BARRIE — The search for a missing central Ontario teen is going global.
City police are pushing the story of Brandon Crisp worldwide in hopes of reuniting the missing 15-year-old with his parents.
Brandon ran away from his family’s Barrie home on Oct. 13, and was reported missing to police early the next day.
He had been grounded from his Xbox due to his addiction to Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, a game his parents said he played “every waking hour of the day.”
Steve and Angelika Crisp say they believe their son’s disappearance has something to do with his obsession with online gaming.
Provincial police cyber-crime experts are probing Brandon’s Xbox for possible clues to his whereabouts, and his parents hope they will find answers inside the gaming console.
There have been reports that many of Brandon’s Xbox gaming contacts were in the United States.
“I don’t know if that’s the case, but there were many around the world,” Sergeant Dave Goodbrand said today. “It’s definitely one of the reasons we wanted to push the story nationally and internationally.
“We don’t know where he is, so there is that potential that he could have gone south of the border,” Goodbrand said. “That’s a scenario we have to consider, whether he went across on his own will or against his will.”
Brandon’s missing person file is flagged on the Canadian Police Information Centre.
His story has been picked up by media outlets across Canada, in the United States and even in Europe.
A synopsis of Brandon’s case is even featured on the America’s Most Wanted website.
“If investigators feel that Brandon may have crossed the border, we could look into broadcasting something,” show spokesman Avery Mann said today.
America’s Most Wanted was informed of the case through Child Save, a North American registry system.
A woman told authorities she spoke to Brandon twice on a local trail the day he left home.
A massive search was conducted over several days after his bike was found in a ditch near Shanty Bay.