HOW CAN SOMEONE JUST VANISH?

It’s been 25 years, but Sarah Nettles, 44, will never stop searching for her missing baby brother

- FRANCESCA WOODSTOCK, BENJAMIN HOWE

Wrapping my brother in my arms, I gave him a squeeze. ‘I’ll be home soon, maybe this weekend,’ I promised as I stuffed a £10 note in his coat pocket, enough to get him home. It was October 1996 and Damien, then 16, had been visiting me at university in Portsmouth but was now heading back to our family home on the Isle of Wight.

We’d had such fun, going for drinks and cooking together, and I loved introducing him to my friends - even if he was such a flirt!

But with half term over, it was time to get back to my studies, so as my baby brother boarded the ferry, I waved him on his way.

What I didn’t know then was that I’d never see him again.

I was three when Damien was born, and at first I was horrified by this pink and screaming bundle who had my parents Valerie, then 28, and Edward, 33, completely captivated.

But it wasn’t long before I discovered being a big sister wasn’t all bad – and in time, Damien and I became good friends.

Four years on, in 1984, our brother James was born, followed by our sister Melissa in 1987.

I loved being the eldest and I was fiercely protective of my siblings. Our dad’s work in international sales meant the family often moved between the UK and America, but us four siblings always had each other.

In 1989, when I was 12, we settled on the Isle of Wight, where Mum had grown up. The island was beautiful and we enjoyed blissful days as a family, eating ice cream on the beach and playing by the marshes.

Damien, then nine, and I both had American accents, so we sometimes stood out, but Damien quickly became popular.