Family of Brit teen who disappeared 38 years ago vow to 'never stop looking for him'

The family of a teenager who disappeared after a night out nearly 40 years ago have vowed to keep looking for him as his case remains unsolved.

Lee Boxell was just 15 in September 1988 when he went to meet a friend in south London, only to never return home, with his parents Peter and Christine reporting him missing just a few hours ago.

For months, they couldn't leave the house for more than a few hours at a time, worried that he would wander back through their front door, and to this day, they lie awake at night hoping for the same outcome.

Ahead of The Telegraph's Christmas Charity appeal for missing people, Peter shared an emotional letter with the newspaper, where he made it clear that he and his wife would 'never stop looking' for their son.

Lee and his father Peter (Missing People)

He wrote: "We recently got a portrait of you, drawn in charcoal, to hang on the wall of our sitting room. It’s new, but it feels like it was always meant to be there. The artist, Amy Florence Moseley, did it from a photograph of you as a teenager, and I’ll always be grateful to her. If you are still alive, Lee, you’ll now be 53, and I don’t know what you’ll look like, but the blurred lines and vagaries of this charcoal drawing allow me the freedom to imagine.

"It’s been more than 38 years since you went out with a friend in Cheam and didn’t come home to us. I tried my best to find you, Lee, and I’ve never stopped looking for you. I never will."

Detectives close to the case have suspected that Lee could have been murdered after witnessing a sexual assault at a local youth club, but a body has never been found, and his family are holding onto hope that he may still come back into their lives.

Peter helped to write 'I Miss You' which was performed by the Missing Person's Choir on Britain's Got Talent, which you can watch below:

In Peter's letter, he adds: "As night fell and Mum and I hadn’t heard from you, we contacted every friend and relative we could think of. It was so unlike you not to be in touch. After a few hours, we reported you missing to the police, but we still couldn’t really believe it. Then we sat together on the sofa in silence until dawn, with the front door left wide open in the hope that you might walk through it at any time.

"Those minutes have ticked into hours, days, years and decades.

"Since then, Mum and I have lain awake night after night, waiting for the sound of you coming home. At times, it feels like we are trapped in a nightmare. For months, we didn’t dare go out at the same time because we worried about leaving the house empty, just in case you came back. We bought an answerphone because we were petrified of missing a phone call that could alert us to some new information, and we didn’t lock the door at night, just in case you needed to get back in.

"I thought that a boy of 15 would be perfectly safe, Lee. I thought that a boy of 15 wouldn’t come to harm. Now I know that wasn’t the case."

You can donate to the Telegraph's Christmas Charity Appeal here.