TODAY marks 25 years since Cowes teenager Damien Nettles disappeared — tragically never to be seen again.
The mysterious and unsolved disappearance of Damien, who vanished at the age of 16, has played on the minds of Islanders ever since.
CCTV video footage at the time showed the 16-year-old at Yorkie's chip shop — which used to be on Cowes High Street.
He did not make it home and has never been found.
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Sadly, Damien's family had to endure the case being listed as a cold case in 2018. Despite theories, arrests and searches, no trace of the teenager has ever been found.
Damien's mother Valerie Nettles told the heartbreaking true story of every mother's worst nightmare in a book in 2019.
The Boy Who Disappeared tells of the trauma Valerie and her family have lived through every day since Damien disappeared in Cowes on November 2, 1996.
Valerie told the County Press at the time of publication that she feared Damien's story had slipped into urban myth, but said she would never give up trying to find out the truth about what happened.
"We are not giving up on Damien at all until there is some sort of finality, even if it is a bag of remains to identify," she said.
The anonymous Crimestoppers number remains an open door for anyone who knows anything — just phone 0800 555 111.
Valerie, husband Ed and their other children, James, Sarah and Melissa, moved to Texas 20 years ago.
It was a wrench for Valerie to leave the Island, but her husband found work in the US and the children settled there, with children of their own.
International missing persons organisation Locate has a file on Damien and will welcome any information.
Damien's sisters set up International Siblings of the Missing. Find it on Facebook or on Twitter at @SiblingsMissing and on Instagram.
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