Unsolved: The Boy Who Disappeared (2016) s01e02 Episode Script
The Informant
Hello.
Hiya.
Are you here for Damien? Yes.
Do you want a candle? Here you are.
Thank you for coming.
That's all right.
He'll come home one day.
We'll bring him home.
Yeah.
I promise you that.
We're looking and we're getting closer and closer all the time.
Local councillor Lynn Hammond is organising a vigil on the anniversary of Damien Nettles' disappearance.
Can't believe it's 19 years.
I know.
Where's that time gone? Thank you all for coming.
We'll never give up, will we, Paula? We're not giving up.
We're not going anywhere.
We are investigating whether Damien's disappearance is linked to the Isle of Wight's drugs underworld.
Lynn's been on this for years.
You know, she's really dedicated herself to it and, you know, follows up people coming to her and giving information.
Hi, Lynn.
How are you? Poppy.
Pops, come in! Come on, Poppy.
Poppy's a healthy-looking pup.
THEY LAUGH Poppy's an overweight pup.
Poppy doesn't look like she misses a dinner.
No.
Thanks for this.
Things are a bit hectic for you? LYNN SIGHS Big-time? There was so many rumours surrounding Damien, how do you separate rumour from fact? Yes, Damien was probably dabbling in drugs.
There's no doubt about that.
Lynn has spoken to sources within the island's drug dealing scene.
Six years ago, one gave her a dramatic account of what happened to Damien.
All of a sudden, this boy started sobbing - or man now - started sobbing and when he was asked what was the matter, he said that he'd had, erm he'd been involved helping to bury Damien.
Used to live in that street when Damien disappeared.
Lynn's source has given her a location where she was told Damien died.
Damien was never meant to be killed.
He was meant to be taught a lesson and it went wrong.
I mean, this is the chalet they're supposed to have brought him to.
He went to a party there or he was brought there? He was brought there.
Alive or dead? Alive.
He was killed in there.
Well, apparently, Damien's head went back against the wall and Damien then slumped to the floor and he just choked on his own vomit.
Now, whether he was dead when they wrapped him in a rug and black plastic bags or whether he was just unconscious, I don't know.
One hell of a story and one of many unsubstantiated accounts that have surfaced over the years.
But when we trawled the thousands of e-mails passed to us by Damien's family, a core group of a dozen drug dealers crop up repeatedly.
There's so many rumours but the only one thing that we know is it does revolve around the same people time and time again.
They're in every rumour.
We need to establish links between Damien and those people to see if we can find potential motive.
If there is one.
We discover Lynn's source was very close to these dealers and used to inform on them to the police.
We try to track him down.
I'll have that bit.
THEY LAUGH So, what is the secret ingredient to stakeout, then? To staking out somebody? Where's the empty jar? I'll let you in on a secret.
What's that? Peanut butter.
And crackers.
And a spoon and when you're starving and you're sitting looking at someone's house and there's no way you can move for hours, peanut butter will always come through for you.
Hey, how are you? We are tired.
As it turns out, everybody on this island either isn't in, has moved house, doesn't want to talk to us or is in prison.
Cos we knocked on so many doors today.
Thoroughly demotivating.
Finally, we find the address of Lynn's source.
But getting an ex-police informant to talk won't be easy.
Why would somebody put their own life at risk in order to share that kind of information? If they slam the door in your face, that's fine, you leave your card, you leave your number and you tell them you'll see them again.
You might give it a couple of weeks, you might give it a couple of days and you might go back.
The source is nervous.
He agrees to meet me at another location.
It was hard work getting in the door.
He came at me straight away.
Straight out of the living room and straight at me.
And I thought, "Mmm.
" SHE LAUGHS For a second but he just stood there.
I'm just cross, just angry.
What was the fear? Just the fear of committing too much, of telling too much, of getting caught.
Of actually being identified for doing what they're doing.
They live in this community.
They know all of these people that we've heard time and time again connected to Damien.
They know.
The source leads me to a wooded area.
Careful cos there's a big drop to the right, OK? Just watch your footing.
Ermwe've been taken to the place where our source tells us that Damien's body has been potentially buried.
We've just been told down in off that path, Damien might have been buried.
So, this is the marker and Damien is potentially somewhere off to the right.
Look at the size of this place.
The source tells me this information came from someone close to the dealers involved.
How reliable is the person that has told you this? This wood is just huge.
It's too big.
There's no way that a family, never mind police, can find anything in here.
How did you get on? All right, Alys, all right.
The behaviour was "I'm determined to show you what I know.
"I'm determined to prove to you that I'm telling the truth.
" Because they so much wanted to prove they knew what they were talking about.
They knew what they were told.
Exactly.
Exactly, Alys.
And that's a thing I don't doubt, that that's what they may have been told.
Yeah.
But We can't test the veracity of what they're telling us.
They believe it 1000%.
We're one step closer.
But we're not there.
Good work.
Damien's body may well be somewhere in these woods.
The source says he's told the police everything.
But he's given us very little concrete information.
To understand why he's so nervous, I track down some local ex-cops, who worked the beat back in the '90s.
They know a lot of the names that we've been hearing in relation to Damien's disappearance and they're bad boys.
Bad boys mixed up in the drugs scene.
The level of criminality and the sort of the violence that these potential people we're looking at had was messy violence, like, they just took a bar and set about beating someone or they took them out onto the pavement and smashed their ankles.
You know, there was no consequence to them, they didn't care.
They've a rap sheet as long as their arm.
It was a rough town.
It was a rough town in that respect.
And it was very much the consequence of drugs.
We also discover our source was one of the top police informants in Hampshire.
I'm determined to get a lead out of him, something to work with.
Eventually, he agrees to another meet - off-camera, of course.
This time, we get our breakthrough.
They went straight to check if I was wearing a wire.
Literally, just laid their hands on me and started to feel my shirt and my top and in my jacket to see if I was wearing a wire and you've just got to stand there, you've got to ride it out, so you just stand there and let them do that.
So, then they started to talk.
I've been told that the reason that Damien was killed was for an eighth of an ounce of weed.
Damien owed money for an eighth.
What they tell me tonight is that it was a punch thrown in anger and it killed him and it was never meant to kill him.
The person who threw the punch was who? It was Nicky McNamara.
Nicky McNamara, they believe threw the punch that killed Damien.
Hiya.
Are you here for Damien? Yes.
Do you want a candle? Here you are.
Thank you for coming.
That's all right.
He'll come home one day.
We'll bring him home.
Yeah.
I promise you that.
We're looking and we're getting closer and closer all the time.
Local councillor Lynn Hammond is organising a vigil on the anniversary of Damien Nettles' disappearance.
Can't believe it's 19 years.
I know.
Where's that time gone? Thank you all for coming.
We'll never give up, will we, Paula? We're not giving up.
We're not going anywhere.
We are investigating whether Damien's disappearance is linked to the Isle of Wight's drugs underworld.
Lynn's been on this for years.
You know, she's really dedicated herself to it and, you know, follows up people coming to her and giving information.
Hi, Lynn.
How are you? Poppy.
Pops, come in! Come on, Poppy.
Poppy's a healthy-looking pup.
THEY LAUGH Poppy's an overweight pup.
Poppy doesn't look like she misses a dinner.
No.
Thanks for this.
Things are a bit hectic for you? LYNN SIGHS Big-time? There was so many rumours surrounding Damien, how do you separate rumour from fact? Yes, Damien was probably dabbling in drugs.
There's no doubt about that.
Lynn has spoken to sources within the island's drug dealing scene.
Six years ago, one gave her a dramatic account of what happened to Damien.
All of a sudden, this boy started sobbing - or man now - started sobbing and when he was asked what was the matter, he said that he'd had, erm he'd been involved helping to bury Damien.
Used to live in that street when Damien disappeared.
Lynn's source has given her a location where she was told Damien died.
Damien was never meant to be killed.
He was meant to be taught a lesson and it went wrong.
I mean, this is the chalet they're supposed to have brought him to.
He went to a party there or he was brought there? He was brought there.
Alive or dead? Alive.
He was killed in there.
Well, apparently, Damien's head went back against the wall and Damien then slumped to the floor and he just choked on his own vomit.
Now, whether he was dead when they wrapped him in a rug and black plastic bags or whether he was just unconscious, I don't know.
One hell of a story and one of many unsubstantiated accounts that have surfaced over the years.
But when we trawled the thousands of e-mails passed to us by Damien's family, a core group of a dozen drug dealers crop up repeatedly.
There's so many rumours but the only one thing that we know is it does revolve around the same people time and time again.
They're in every rumour.
We need to establish links between Damien and those people to see if we can find potential motive.
If there is one.
We discover Lynn's source was very close to these dealers and used to inform on them to the police.
We try to track him down.
I'll have that bit.
THEY LAUGH So, what is the secret ingredient to stakeout, then? To staking out somebody? Where's the empty jar? I'll let you in on a secret.
What's that? Peanut butter.
And crackers.
And a spoon and when you're starving and you're sitting looking at someone's house and there's no way you can move for hours, peanut butter will always come through for you.
Hey, how are you? We are tired.
As it turns out, everybody on this island either isn't in, has moved house, doesn't want to talk to us or is in prison.
Cos we knocked on so many doors today.
Thoroughly demotivating.
Finally, we find the address of Lynn's source.
But getting an ex-police informant to talk won't be easy.
Why would somebody put their own life at risk in order to share that kind of information? If they slam the door in your face, that's fine, you leave your card, you leave your number and you tell them you'll see them again.
You might give it a couple of weeks, you might give it a couple of days and you might go back.
The source is nervous.
He agrees to meet me at another location.
It was hard work getting in the door.
He came at me straight away.
Straight out of the living room and straight at me.
And I thought, "Mmm.
" SHE LAUGHS For a second but he just stood there.
I'm just cross, just angry.
What was the fear? Just the fear of committing too much, of telling too much, of getting caught.
Of actually being identified for doing what they're doing.
They live in this community.
They know all of these people that we've heard time and time again connected to Damien.
They know.
The source leads me to a wooded area.
Careful cos there's a big drop to the right, OK? Just watch your footing.
Ermwe've been taken to the place where our source tells us that Damien's body has been potentially buried.
We've just been told down in off that path, Damien might have been buried.
So, this is the marker and Damien is potentially somewhere off to the right.
Look at the size of this place.
The source tells me this information came from someone close to the dealers involved.
How reliable is the person that has told you this? This wood is just huge.
It's too big.
There's no way that a family, never mind police, can find anything in here.
How did you get on? All right, Alys, all right.
The behaviour was "I'm determined to show you what I know.
"I'm determined to prove to you that I'm telling the truth.
" Because they so much wanted to prove they knew what they were talking about.
They knew what they were told.
Exactly.
Exactly, Alys.
And that's a thing I don't doubt, that that's what they may have been told.
Yeah.
But We can't test the veracity of what they're telling us.
They believe it 1000%.
We're one step closer.
But we're not there.
Good work.
Damien's body may well be somewhere in these woods.
The source says he's told the police everything.
But he's given us very little concrete information.
To understand why he's so nervous, I track down some local ex-cops, who worked the beat back in the '90s.
They know a lot of the names that we've been hearing in relation to Damien's disappearance and they're bad boys.
Bad boys mixed up in the drugs scene.
The level of criminality and the sort of the violence that these potential people we're looking at had was messy violence, like, they just took a bar and set about beating someone or they took them out onto the pavement and smashed their ankles.
You know, there was no consequence to them, they didn't care.
They've a rap sheet as long as their arm.
It was a rough town.
It was a rough town in that respect.
And it was very much the consequence of drugs.
We also discover our source was one of the top police informants in Hampshire.
I'm determined to get a lead out of him, something to work with.
Eventually, he agrees to another meet - off-camera, of course.
This time, we get our breakthrough.
They went straight to check if I was wearing a wire.
Literally, just laid their hands on me and started to feel my shirt and my top and in my jacket to see if I was wearing a wire and you've just got to stand there, you've got to ride it out, so you just stand there and let them do that.
So, then they started to talk.
I've been told that the reason that Damien was killed was for an eighth of an ounce of weed.
Damien owed money for an eighth.
What they tell me tonight is that it was a punch thrown in anger and it killed him and it was never meant to kill him.
The person who threw the punch was who? It was Nicky McNamara.
Nicky McNamara, they believe threw the punch that killed Damien.