Police have re-opened the curious case of Damien Nettles who vanished without trace in 1996 (From This is Hampshire)

Police have re-opened the curious case of Damien Nettles who vanished without trace in 1996

12:00pm Thursday 1st November 2007 in Search By Peter Law, Feature Writer

If you try to cast your mind back to November 2, 1996, it is likely you will be hard-pressed to remember where you were or what you were doing.

To refresh your memory, John Major was prime minister, US president Bill Clinton was about be elected for a second term and Graeme Souness was manager at Saints - who drew 1-1 at home to Sheffield Wednesday.

For one family on the Isle of Wight November 2 was the day that time stood still.

It was a wet and stormy Saturday night when Damien Nettles said goodbye to his mother and left for a party in East Cowes with a group of friends.

After separating from his mates at 10.30pm, he was seen walking alone along West Cowes High Street just after midnight - it would be the last confirmed sighting of the 16-year-old.

When his family awoke on Sunday morning to find his bedroom empty, panic set in.

Search party A search party was organised and posters were plastered across the Island, friends came and went, but soon weeks become months and still nothing.

Fast forward to 2007 and little has changed.

He would have turned 27 this year, an age when most of his friends will be getting married and having children of their own. Damien, however, hasn't aged and his smiling youthful face is featured on missing people and social networking websites across the world.

Now, on the eve of the 11th anniversary of the night he vanished, the Daily Echo can reveal what Damien may look like today as police announce they have reopened the mysterious case that has baffled detectives for more than a decade.

It's hoped a remarkable age progression photograph will jolt the memory of witnesses who may hold the missing clue of what happened that night or, on the chance he is still alive, perhaps someone has spotted him.

The computer generated image was made by a forensic artist from the charity Missing People and was created using photographs of Damien and family members.

Ultimately, the Nettles family want closure, one way or another. Speaking from their family home in Texas, in the United States, Damien's mother Valerie this week said she believes the answer still lies on the Island. She said: "I think somebody on the Isle of Wight was involved in why Damien went missing and how he went missing.

"Damien had no issues, no unhappiness, no disputes, no depression, no angst over his sexuality - there just is no reason and that's what makes it so bizarre, that he could go out in the Isle of Wight one night and disappear off the face of the Earth.

"If he had just fallen in the water, like a lot of people think, I'm pretty sure they would have found something.

"There was no way he could have gotten off the Island because the ferries had all stopped by the time he was seen walking up and down the High Street.

"We know that he was around until after midnight, we can document that much, but where did he go?

"I think he ran into someone and something happened to him. Either he was taken away or he was disposed of, I'm more inclined to think he was disposed of."

His family was forced to move to the US for work reasons in 2001 and his mother has almost accepted Damien isn't going to return home, but she is determined to seek answers - and justice.

"I don't think Damien is going to waltz home and now I want justice. I want to know what happened, I need to know, I need the closure because without finding anything we still think about everything that could have possibly gone on," she said.

"If we find his body or if we find his remains it's going to open up a whole new kettle of fish, but at least I will know where he is.