Brandon Crisp Timeline: The Hunt For A Lost Boy

It was only about three weeks, but to his parents and a concerned community, it seemed like an eternity since Brandon Crisp disappeared from his home. Here’s a timeline of the tragedy that still has more questions than answers.

Oct. 13th: 15-year-old Barrie resident Brandon Crisp has a fight with his parents on Thanksgiving Day. His folks worry he’s spending too much time playing the video game “Call of Duty 4” on his Xbox, and they take the console away from him. Incensed, the teen dons his backpack, gets on his bike and pedals away from home. His parents believe he’ll be back.

Oct. 13th: Later that day, a woman sees a young boy walking near Shanty Bay, and she asks if he’s O.K. He tells her he had problems with his bike and walks on. He doesn’t say where he’s going or indicate that he needs help. The woman has no idea that she’ll be the last one to see him alive or that he was even missing. It’s believed he was trying to head to an area east of Barrie to meet up with friends.

Oct. 14th: There’s still no sign of Brandon after 24 hours and police get involved. They suggest it’s possible he ran away to stay with some friends and the hope is he’ll come back soon. Authorities go to St. Joseph’s High School, the same campus he attends with his sisters. They begin asking friends and classmates if he’s with them or if they’ve seen him. None have.

Oct. 18th-Oct. 20th: As the mystery into Brandon’s whereabouts continues, the searches begin.  Some involve police, others are organized by volunteers. No one finds anything.

Oct. 19th: Cops go up in helicopters to look over the wooded area and circulate flyers with the boy’s picture. But there’s still no sign of him.

Oct. 20th: Brandon’s abandoned bike is found in the area where he was last spotted by the witness. But the teen remains out of sight, a week after he left home.

Oct. 21: Brandon’s parents issue a plea to Toronto residents to check their cottages for signs of an intruder, believing their son could have made himself at home in one of the residences abandoned for the winter up north.

Oct. 22nd: Brandon’s increasingly desperate dad, Steve Crisp, hires a dog tracker to aid in the search, as police go door-to-door looking for witnesses. The dogs don’t find anything.

Cops approach Microsoft for help, asking the computer giant to harvest the names the teen may have been playing his game with online, hoping they can provide clues.

Oct. 23rd: Ten days have now passed. His school holds a special vigil for their missing classmate, praying he’ll be found safe.

Oct. 24th: A cause for hope. Searchers locate a blue-checkered jacket, a tent, crackers and a full bag of chips in the area where the youngster was last seen. And while they can’t definitively tie it into Brandon, they’re hoping it’s a sign he may have been there.

A website is created to aid in the hunt for the boy, and attracts plenty of hits – but doesn’t result in any useful information.

Meanwhile, the concern and a reward for information about the boy grows. A $10,000 bounty is offered by the newspaper where his mother works.

Oct. 27: Microsoft continues to work on the I.D.s hidden in the Xbox and adds more to the reward effort – $25,000. The boy’s Internet Service Provider also kicks in some cash and the total has now reached $50,000.

Oct. 29th: Police decide to suspend their ground search for Brandon, explaining they’d looked everywhere they could and that bad weather would make it difficult. But they insist they haven’t given up the hunt. Volunteers continue to scour the wooded scene on their own.

Oct. 30: Cops change their minds and resume the search for the boy, admitting they’d located an area they might not have looked into fully. They also canvass people using the trails and the roads nearby, hoping for a sighting. The case also attracts the attention of America’s Most Wanted, which posts the story on its site.

Oct. 31st: Cops find a black sweater in a field where Brandon might have been. They also investigate reports he was seen at a local mall. None can be tied to the boy.

Nov. 4th: A second person comes forward to report seeing Brandon the day he disappeared. Deb Woods also saw the abandoned bike but didn’t think much of it until later.

Nov. 5th: The worst news possible ends the long search, after Brandon’s body is discovered by hunters not far from where he disappeared. The cause of his death isn’t known.