Missing Chapman Student Phones Home
A Chapman University law student who was reported missing last week after his car was found on a freeway in Westminster called his parents from Denver on Monday, saying he was well, police said.
Don Starkey, 22, was last seen Thursday leaving his Long Beach home with about $400 in cash and his backpack. In a note to his mother, he said he was on his way to Chapman University to buy textbooks, police said. Starkey is scheduled to begin studies at the law school in the fall.
That afternoon, a California Highway Patrol officer spotted Starkey’s abandoned 1978 Buick Skylark near the Springdale Street exit on the southbound San Diego Freeway.
Starkey called his mother from Denver on Monday afternoon just after 4 p.m., said Jay Beeler, spokesperson for the Starkey family.
“Don said that he had a lot of pressures in his life and just ‘flipped out’ after his car broke down on the freeway,” his mother, Terry Starkey, said in a written statement.
Long Beach police spokeswoman Karen Kerr-Owens said, “He said he was having personal problems and needed time to think.”
Starkey is expected to return home this week, Beeler said.
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