing instead that he was harmed by people involved in drug dealing. The case was also referenced in 2024 media coverage comparing it to other unresolved disappearance cases. No one has been charged, and Damien Nettles's whereabouts remain unknown.