Man’s Search for Missing Son Has a Bitter Conclusion

Mel Adrian, a Canadian father, was briefly reunited with his missing 22-year-old son at a shopping mall Thursday in Santa Monica after a security guard recognized the young man from a newspaper photo.

When Mel Adrian approached Kelvin, a mechanic who has been missing since Christmas Eve, Kelvin did not appear to recognize his father or his brother, Brandon. Later, Kelvin Adrian told police he didn’t want to see his family.

Mel Adrian, a single father who has been searching Los Angeles for the past 12 days, was clearly crushed by the unexpected turn of events.

“I have no problem with my children setting out on their own, but under these circumstances, it’s not easy to let go,” said the 49-year-old plumbing and heating contractor from a town of 3,000 in northern Canada.

“Kelvin was always the perfect kid, never a problem and now to suddenly go off the deep end . . . “ said Adrian, his sentence trailing as he choked back tears. “This is the kind of story that happens in a newspaper to someone else’s kid--not your own.”

Kelvin Adrian, dressed in baggy black pants and a beige-striped sweater, was sitting on a bench in the Santa Monica Place mall Thursday afternoon when he was spotted. A security guard called Child Find, an Alberta-based group that helps find missing children. Mel Adrian was alerted.

When Mel Adrian saw Kelvin, the worries of the past 33 days lifted. His boy was alive.

How do you greet a missing son after fate seemed to have snatched him away? Mel wondered. Do you run up and hug him? Do you saunter up casually?

Mel Adrian just sat down next to Kelvin and said, “Hi, how are you doing?”

To his horror, Kelvin looked at him blankly. “I don’t know you,” he told his father. Nor did he acknowledge his brother, Brandon.

When the security guard approached, Kelvin told him, “I don’t know this guy.”

Mel Adrian said it was like being pounded in the gut. Kelvin tried to push past his father and brother, telling the security guard, “Get this guy away from me, all I wanted to do is some shopping.”

Police were summoned and the Adrians agreed to go to the Santa Monica police station. Officers spoke to Kelvin and to his father.

“The son does not want to go back to Canada,” said Santa Monica Police Lt. Gary Gallinot. “He left Canada of his own volition. He’s very lucid. He knows what he wants.”

The police told Mel Adrian they had no reason to hold his son. The father had time to scribble a quick note to his son, who refused to speak to him.

“I love you,” he wrote.

Police told Kelvin he was free to leave and the young man ran from the station, saying nothing to his father or brother. Mel Adrian dashed outside, yelling, “I need some answers.”

Officers at the station tried to console him. Kelvin had promised to read the note and contact him soon, police said.

To Mel Adrian, his son’s actions made no sense. Why did he pay the January rent on his apartment? Why did he leave behind his stereo, Chevy truck and the tools he’d prized so much? The question that ached the most: Why couldn’t he tell his father he was leaving?

Mel Adrian left the police station, considered getting a cup of coffee, and decided instead to look again for Kelvin, this time to say goodbye. He didn’t find him.

Kelvin Adrian returned to the mall. In a soft voice, he said in a brief interview that he liked the weather in Los Angeles.

“I like the beach,” he said, adding that he’d swum in the Pacific. It was the first time he had seen the ocean, he said. He chose Los Angeles because he had seen pictures and thought it would be “the nicest place in the United States.” So he drove here, stopping to spend Christmas in Seattle, where it rained.

Kelvin Adrian said he hadn’t decided what he’ll do next. He hasn’t tried to look for work. He eats at “feedings,” he said, referring to meals given to the homeless. He said he sleeps outside because he enjoys being alone.

When told that a lot of people were worried about him, Kelvin Adrian said nothing. Then he walked away.