By David Lohr
June 4, 2007
BURNABY, Canada — It is not uncommon for someone to get lost in a city that boasts a population of 202,799. Such is the case in Burnaby, the third-largest city in British Columbia. According to the city's official website, Burnaby is a "maturing, increasingly integrated community, that is centrally located within a rapidly growing metropolitan area." Missing persons reports are common here, as they are in any city of this size. Be that as it may, the disappearance of 18-year-old Brian Braumberger has left many scratching their heads.
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Brian Braumberger |
Brian was last seen on the morning of Thursday May 31 in a church parking lot on 8th Avenue. According to one of his friends, Brian chatted for a while and then said he was heading home to get some rest before work. What happened next is anyone's guess. Brian never made it home, and he never went to work.
The following day, an officer with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) found Brian's car abandoned near Cumberland and 16th Street. Brian had not yet been reported missing, so the officer followed protocol and had the vehicle impounded. Later that day, an officer called Brian's parents' residence to notify him that his vehicle had been towed. The officer left a message on the family's answering machine.
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Ron and Janice Braumberger |
When Brian's parents heard the message, they immediately suspected something was wrong. It was not like Brian to leave his car unattended, and he had no history of taking off without telling someone where he was going. When they contacted Brian's employer and discovered that he never showed up for work, they began to fear the worst and filed a missing persons report with the RCMP.
"I'm feeling helpless. There's nothing I can do," Brian's father, Ron Braumberger, said in an interview with News1130 yesterday. "Like I say, if there's something I could do to try and find him, it's a different story, but what can you do? It's just such a vast area that he could be in, like his car was left abandoned in one spot, but he could be anywhere; we just don't know."
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