19-year-old teen with special needs, reported missing Saturday, found at park by parents
A Glendale teen with special needs who was reported missing over the weekend was located by his parents at an Alhambra park Monday afternoon, hours after his mother sought the public’s help in finding him.
Brandon Poschin, a 19-year-old who is deaf and has autism, had last been seen around 10 p.m. Saturday night biking away from his home, located in the 400 block of Allen Avenue, according to his family and the Glendale Police Department. At the time, Poschin’s uncle ran after him, but couldn’t keep up.
After conversations with police officials on Monday, Poschin’s parents drove to look for him at Almansor Park in Alhambra, as they’d remembered recently seeing directions to the park on his iPad. According to police, he’d been there before and wanted to go back.
“Sure enough, they drive over there, and there he is,” said Tahnee Lightfoot, a Glendale Police Department spokeswoman. “As soon as they arrived, they immediately saw him.”
Poschin was disheveled, hungry and thirsty, but otherwise in good health, Lightfoot said.
When found, Poschin had his bike with him. His family believes he rode it to the park, which is more than 14 miles away from his home.
On Monday morning, Poschin’s mother Vilma Vanessa Figueroa had asked for the public’s help in locating her son, who she said has a tendency to wander.
“He’s a big boy — he doesn’t look like he needs help, but he does need help,” she had said.
He’d gone missing before, multiple times, but never for two days straight.
“This time it’s gone too far,” Figueroa said, adding that she spent Saturday and Sunday night driving around Glendale, Burbank and Los Angeles into the early morning hours looking for him. “He’s thirsty, he’s hungry. I don’t know where he’s sleeping, I don’t know if he’s using the bathroom. It’s really hard right now.”
Most recently, about a month ago, he climbed out of his bedroom window one night while his parents were sleeping, she said. Police found him sitting at the Glendale Transportation Center early in the morning, before his parents woke up.
Two years ago, Poschin left his home late one night but returned the following morning. That incident — after which he told his mother he went walking along the Los Angeles River bike path — marked the longest stretch of time he’d gone missing prior to this, Figueroa said.
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Alene Tchekmedyian, alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com
Twitter: @atchek
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