This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Finally, the saga of a missing Canadian man and his mother's quest to find him has come to a happy conclusion.
Ryan Robichaud, 24, who'd been missing since January, has returned home with his mother, Tracey Beeso-Robichaud, the OC Register reported late last night.
The news comes as a latent update to a June 2 situation in which Robichaud, discovered and confronted by officers in Palm Springs, was asked to return home to Ontario, Canada. What ensued was a tug-of-war as Robichaud expressed misgivings about going home, while his mother, speaking to him on a cell phone, pleaded with him to return. The call ended without a resolution, and Robichaud went missing again.
It turns out that just later that day, an Orange County private investigator named Josh Chandler was able to convince Robichaud speak with his mother again. This time it worked; Robichaud agreed to go home, and his mother purchased a plane ticket to fly down to Southern California to meet with him. Both mother and son boarded a plane for Ontario this Saturday.
Jeanene Jones, a family friend, confirmed to the OC Register that Robichaud had returned. She said that one factor that persuaded him was the number of concerned messages left for Robichaud on social media. According to Jones, Robichaud had said, "I never knew that many people would care."
As we'd reported in the past, Robichaud had gone on a bizarre string of misadventures after a car crash in late December of 2015. Two weeks after the collision, Robichaud disappeared from his home and called his mother four days later to say that he'd "died" in the crash and had been called upon by divine forces to join a spiritual quest. He said that he was calling from Boston.
Ten days later he called again to say he was in Los Angeles. An LAPD detective was able to locate Robichaud but was unable to persuade him into going home, even though the detective had escorted him to the airport. Robichaud is an adult and did not exhibit any signs that he was a danger to himself or others, so authorities couldn't hold him. Also, at some point he got baptized in Huntington Beach. His mother theorized that he suffered from PTSD as a result of the car crash.
Beeso-Robichaud indicated in a June 7 post on her Facebook page that her son is having trouble remembering pieces of his journey.
