The Lounge

EDIT: Chris went missing September 3rd 2007, here is a link to his web site, please let everyone you know know about this. Thank you.

www.FindChris.org

I'm crying as I'm typing, so please overlook all typos...I'm really not all here.

Our son, who turned 18 last month, has been missing now for 76 hours. He went to work Monday, left work and no one has heard from him nor seen him since. He wasn't having any problems with us, Sunday we all were together and had a great time. He wasn't having any problems with his girlfriend. He did have a bad day at work and we are guessing he went off on a drive too cool down, but we really don't know. He didn't say anything to anybody about where he was going. He was in a hurry to get to work that day and left his wallet home. So he has no money on him nor any access to money. We were able to get into his bank account today and there hasn't been any unusual activity in the last month. We have called everyone he knows and no one knows anything. His girlfriend has called everyone she can think of too.

This is so out of character for him. He has never done anything like this before.

The police are involved and doing all they can. Two different aerial searches were done today and tomorrow there is a ground search going on with volunteers and the police department. He has been listed as a missing person in all 50 states along with a description of his blazer. The police department made up fliers for us to put around town. The top of it says "Missing Person, Suspicious Circumstances".

This is so unreal. This is something that happens on TV, not in real life. The roller coaster of emotions is beyond imagination. The possibilities of what has happened to him and where he might be are endless. To the East of us is a canyon, to the West is desert hills. He could be anywhere. Not knowing anything is the worst.

My husband and our other children are hitting their limits too. Our home is crazy is an understatement. We have had lots of friends and family offer love and support. Meals have been brought in for three days. Our phones are ringing off the hook with well wishers and everyone wondering what they can do.

I'm sorry for going on and on, I just want to cover all the bases, but I'm sure I've missed some things.

Prayers are definitely welcome.

Mostly I'm still in shock. I'm not sure I'll be back on the site for a while. I will post as soon as we know anything.

Please everyone take care, and go hug your kids...

EDIT: Here is a link to the news paper artical.

http://www.thespectrum.com/apps/pbcs.dll/arti cle?AID=/20070907/NEWS01/709070304

I tried uploading the flier but it didn't happen, I'm not sure why.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. It does help to know that people care.

EDIT: I took a picture of the flier and added it to my pictures

EDIT: Here is a link to the web site  http://www.findchris.org/

I again don't have much to say. It's weird, we are starting to accept this as our new "normal". I'm still mostly in a fog, going through the motions of life trying to figure out what to do next. It's amazing how much is left up to the family to do.

I never knew how distorted TV shows were about things like this. Cases don't get solved in 60 minutes, subpoenas don't get signed on the spot, businesses don't just hand over information, and families don't just sit home and wait for the police to call. There is so much to do, plan events, order T-shirts, keep the media entertained, and still go on with real life.

We do have a lot of people helping us. A lot of friends and family have done and are doing so much that it's really taken a lot of the burden off of Dave and me. The other kids are holding up pretty well, which is helpful. They are still all doing their normal activities, and the routine is good for all of us.

Hopefully soon we will hear something. I'll keep you all posted, unfortunately there isn't much to post...

Thanks again for everything.

~Shannon

Dear Shannon,

Saddens me to see that this must be your new normal for now. I remember when things changed in my family and it was hard getting used to the new normal. I understand how hard that can be. as allways my prayers are with you . We lift you up to Him. Only He has the answers and the comfort that we need during a time like this. God Bless

Bug in ALaska.

Yesterday, I went to pick up my son from school.  After about 10 minutes, he still wasn't out, so I called his cell phone, he didn't answer.  I waited a little more, but now I was getting worried so I called again, still no answer.  I kept thinking of you and what you must be going thru.  I went back and forth from this is probably nothing to worry about, we'll find him, to what if we don't?  I called the school and they sent out what they called an 'all points bulletin'.  A few minutes later, he came out. Oh thank God! 

I pray that you will have an oppotunity soon to cry out 'oh thank God' too!  My heart breaks for you.

Shannon - my heart just aches that this is your "new normal".  I check this thread each day hoping and praying.

You, your entire family and, of course, Chris, remain in my daily prayers.

(((((((HUGS)))))))))

Hi there - I decided to google Chris's name and read A LOT of things about him, most of which I already knew from this forum.  I LOVE that his name is out there...lots of strangers, including us, really do care.

I read that the police are trying to follow leads and I keep coming back to the "208" they think he might have written on a piece of paper.  I keep reading that they're focusing a lot of attention towards Idaho because that's the area code up there.  This may sound really obvious, and I'm sure the police are looking into everything but, I just have to put it out there just in case.  I know 208 is also the first three numbers in a lot of the state's phone numbers.  It doesn't necessarily mean an Idaho number.  Also, have they checked all the local addresses in the area that have a 208 in them?

Also, I read (might have been here) that he possibly has ties to Orange County.  If that's Orange County, CA - can you give more details?  I live here in OC and I'll do anything I can to help!  My eyes are always looking for the truck.

I know it may seem far-fetched but everyone should write down the phone number for the Enoch, UT police dept. and keep it with them...just in case.  It's 435-586-9445

My thoughts are with you and yours!

This seems far fetched but I have witnessed this personally.  Have there been any music festivals he has been talking about?  In Missouri we have a weekend camping and music festival called Schwagstock (headlining The Schwag a Dead cover band).  I have known about ten people who have gone missing either during the weekend festival or on Sunday morning after the festival was over.  These people always turned up a few months later.  And those were just people I was friends with.  There are plenty of people who take off.  It happens.  People go to these festivals (or even like a String Cheese show when they are on tour), they meet their ?kindred spirit? and take off on a road trip to other shows or follow the band on tour.  You don?t really need money or any of your belongings to do this.  It seems far fetched, but I personally know that it happens.  It doesn?t hurt to ask his friends or girlfriend if he?s been talking about wanting to go to a festival or concert.

Hi Saphyre -
That was me that mentioned that Chris may have ties in Orange County.  I don't know this for sure - this is just information I gleaned from the comments he had left for friends on MySpace back in July.  Just guessing, but I think his mom lives in Riverside CA.  One of his brother lives in Oregon.  I emailed a local public access show in Los Angeles and said "ties in Orange County" to get the host's attention.   Chris mentions going to the beach, which is typically one in Orange County when you're coming from Riverside.  I do know he went to Venice Beach in Los Angeles though because he mentions that in one of his comments.

I forwarded the missing poster to my friends in San Bernardino County, and I used Chris' disappearance to teach a few spatial concepts in a lecture I taught a few weeks ago, so several undergrads at UCSB know about it.  I'll be giving that lecture again on October 11th in another large lecture hall to about 100 undergrads. 

Every little thing we can do is helpful.  It just takes one person to see his car.

Shannon,

Like everyone else here, I check the thread daily hoping for positive news.  You and your family are in my thoughts and prayers. 

Saphyre,

That is EXACTLY what I thought when I heard the 208... couldn't that be an address or something.....  I would lean more toward that than a phone #.  If you are going to write a phone # you wouldn't just right and area code would you?  But you might for an address.

Pixyz -  I thought Shannon lives in Utah? She might live here in Riverside?  I am so frustrated...I just wish there was something I could DO!  My daughter just started as a freshman at UCSB.  I'm going to talk to her about it too.

Shannon - if you read this and he does have connections here, please let me know.  I'll print up a ton of flyers and post them everywhere if you think it might help.

I was thinking about what "208" could mean also.  Could it have anything to do with the 208 highway in Texas??   Doesn't he have friends in Texas?  I looked it up and the 208 runs north to south starting near a town called Snyder, crosses the 20, and continues on down to San Angelo.  Any chance he could have been getting directions to a friends place in Texas?    I would think the police have considered this option....I'm just thinking out loud I guess. 

An area code, an apartment or hotel number, a house number, a time...

Just a question-- how are you able to carry the financial burden? I know work is the last thing you are thinking of, and with all these events and planning you have to do, I was wondering how you are able to do it.

I'm as broke as they come, but I would love to donate anything I could. Maybe if everyone could donate a little, like 5, 10 dollars to a paypal account or something that goes to the search effort.....

A paypal account is a great idea!  Also, going back to what jewels was saying - in reading his myspace posts between he and his friend Liz in Logan, UT - she was telling him about Redwoods (a earthy hippie counter-culture type gathering).  Anyways, theres an organization thats premise is not being an organization.  They have gatherings around the world and throughout the country during the year and people will attend them for months at a time.  This is a link to the Southern Utah Rainbow Family (aka S.U.R.F.) http://www.geocities.com/surfinghome/.  The main group page is located at welcomehome.org and has links to every page for "families" throughout the country.  These are great festivals with wonderful people, and to a young, new member of the family (had Chris decided to attend) it might be intoxicating enough to keep him away from home for quite some time.  Also, not to give false hope, these festivals are held on lands that are NOT in public - they are often in mountains or removed as far as possible from society.  This might account for the lack of sightings on his car.  There are gatherings and families in Idaho, Texas, Utah, California, etc... The people at these festivals and gatherings are not listening to the news, watching tv, etc.  As an after thought, it might be beneficial to ask these "families" to post Chris' information on their respective sites, should he in fact show up to one of their Rainbow Coalition gatherings.  In any case, this possibility has been bothering me for some time now and especially due to his high level of interest expressed to this girl Liz on myspace, it seems more than plausible.  Maybe he headed up to Logan (her home) to meet up with her and head on to a gathering in neighboring areas/states?  Something to look in to - my interests/activities were very similar to Chris' when I was his age and I would not put it out of the realm of possibilities that this normal by all accounts, well-adjusted and happy kid with a girlfriend felt he had to escape and explore the present-day reincarnation of a generation he so deeply identifies with.  Just a thought...but we should definitely do a paypal too.  

 

Always in my heart Shannon, Chris and family.

Another thought, for contacting people in more counter-culture realms - the S.U.R.F. website I just posted has a mailing list on the menu on the left side of the main page.  There are some people in there that are contact points for various areas, i.e. Cedar City, SLC, St. George, etc...Maybe writing to them with Chris's story...They might have insight into where he might be if he is traveling throughout their network.

Again you guys all fill my heart with such wonderful support. Thank you for all you are doing.

I hate to admit this out loud because of the negative connotation it has, but I am literally, legally, Chris' step-mom. In my heart I am his mom. He lived with us, we had primary custody of him. He ate and slept in our house, I'm the one that drove him to school, I'm the mom that stayed up until midnight to make sure he was home safe, I'm the mom that grounded him for breaking the rules, I'm the mom that helped him with his homework, I'm the mom that helped him with his sling when he broke his collarbone, I'm the mom that took him school shopping and I'm the mom that has put her life on hold to find her son. But yes he does have a "real" mom that lives in Riverside, CA. He spent some time with her this summer. That is why he has connections to CA. Our oldest son lives in Oregon, he was the first person we called to make sure Chris didn't decided to take a road trip to his house. He hasn't heard anything from Chris since the day before he went missing, and he said nothing was unusual about that conversation.

About the "208". A customer at Subway saw him write a phone number down, she remembered it started with 208, but can't remember the rest. I'm impressed she remembered the 208, I usually don't remember what I write down let alone what someone else is writing.

Running off with a music festival or anything hippyish or tree-huggerish would definitely be Chris. "Burning Man" ended the night Chris disappeared. We have wondered if maybe he hooked up with someone returning from that.

As far as money goes we have a couple of things in our favor. I am salary, so even though I'm not working, I'm still getting paid! => I know that soon I'll have to return full time and make up some of this missed time, but for now my employer is being wonderful with my personal needs. Dave is not so lucky, he is in construction and is paid hourly. So we have taken a hit there. We do have a bit of a savings account though (so much for our Hawaii fund...). We have had some people want to donate money to help with the costs of the search so we set up an account at Wells Fargo Bank. It's the "Chris Coan Donative Fund" account.

Our big push right now is making sure as many people know about this as possible. I have sent the web site address to everyone I know, even people on the East coast, hoping that if it gets passed around enough that someone somewhere will see him or his blazer and recognize that it is the person from the missing person site. Somebody out there knows something, we are trying to find that person and hope that they will talk. We are also looking at setting up a reward fund, hoping that will help someone talk.

I think I covered most of the questions/comments. If I skipped something please let me know again, I'm pretty spacey right now.

Some how I am surviving, although most days I don't know how. Some moments are better then others, and we are just trying to continue on until we have some answers. Thank you again for all that you do for me. I am forever grateful for your support!

~Shannon

I totally forgot about Rainbow gatherings.  Yeah, people are likely to take off at something like that too.  It wouldn't hurt to get into touch. 

Shannon,

I am just here for support, I  have passed this to everyone I know and all the stations in KS not that he's here but you never know.  Anyway I am here for you and please let me know if there's anything I can do to help further.   I am praying for you and your family and for Chris to find his way home....  I have a 21yr old son myself...

Bump - Keeping Chris and Shannon and Dave in our prayers.

I'm on the East Coast.  I will start passing it around.  Still praying.