UK UK - Damien Nettles, 16, Isle of Wight England, 2 Nov 1996

[Jackalyn]

I cannot find a thread for Damian. He went missing on the Isle of Wight in 2006. He was last sighted acting strangely in a fish and chip shop where he is so "out of it" that he has to point to what he is trying to order. Damian was 16 when he disappeared.

The BBC are running a programme called "The Boy who Disappeared." Two journalists are on the Isle of Wight investigating.


The first programme in the series is on BBC iplayer.

I don't know if that is available outside the UK.

Here is a link to the BBC information about the documentary.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-36834417

 

[jslk]

It does bother me a bit. Chris wasn't the last to see him but what if their last encounter didn't play out exactly as Chris claims?

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[jslk]

I've watched the whole doco now. It's all quite bleak really. Someone has some knowledge about what happened. After seeing Bunny Isles interviewed I'm no longer even certain of the drugs connection, ie that he was killed because of a fight or a debt. I read that they had looked into tide patterns which suggested that he'd have been washed up if he'd fallen into the sea. I just don't know what to think. I feel really sorry for his family and friends digging up the areas of woodlands in hopes of finding something 😢

Also - another suggestion is that the body was burned. If that's the case ... there isn't going to be much evidence to find. It's 20 years too late 😔

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[ekardh]

After watching the CCTV footage in the documentary that includes the sound from the chip shop, it really does seem like Damien was on some sort of hallucinogen. The way he looks at all the other people in the chip shop with a look of curious amusement and then when he comes to order, he's unable to form sentences. He just says something like 'one....erm, yeah one.' And it's not in a drunken kind of way..

Agreed. Definitely looks like he was on something that night. With the new information that's come to light from the documentary, I'm now leaning more towards an accident of some sort. If he was trippin' and was walking around the seafront, the most reasonable explanation is that he fell in and drowned. Bodies don't always wash up.

 

[skibaboo]

I watched the first 3 episodes last night, I think it's pretty clear he wasn't just drunk in the chippy, he was high on something for sure.

I have family on the IOW, Newport. We used to holiday on the IOW every year when I was a kid, stayed in Shanklin though.

 

[Atoz]

Agreed. Definitely looks like he was on something that night. With the new information that's come to light from the documentary, I'm now leaning more towards an accident of some sort. If he was trippin' and was walking around the seafront, the most reasonable explanation is that he fell in and drowned. Bodies don't always wash up.

I agree, it's certainly a possibility that he drowned in an accident. But, for me, there are too many niggling doubts to be confident of that theory. The main two:

a. Informant claiming that he died after being punched to "teach him a lesson".
b. The police losing the CCTV (possible) and then leaking confidential witness statements to a suspect in the case. Did the police or someone else have a vested interest in the truth not being discovered?

It just seems like for whatever reason, someone has a reason to muddy the water.

 

[jslk]

I think the damage control/management aspect of the investigation is troubling. Cowes is so high profile for sailing/festival... they couldn't let murder and drugs be the reason for Damien's disappearance.

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[ekardh]

I agree, it's certainly a possibility that he drowned in an accident. But, for me, there are too many niggling doubts to be confident of that theory. The main two:

a. Informant claiming that he died after being punched to "teach him a lesson".
b. The police losing the CCTV (possible) and then leaking confidential witness statements to a suspect in the case. Did the police or someone else have a vested interest in the truth not being discovered?

It just seems like for whatever reason, someone has a reason to muddy the water.

I certainly don't rule out foul play. He only had to bump into the wrong person while he was out, but altercations on a Saturday night rarely result in a missing person. Let's say Damien was punched and fell badly. More likely that the perpetrator would do a runner rather than try to ditch the body.

 

[jslk]

"Around 22:00, CCTV showed Damien walking into Yorkies chip shop, picking up a salt cellar, setting it down, then leaving.

By 22:30, Chris Boon was cold and wet and wanted to go home. He persuaded Damien to come with him. The boys walked out of town towards home parting company at the steps of Northwood Park.

Damien was picked up on the chip shop CCTV footage for the second time.

At 23:15 a witness says they saw Damien trying car door handles on a blue Ford Fiesta, in the car park of the Harbour Lights pub.

Damien was next spotted at a bus stop near the Co-op. He climbed on to the bus to speak to the driver, tried to take his photo and then got off again, thanking the driver.
Minutes later - at 11:59 and in the same location - another witness, a foster carer waiting to pick up a child off the bus, was in his car. He described Damien as: "A miserable figure, huddled eating chips."

This foster carer told police the person was approximately 6ft and fitted Damien's description, and was carrying a camera. He said the teenager walked towards him in his car, and that he "looked drugged, and seemed to bank heavily into the car".

The teenager said twice to him: "They are watching us."

After that, the boy wiped rain off his car window and walked off towards the Pier View public house, on the High Street.

Minutes later Damien was caught on street CCTV and then vanished."

From BBC: Damien Nettles: The boy who disappeared - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-36865349

1. When did Damien take the drugs? It seems to me there isn't enough time for him to leave CB, source and take drugs for him to have ended up in that state by 2245-2315. Unless he arranged previously with someone he met in a pub earlier?

2. The comments "they are watching us" - could definitely be due to the effects of intoxication but chilling nonetheless.

3. Under the drug deal/debt scenario I'm not sure how the timeline stacks up. So he sources and takes drugs... Wanders around town alone until 0006 and then meets someone/people when he comes to harm (albeit somehow doesn't get picked up on any further cctv).

4. This is making me lean more towards falling into the sea 😢


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[Atoz]

I was reading this timeline today, jslk. Just thinking aloud on the points you make above ^

1. A possible scenario: Drugs sourced by Damien and Chris at party and taken by both of them upon leaving the party. Chris starts having a bad trip and leaves Damien in town and heads to the safety of home.

What supports such a scenario for me is that Damien is displaying odd behaviour prior to them parting company. It's not normal to walk into a chip shop, handling a salt cellar and then leaving. Also, why wouldn't Chris have entered the shop with him on such a cold/wet night...perhaps if Chris was experiencing a certain amount of paranoia he wouldn't want to have gone in.

For me, this fits with Chris' odd and cagey behaviour in the documentary and him changing his story on the possibility of drugs being involved. They were just boys at the time, and Chris could well have withheld info about what drugs they had taken that night out of fear. He does admit later in the documentary that "trips" could have been involved.

Regarding your point number 3. I got the impression from the documentary that the drug debt was established prior to the night of the disappearance; that it was money he'd owed for a while and that it was for an 8th of weed.

This being the case, it's quite possible that he bumped into the dealer that night. Two witnesses have placed a dealer in the same place as Damien at the same time he was roaming around. One witness says he saw the dealer and he was obviously very hyped up on some sort of drug and was doing windmills in the street. Then another witness claims to have seen the same dealer holding a tall but young boy up against a wall in an aggressive way.

These witnesses may not be reliable though. Much of the information came out many years after the disappearance. However, I'm still veering more towards foul play than a fall into the sea. Suspects going around saying things like "no body no crime" to their friends and Macnamara displaying paranoid behaviour when people mention Damien to him in the following months/years, as well as calling a sudden halt to a house party when he discovered one of the guests was Damien's brother.

 

[Unscripted]

"The lost boy: cracking the mystery of Damien Nettles" (published 28 July, 2016 12:53 BST)
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-...st-boy-cracking-the-mystery-of-damien-nettles

Also, BBC Three has posted all eight episodes on their YouTube channel, available for everyone outside the UK:
[video=youtube;88-foX1zjfk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88-foX1zjfk&list=PL64ScZt2I7wEgGLbHcNCWvfHd9QPIV_cR[/video]

 

[UKgirl]

Just binge watched the series on BBC3, and after reading some of his mothers blog posts, the one person who sticks out in my mind is his friend Chris Boon, very shifty to begin with, and held information back at the start of the documentary.


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Yep, the continual touching of his face and ears, he isnt saying everything

 

[Jennibee]

How long is each episode?

TIA


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[samwilzrhcp]

15 to 20 minutes.


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[dotr]

Yep, the continual touching of his face and ears, he isnt saying everything

fwiw.
Talking with the women in Part 1, he fiddles with his left hand, ( to advertise wedding band?) but in Part 2, talking in bar with male," fiddles" with his face, ear, beard, with right hand.

imo. speculation

 

[Jennibee]

It was Boon's brother I found strange. It took him so long to get to the point of his answer.

JMO


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[Ddraigcoch]

For those in UK we have started a petition for extra funding for Hants police, please sign & share than you http://bit.ly/2bbfsFo

 

[Scottishem1]

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/164442

Please could everyone just take a few moments to sign this petition for Damien Nettles family to yelp them get the answers they deserve after all these years

 

[Mister_Black]

Hey all,

I'm a member of the Damien Nettles group over on Facebook and am a documentary film-maker. Been researching this case for quite some time now.

There is a hell of a lot more to this case than is included in the official timeline of events for that night, that you'll read online.

I think the general consensus, and also my personal opinion (from quite a lot of experience) is that Damien was not on drugs that night and in the CCTV footage. In the footage you can see that he's quite drunk, but not on drugs. Certainly not on LSD like someone mentioned here. That's not the behaviour of someone on LSD, further, and with the exception of marijuana, ordering and eating food is the last thing on your mind while under the influence of drugs. They are hunger suppressants. Alcohol on the other hand.....

Also, another point, there's too much evidence to indicate he went into the sea. It's generally accepted that he didn't go anywhere near the sea that night.

Finally the 5 individuals arrested in 2011 (it was actually 7), are different to those men in the chip shop. The men in the chip shop were all military.

Thanks everyone, nice to meet you all. Great community you have here.

 

[meanmaryjean]

Welcome to WS Mister_Black!:cheers::cheers::cheers: