Agony of missing man’s family

May 4 2008 by Katie Bodinger, Wales On Sunday

WHEN mum Catherine Nutley watched her son go off with his friends on a golfing trip, she never imagined it could be the last time she would see him.

But James Nutley, from Caldicot, Monmouthshire, has been missing since that fateful holiday to Tenby on October 24, 2004. His desperate family have been trapped in a nightmare, wondering what happened the evening the popular 25-year-old vanished without a trace.

Catherine still keeps his room exactly as he left it, in the hope that one day he’ll come home.

And the family has now been given fresh hope after the story was featured on the BBC programme Missing Live – leading to a number of calls from members of the public.

The programme comes as the Missing People charity said they were working to capacity and that more funding was needed to support the families left behind.

Happy-go-lucky and with everything to live for, Catherine and her husband Jeff, 62, a retired coach operator, still have no answers why their only son never returned home.

“I’ll never forget that the last day I saw him he didn’t say goodbye,” said Catherine, a bank worker. “He was so keen to get out of the door with his friends. That’s how he was, always busy, full of life.”

James went away with friends for their 14th annual golf trip, an event always eagerly awaited by the gang, who had known each other since school. A golfing fanatic, he had played since he was a teenager.

The group went out for drinks after checking into their hotel and James left the pub early, wanting to get a good night’s sleep for the next day’s game. In the last CCTV footage of him at 11.58pm, he can be seen just yards from his hotel. But he was never seen again.

Recalling the day she discovered he was missing, Catherine, also mum to Helen, 27, said she could not believe it when she was told. “We went to Tenby with photographs and searched everywhere,” she said.

“We walked the streets but we found out nothing. When we went home after a few days, we cried because we felt we were leaving him behind.”

Since then, the family have struggled to carry on with their lives while they anxiously wait for news.

“We have just got to get on with it,” said Catherine, 55.

“His room is just the same, ready for when he comes home. The thing that keeps me going is the thought that he is alive and well somewhere.”

She said Christmases and birthdays were always difficult, because the family was never complete. And the funeral of Jeff’s mother recently brought home the fact that James was not there with them.

“He would have been the sixth bearer,” she said.

“I’ve been to a couple of weddings of his friends and a few christenings. James would have been in the thick of it, but he hasn’t been here to see it.”

There are currently appeals out for nine missing people across Wales. Many have not been seen for years.

James’ parents have even been forced to endure the hardship of a man falsely claiming that he had murdered their son.

Richard George Fairbrass, 43, of Pembroke Dock, was jailed for perverting the course of justice after telling police that he had murdered a man in Tenby and dumped the body at Stack Rocks, Castlemartin, in 2004.

Missing People case worker Georgina Bream said the agony families of missing people faced was unimaginable.

“They go through a huge rollercoaster of emotions,” she said. “Unlike a bereavement, there isn’t any closure. It is always in the backs of their minds. They can never move on until that person is found.”

Georgina said she had worked on cases where people had turned up after years of being missing.

“We never give up hope,” she said. “It is never too late for them to pick up the phone and let their loved ones know they are safe.”

She said the service Missing People provided was in constant demand.

“There’s a huge need for our support service. At the moment, we can only offer advice over the phone because we are a fairly small organisation. We can only offer more services with more funding.”

Page 2 - Wales’ missing people