A mum's worst nightmare came true after her son never came home from a Christmas party. Phillip Fudge has been missing for over two decades with his family still continuing the search for him, reports the Liverpool Echo.
Philip disappeared back in 1995 whilst travelling from Hull to Liverpool for a Christmas party at a Royal Navy Base. The 21-year-old was due to return home the next morning but never did.
Since her son's disappearance, Nadine spent 24 years of her life dedicated to searching for her son until she died in 2019. Following her passing, Philip's sister, Linda, has taken the torch and alongside his family is continuing the search.
Speaking to The Missing podcast, the sister described the home life the pair had alongside their other siblings. She says her mother was particularly protective of her children due to the fact that Philip's older brother, Darren, and his younger sister, Joanne, both having the condition hydrocephalus.
Hydrocephalus is a build-up of fluid in the brain, with the excess fluid putting pressure on the brain, which can damage it. Despite these adversities, she said the four siblings grew up in a 'happy household'.
Linda says Philip was always ''incredibly caring" of his brother, Darren, who had wanted to do all the things that Philip did. She said: "Because Philip was able-bodied and Darren wasn't, the care and the attention that Philip used to give him, to sort of take part in the things that he did, was just incredible"
"He would play with him, the toys, toy soldiers and football." The sister recalled the last time she spoke to her sibling prior to his disappearance and asked what he wanted for Christmas.
Linda said: "I don't remember the last time I saw him, I remember the last time I spoke to him.
"I used to go down to my mum's on a Tuesday evening and I'd spoken to Philip, because me and my mother were going to the shopping centre Meadowhall on the Monday to do some Christmas shopping and I'd asked him what he wanted for Christmas.
"It was decided I was just going to buy him a nice shirt to go out in, and just the usual conversation of 'go careful I'll speak to you soon' and that was the last conversation I had with him. So, that was Tuesday, he went missing on Saturday."
The family's world was then turned upside down when the two friends that Phillip had been away with to the HMS Eaglet party phoned Nadine. They queried if the mother had heard anything from him as they had not seen him, despite the trio planning to spend the night at a friend's house.
Linda said: "I'd got a phone call from my mother just to say that Philip hadn't arrived home after his night out in Liverpool and the people who he was with didn't know where he was and the alarm bells started ringing.
"He would have been back on Sunday because, one thing I do remember, is he was meant to be driving over to the continent on Monday. The people who were also staying in the house didn't know where he was and, again, no mobile phones so there was no way of tracking anybody down or making calls."
"He wouldn't have just walked off and not let anybody know where he was, as much as I said to my mum, 'don't worry I'm sure everything will be okay', it wasn't Philip, it just wasn't him to do something like that."
Later that morning, Linda and Nadine reported Philip missing to the police. Following their call, Merseyside Police launched an investigation and one of the first things that they did was examine Philip's car, which had been left in Liverpool.
Police then quickly turned their attention to the party that he had attended at HMS Eaglet. A security guard at the base said that they had seen the 21-year-old getting into a taxi and leaving the base, along with two girls and a boy.
However, as CCTV was switched off elsewhere on the base, there was no further information about where the taxi could have gone. At one point, police considered that Philip could have been drunk and fallen into the docks.
They swept the docks and coast, eventually turning up a body, but it was not Philip's. As with many missing people's cases, the idea that Philip had taken his own life was also considered - but Nadine and Linda threw this theory out immediately.
Linda said: "He didn't suffer with mood swings, he was just a joyous, full-of-life, happy person who had his whole life ahead of him. He was 21, he was doing what all 21-year-olds do, he was just enjoying life and he wasn't off the rails or somebody who would cause trouble anywhere, he was just genuinely a nice person who cared about people.
"He cared about his elder brother and younger sisters and cared about his family. The only time Philip was really distressed was when my parents separated, but he handled it as we all did."
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