Drew Perham Drew Perham/Instagram
Drew Perham/Instagram
What started as a normal night out for 24-year-old Drew Perham ended in the kind of phone call every family dreads. Two days after he failed to come home, his loved ones were told that his body had been found and that detectives were treating his death as suspected murder. In a coastal city used to late nights and busy waterfronts, the news landed like a shockwave.
Friends had expected Drew to roll in tired and hungover, not vanish without a trace. Instead, his disappearance set off a frantic search around Plymouth and a cascade of updates from Police that would culminate in what his relatives described as “the most horrendous news” they could imagine.
The night out, the search, and a family’s worst call
Drew Perham headed into Plymouth for a night with friends, the kind of weekend ritual that plays out in every English port city. At some point after leaving the bars, he dropped off the radar, and by the time morning came, his family knew something was badly wrong. When he still had not appeared after two days, the missing-person worry had hardened into fear that something far darker had happened along the waterfront in Plymouth, England, where he lived and worked.
That fear was confirmed when officers told his relatives that a body had been found in the water at Millbay Marina and identified as the 24-year-old. Police quickly made clear they believed he had been killed, not simply lost to a tragic accident, and that they were treating the case as suspected murder. The family’s devastation, described as heartbreak and “the most horrendous news,” was echoed in local coverage that detailed how relatives and the wider Plymouth community had rallied during the search.
A marina death and a fast-moving murder inquiry
Once Drew’s body was recovered from Millbay Marina, Devon and Cornwall Police moved quickly to open a full murder investigation. Detectives said the 24-year-old had been found in the water on a Sunday, and that the circumstances around his final hours were now the focus of a major inquiry. The force confirmed that specialist teams were combing the marina and surrounding streets in Plymouth for clues, while officers traced Drew’s movements from the city’s nightlife district toward the waterfront where he was last believed to have been seen.
Within days, Devon and Cornwall Police announced that they had made multiple arrests linked to the case. Officers said they had detained several suspects as part of the murder inquiry after Drew was found dead in Millbay Marina, and later confirmed that a fourth person had been arrested as the investigation widened. The force described how one suspect remained in custody while detectives pieced together what had happened to Drew in the hours after he left the bars along the English Channel waterfront.
Teen suspects, a court appearance, and a community in shock
As the inquiry gathered pace, attention shifted from the marina to the courtroom. Police said two 19-year-olds had been arrested in connection with Drew’s death, both held on suspicion of murder while officers continued to gather evidence. That detail, that teenagers were suspected of involvement in the killing of a 24-year-old who had simply gone out for the night, added another layer of disbelief for locals following every update.
Not long after, a 19-year-old man appeared in court charged with murder, an early glimpse of the legal process that will eventually test the evidence gathered around the marina. Reporting from Devon noted that the hearing was one step in a longer path, with the case expected to move through further preliminary stages before any trial. Coverage by journalist Zhara Simpson in Devon highlighted how the appearance, held on a Wed morning in the PST time zone for international readers, underscored the seriousness of the allegations.
Police have also said that two people remain murder suspects and are in custody, stressing that the pair are being held while detectives continue to appeal for information. Officers revealed they were first called at 11:34 BST on 1 August, a precise timestamp that now anchors the official timeline of Drew’s final hours. Investigators have urged the public not to share speculation or unverified claims online, warning that doing so risks causing further distress or impeding the investigation as it moves toward trial.
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