Where is James Nutley - Missing for nearly 20 years?

On the 24th of October 2004, James Nutley vanished whilst on holiday in Tenby, West Wales. To this date, he remains missing and the nature of his disappearance is still a mystery.
 
James' family have repeatedly praised the Missing Person charity for the work they've done in helping them navigate his disappearance. His profile, with Missing Persons, can be found here.

All sources used in this episode can be found at the bottom of the shownotes.

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Sources
https://www.missingpeople.org.uk/help-us-find/james-nutley-04-007533
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-66057032
https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/channel-5-vanished-james-nutley-31503405
https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/our-son-seen-just-metres-27231279
https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/23612553.missing-caldicot-man-james-nutley-new-podcast-series/
https://pembrokeshire-herald.com/83292/caldicot-family-still-have-hopes-to-find-missing-son-james-nutley-19-years-on/
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/family-man-missing-20-years-30367210
https://www.westerntelegraph.co.uk/news/23612646.james-nutley-caldicot-missing-tenby-focus-new-podcast/
https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2023-07-04/we-want-closure-parents-not-giving-up-almost-20-years-since-son-vanished

Transcript

On the 24th of October 2004, at sometime between 5 and 5.30pm, James Nutley arrived at his hotel in the seaside resort of Tenby, West Wales. Part of a large group that included 17 others, they were visiting the area as part of a golfing holiday. A few short hours after their arrival, 25-year-old James Nutley vanished, leaving a trail of questions that have never been answered.

An avid golfer, it’s fair to assume that James had likely been in good spirits on the evening of the 24th of October. The group of 18 were quick to leave their hotel, heading to Tenby’s pubs shortly after arriving. It’s since been reported that they visited several pubs within Tenby town centre, venues that included The Lifeboat Inn on Tudor Square and The Three Mariners. They eventually ended their evening in The Prince of Wales on Upper Frog Street and it’s the final location where James is known to have been. He left the establishment at around 11.40pm, the short walk to his hotel fairly well documented by CCTV. At 11.57pm, James is captured on CCTV crossing a road in the general direction of the hotel where the group were staying.

For those unfamiliar with the area, Tenby is built in much the same way as other well-established British seaside resorts, with many of the town’s hotels built directly opposite one if it's two main beaches. The hotel where James and his friends were staying, was built across from Tenby’s South beach. A high, fenced wall, separating the road from the beach which is situated a fair distance below it. The CCTV captured at 11.57pm was taken from cameras on the Giltar hotel, a location that places James on that seafront. In an interview with Wales Online, James’ mum stated that James is placed just 30 paces from his hotel door. Yet, for reasons that have never been uncovered, James never arrives. 

The evening on which James vanished was said to have been a windy one, with stormy gale-force winds having been recorded. A factor that has now become unavoidable in discussions over James' disappearance, with police believing that it could have been pivotal. 

As someone who has spent countless weekends in the Pembrokeshire area, I have some knowledge of Tenby, but also with the weather conditions that tend to be typical for the season. My family have had a caravan in Pembrokeshire for many years and typically it closes in early November. The reason for this being the weather, as Pembrokeshire, and Wales in general, is known to have particularly cold and wet winters. 

It wasn’t until the following day, that James’ friends realised that he was missing, concluding that he had never returned to his hotel. The group of friends suspected that something was wrong from the beginning and placed a call to the police to alert them about their concerns. Later that evening - the PM of the 25th of October – children playing on Tenby’s South Beach stumbled upon a few curious items.  The exact location of the discovery is interesting, as the items were located just below the Clarence Hotel on The Esplanade, not far from James' last known location.

The items, which were verified as having belonged to James, included his driving licence, national insurance card, Euro golf card and Paddy Power bookmaker’s card. Curiously, while the items were found on the beach, there was no evidence that they had been ‘washed up’. On the contrary, it's since been reported that they appeared to have never even entered the water.

The police’s first port of call was the water, with the adverse weather conditions on the night he vanished playing a huge role in the development of their theory. It was where they focussed their attention, with detailed searches being conducted on various areas and buildings along the coast. During these searches, police utilised numerous tools that were available to them, with helicopters, heat-seeking cameras, abseilers and the coastguard being brought in to help. These searches failed to locate James and nothing to suggest his whereabouts was ever located.

On the 1st of November 2004, a week after James was last seen, the police ended their official search for the missing man. The only evidence of James that have ever been uncovered, were the items that had been found on the beach.

At the time of writing this chapter (February 2023), those items found on the beach remain the only physical discovery in the case of James Nutley. In the years since he vanished, several prominent theories have emerged, all of which remain nothing more than speculation.

An accident

From the beginning of the investigation, the police had one dominate theory - that James had accidentally fallen into the water. In the years since he vanished, this pinpointed focus that has been heavily criticised, with James’ family believing that it was focused on to the detriment of all else.

The family have since revealed that the police were slow to show them the CCTV footage of James on the night he vanished, and they believe that it was because of the blinkered focus. As far as the police were concerned, this was a recovery operation and for the time being at least, it wasn't a case that required investigation. 

 In an article for Wales Online, James' dad Jeff told the media outlet that: 'They took it that he was in the water. That anything that goes missing in a force eight gale had landed in the water. They assumed that was what was happened.' 

Based on where James was last seen, the discovery of his belongings and the weather on that evening, there was some credence to the assumption that something tragic had happened. The area in which James was last witnessed is directly across the road from the beach. There's a high cliff between the beach and the pavement, with nothing but a metal fence lining it. A few drinks in with a powerful wind blowing all around you, perhaps James was blown into a situation from which there was no escape. 

The other explanation is that James made his own way down to the seafront, as many thousands of people have done before him. It's not unheard of for people to end up in the water after a few drinks, perhaps James made a bad decision. The latter of these perhaps explaining the later discovery of his belongings.

The police assumed that James’ body would eventually be discovered, with their research suggesting that his body would wash up within the first six weeks that followed his disappearance. Since then, several bodies have been washed up to shore, James has never been one of them. 

According to James’ parents, they’ve received numerous calls in the years since he vanished, with every discovery of human remains being reported to them. In recent years, his parents have disclosed how traumatic this constant communication has been, especially when it seemed obvious that the discovery was in no way connected to their missing son. 

On one occasion they were alerted when a women’s body was discovered, and the same thing happened when a size 9 shoe was discovered. The first was obviously not going to be their son, while the second was an entirely different shoe size. To play devil’s advocate, I can only assume that police had the best of intentions, and that they were doing this to ensure that James’ parents heard it from them first. 

It’s worth noting that while the accident theory does feel the most plausible, there are flaws with this suggestion. The primary concern is the fact that James’ remains have never been discovered, something that is considered rare for this body of water. 

 There's also the fact that were other people spotted on CCTV around the area where James was last witnessed. None of whom have ever come forward to suggest that they might have witnessed James entering the water. However, this is a criticism that can be applied to any of the various theories that present themselves in this case. The people spotted on CCTV didn’t witness James entering the water – or drowning, but neither did they notice any kind of foul play either. The CCTV that has been located also seems to suggest that James was walking towards the hotel and not towards the seafront, which was on the opposite side of the road. In 2014, Jeff Nutley told the Western Telegraph that: 'The CCTV shows him stepping off the pavement right across from his hotel. The sea was behind him’. 

Lastly, there’s also evidence from the initial searches that that James didn’t enter the water that evening. According to Mr and Mrs Nutley, the police used sniffer dogs in their initial investigation and these dogs led investigators to a few gardens that ran along the seafront. However, the dogs did not follow James’ scene to the actual beach itself. 

Foul play

Most of those reported missing are discovered within the first 48 hours and most have a simple explanation. For those cases that do end in tragedy, often the perpetrator is known the victim. However, as we are all too aware, there are instances where there is an exception to the rule and for those close to James Nutley, the fear is that his case might fall into this category.

At the time of writing this chapter, James Nutley is still missing and where there are no answers, speculation tends to fill the void. There is no evidence that James Nutley was the victim of a crime, but there's no evidence to the contrary either. As referenced earlier, it has been reported that the CCTV footage which shows James, also shows several other people within the same area. In fact, it's suggested that as many as six people are visible within 15 metres of James himself. As far as we know, none of these people saw anything, but maybe one did something?

 In the years since he disappeared and with no sign of his body having ever been in the water, foul play has often been a topic of discussion. 

In around 2005, there appeared to be confirmation of everyone’s worst fears. A man named Richard Fairbrass confessed to having been involved in the murder of James Nutley. He claimed that he had murdered James, before disposing of his body off Stack Rocks. Police were sceptical of his story because some aspects of it didn’t make any sense. 

The lead was investigated fully, but in the end, there was no evidence to corroborate that Fairbrass had been involved in the disappearance of James. In 2006, Fiarbass was convicted for having attempted to pervert the cause of justice and was ultimately sentenced to 27 months in prison for his false confession. The reason for his attempted involvement in this case remains unclear and if the police are aware, they’ve certainly never made it public.  

James vanished on purpose 

The third and final theory is another that tends to be repeated in missing person cases- that is that James may vanished of his own occurred. Perhaps intentionally staging the scene to appear as if it had been some tragic accident.

It's always worth remembering that disappearing without a trace is remarkably harder to do than the entertainment outlets would have us believe. And its certainty harder to do now than it ever has before, with so many moving parts constantly tracking our whereabouts. James disappeared in 2004 and while technology has developed ten-fold between then and now, it still would have been fairly impossible. After all, we’ve already discussed the fact that James was captured on several CCTV cameras. What were the chances of him having evaded CCTV ever since?

As with every other theory in this case, there are glaring issues that make the prospect of James having disappeared of his own accord incredibly unlikely. 

In the years since James vanished, he has never been spotted by anyone who knows him, nor has he been spotted by anyone who knows about his story. While there has been very little national coverage of his disappearance, there are occasional stories that tend to pop up around significant dates. 

It’s actually worth mentioning here that this lack of national is a further criticism that the parents make of Dyfed-Powys police. They allege that in the days after James disappeared, they were advised not to speak with the media, even though there was some interest in his story. While they did chose to speak to a local outlet, they refrained from speaking to the larger, national publications and they’re left to wonder if this hindered their appeals for information. The BBC being just one example of an opportunity that was missed out on at the time.

It's worth remembering that Tenby - and in fact the wider Pembrokeshire area - is a tourist hotspot and each year it welcomes thousands of visitors. While October is definitely on the later end of the tourist season, Tenby will have still been host to numerous tourists who were on holiday. 

There's also a ferry port nearby in Fishgaurd, with regular vessels moving between there and Ireland. Some of these vessels depart late at night or during the early hours, and it’s possible that some people who were in the area on the night James had vanished were already gone by the following morning. These potential witnesses may have not even been aware of the fact that there was a missing person, perhaps that information was lost forever. A national media campaign might have surpassed borders, leading to leads from people who had already left the area. At the time that James vanished, social media wasn’t the powerful tool that it is now, but traditional media still held power.  

It was a concern that Jeff Nutley had highlighted to the South Wales Argus in 2018, admitting that he now believes that their lack of engagement hindered information gathering in his son's case. Telling them that: 'Hardly anyone knows James is missing. I believe if we had spoken to the press, we might have got further forward. We have tried to keep it in the public eye and Missing People have done this for us.'

Going back to the final theory in James’ case, the suggestion that he left his own, there is nothing to suggest that James IS still alive. In fact, everything seems to suggest the contrary. For one thing, there’s the fact that he has never used his national’ insurance number and has never accessed his bank account. Both of which are essential for life and employment in the 2020s. 

If James Nutley did vanish of his own choosing, he’s somehow managed to do the impossible, because to all intends and purposes, James has vanished without a trace.

To this day, James’ parents are reluctant to criticise the police’s initial investigation, admiring that while mistakes were made, they do feel that police did the best that they could at the time. However, their raise valid concerns over the fixation on one theory and over the flawed communication advice. 

It has now been almost 20 years since James Nutley vanished, the family are still without answers and there has been little development in his case in recent years. And yet, his family continue to search for answers. Each year – and on James birthday – the family return to Tenby, hoping against all odds that someone will remember something. 

In 2005, James Nutley was one of the first British missing persons to feature as part of the Missing Persons milk bottle campaign. In a bid to replicate the iconic, missing children on milk bottles action in America, branded bottles were sold in Iceland stores across the country. Unfortunately, nothing came of this campaign. 

The police have confirmed that the disappearance of James Nutley is an open but inactive case. It is not currently being investigated by the police, and it will only be so if there is anything new for them to investigate. 

At the time he disappeared, James Nutley was 6ft2” tall, with dark hair, and was wearing a white top with blue sleeves and a pair of jeans. Anyone who has information about his disappearance are urged to contact Dyfed-Powys police or to contact the Missing Persons charity, using the reference 116000.