UK UK - Damion Vernon, 32, Bridlington, 8 Dec 2014

Hi all. I've been following this case for over a year now, not sure why I didn't post it here sooner, I have a feeling Damion was not listed on MissingPeople for a while and there was little from the press, just lots being discussed in SM.

Damion left home in Bridlington apparently to go and buy a car in Sheffield. His car was found abandoned in Wakefield (which is not en route to Sheffield) and he hasn't been heard from since.

I think he texted his mum something which gave the family cause for concern (sadly she has since died, which prompted a huge surge of SM pleas for help finding him) and there were rumours of an unknown male being involved, and Damion being seen in an alley or something.

Last week a body was found in Ravensthorpe next to the river and canal, not far from where Damion was last seen. It had been there sometime and was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Personally I doubt Damion was wearing that in December, but his family have given DNA to be tested. His brother Aaron has been very vocal on the FB page and has slammed the police for not helping enough.

Anyway, here the missingpeople link: http://www.missingpeople.org.uk/help-us-find/damion-vernon-14-006631

And here's the FB page: https://www.facebook.com/Dvernonmissing/?fref=ts

And here's the latest news report: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-humber-35855992

OK, here are the facts as we know them:

• Damion Vernon, 32, has not been seen since leaving his home in Headlands Close, Bridlington, on December 8. He told his family he was travelling to Sheffield to buy a car.
  [*]
  [*]On the day he went missing, Mr Vernon met the owner of the car he was planning to buy in Bridlington.
  [*]
  [*]The owner of the car joined him on his planned 100-mile journey to Sheffield, where the vehicle was apparently located. Mr Vernon is believed to have taken £1,500 with him.
  [*]
  [*]Mr Vernon was driving his girlfriend's car, a Vauxhall Corsa, and took the A614 to Howden before joining the M62, heading west.
  [*]
  [*]But for reasons police have not been able to establish, the car was seen leaving the motorway at the exit for Wakefield at 4.27pm.
  [*]
  [*]After arriving in Sycamore Street in the city, Mr Vernon walked down an alleyway and has not been seen since.
  

This is the text he sent his mum: "You are the best and most close person in my life. You are on every beg and call for me and always stand by me and I just give you grief. Bless, you have been through a lot. Love you all so much. Sometimes I take it for granted. I don't do it on purpose. Love you more than ever. Love you more today than yesterday, but less than tomorrow. Always. *advertiser censored*"

Just coincidence he sent that text the day he went missing?

I should add at that at the beginning Damions family were vehement that someone was holding him, it all sounded a bit dodge, perhaps that's why I didn't make a thread at the time. You never know with SM whether these "help us find" pages are genuine.

http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/Haun...non-mum-8216/story-26066269-detail/story.html

I see there are several guests browsing the thread right now. Please, if any of you know more about the case than I do (I don't feel I've explained it very well, and there is not much media about it) please join up and help!

CoverMeCagney said:

I see there are several guests browsing the thread right now. Please, if any of you know more about the case than I do (I don't feel I've explained it very well, and there is not much media about it) please join up and help!

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I think that you're "spot on" with your explanation..

pappa rob said:

I think that you're "spot on" with your explanation..

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Cheers, Pappa Rob. I've been "into" the case on and off so some of the details are blurry.

The brother is very emotional and keeps threatening to pull the FB page. The family seem very anti-police and now very anti-media, the brother is not happy that the media have reported a possible link between Damion and the body found last week, yet he posted it first on the public "help find" page.

The unidentified body I referenced in the first post has turned out to be a Polish man.

The FB page I linked to is now "broken".

How frustrating the family are still at square one - where is Damion?!

I may have missed it in the links but I have not seen anything on this thread about possible drugs/underworld links as covered in http://www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk/news/local/family-s-vow-to-bring-home-damion-1-7327202

Two quotes really set the antennae twitching; his aunt says "we think it's something to do with a big drugs gang..." and his stepfather says "Damion may have been running away from something...".

The main question raised by these suggestions is what it would mean for the police investigation. Some might suggest an internal drug feud would make the police less likely to give it priority as they would see it as guilty parties all round. However, that would be unusual because a feud within a drug gang would be an opportunity for the police to target more than the return/finding of Damion. What the police would not do is give the family any information on the wider investigation, especially if they think any other family member may have links to the people being looked at. Not sure where this leaves things at this stage. Any original police interest has probably evaporated but, if the family are correct, then the best hope of finding what happened probably lies in exposing the others involved in the drug scene. Any names or ideas?

His own defence in a court case said this about him "He is capable of flaring up and doing all kinds of bizarre things without warning,"
http://www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk/news/local/motoring-ban-for-impulsive-adhd-patient-1-1729521

This story is just bizarre, his brother seems to have a temper.
http://www.driffieldtoday.co.uk/news/local/tribute-song-for-damion-ends-in-row-1-7067880

Police said the last contact by phone with him was in the Bridlington area, they haven't appeared to have confirmed where his last phone signal was from. Also if he really was going to buy a car there would be evidence by texts/email/browsing history.

alb1on said:

I may have missed it in the links but I have not seen anything on this thread about possible drugs/underworld links as covered in http://www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk/news/local/family-s-vow-to-bring-home-damion-1-7327202

Two quotes really set the antennae twitching; his aunt says "we think it's something to do with a big drugs gang..." and his stepfather says "Damion may have been running away from something...".

The main question raised by these suggestions is what it would mean for the police investigation. Some might suggest an internal drug feud would make the police less likely to give it priority as they would see it as guilty parties all round. However, that would be unusual because a feud within a drug gang would be an opportunity for the police to target more than the return/finding of Damion. What the police would not do is give the family any information on the wider investigation, especially if they think any other family member may have links to the people being looked at. Not sure where this leaves things at this stage. Any original police interest has probably evaporated but, if the family are correct, then the best hope of finding what happened probably lies in exposing the others involved in the drug scene. Any names or ideas?

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Interesting you should say that re the drugs / gang thing. When Damion first vanished I was following it all on FB. There was a dedicated page, but also the brother was quite voal on his own (public then but since not) page. It defo seemed that their initial fear was that somebody had taken Damion in revenge for something, lots of "please let him go" type messages. The police have not pushed the case much and faced a lot of criticism from the family, and this might be why.

There is a similar case down south - Christopher May, in Surrey I think alb1on? - and just the other day someone posted that he was involved in drug dealing too.

I am not sure whether an old story links him to some very unpleasant people. According to http://www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk/news/local/two-charged-with-animal-cruelty-1-1726412 he was charged with animal cruelty back in 2008. I assume from the wording of the story that he was charged with Katie Rose, although it is just possible (if unlikely) that it was separate unrelated offences. Assuming he was charged with Rose, she was jailed for 8 years in 2015 for manslaughter (the knifing of her then partner in a street fight in 2014). The stories also make it clear that she was an addict and associated with other violent individuals. If Vernon did move in these circles it is likely he would have good reason to be worried. http://www.bridlingtonfreepress.co.uk/news/local/revealed-details-of-tragic-death-1-7401491 provides details of the Rose killing case.

If Vernon was associated with the Rose group (or the others in this case) I wonder if this impending trial in early 2015 distracted them from looking more closely at the links. Of course, Vernon may not have been associated with Rose, or may have only been associated long ago. But this certainly raises some questions.

CoverMeCagney said:

There is a similar case down south - Christopher May, in Surrey I think alb1on? - and just the other day someone posted that he was involved in drug dealing too.

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It does seem similar. Interestingly the May case (from Essex) is being investigated as a murder but this was only discovered accidentally as the by product of a FOI request. The police had been treating it in public as a missing person case. Maybe this means that the public treatment of the Vernon case could be different to what is going on behind the scenes.

This chap is still missing, every 6 months or so I do a Google search on him, but nothing new pops up. I wonder what happened to him.

ETA: I WAS FOLLOWING THE CASE ON FB INITIALLY, BUT THE PAGE GOT PULLED.

My thoughts are Damion was going to pay back £1500 he owed to someone in Wakefield. This may or may have not have involved drugs but bearing in the mind the circles he apparently moved in I'd lean towards the former. I think whoever he owed the money to decided it was too late and he had to pay in another way or the meeting went south and he ended up being killed anyway. The car story was just that, a story to cover himself while he sorted out whatever it was he needed to do.

I think it's probably that Damion's body is concealed on a property not far from the alleyway where he went missing. I wonder if the police did much digging into local criminals/gangs in the area?

The bit I can't understand is the following (taken from Coverme's post up above) -

"[*]On the day he went missing, Mr Vernon met the owner of the car he was planning to buy in Bridlington.
[*]
[*]The owner of the car joined him on his planned 100-mile journey to Sheffield, where the vehicle was apparently located. Mr Vernon is believed to have taken £1,500 with him."

So does that mean the "seller of the car" was in the car with Damion? As that's the way it reads? If so then he/she must certainly know what happened to him.

I'm amazed the Police haven't figured this one out. I bet if you went to any pubs in that area and asked a few questions after a few drinks with the local yokels you'd be able to get the local rumour on it and in cases and close nit community these usually have some element of truth to them! Or would at least point you in the right direction...

Hey all.
I was just googling Damion to see if anything came up. I knew Damion, I lived in Bridlington and his parents knew my grandparents back in the day. We often saw each other in passing in our daily lives, school, work etc but I didn’t know him well enough to say I was friends with him. More ‘acquaintances’. He was a good friend of my cousins.
His family lived on a notorious estate in Brid, he and his brother were well known for always being in trouble.. he has a sister too. He did have involvement in drugs, I couldn’t say what exactly but I’m thinking cocaine, supply etc.
Damion was always very pleasant natured, confident, but also unpredictable and could lose his temper quite quickly.
The person in the car apparently told the police that Damion told him nothing, he just stopped the car, got out and never came back. Somewhere on the M62 he threw his mobile phone out the car window, again, no explanation. The police would never say who the lad was in the car, but they said they believed his story. I think he knows more obviously! Damion wasn’t the type of person to just disappear, I do know he adored his daughters. He had one aged 13 and then another newborn at the time he went missing.
I do not think there was any direct connection with Katie rose (a hideous, horrid waste of space and the mother of his eldest daughter) and his disappearance as he had long since moved on but brid is a small town, so who knows?
I do wish there was a conclusion, for his daughters if nothing else.

Welcome @Kittycat@ and thanks for finding us! I don’t live a million miles from where Damion went missing and I think of him every time a body is found in W Yorks.

You’ve said what many here believed to be the case, but it’s interesting the other person in the car hasn’t been mentioned much.

Remind me, was there ever an inquest?

Damion’s daughter made an appeal in December Renewed appeal to find man who 'vanished' in Wakefield seven years ago this week

See also Daughter's seven-year heartache after dad mysteriously vanished