Two worried from parents from Illinois are in Colorado this week searching for their despondent 16-year-old son who might have run away to return to a camp he visited this summer.
Chris Carpenter — a good student, athlete and fine young man, by his parent’s estimation — disappeared on Aug. 22 from Naperville, Ill., after he left home for a summer school course he was taking for extra credit.
His parents soon found a letter he had written alluding to a plan to run away, and a worrisome notation that he might be considering suicide, his father, Mike Carpenter, said this afternoon.
“He’s just depressed,” his father said. “For some reason he thinks he’s a failure. I just don’t know.”
Social media turned up a man who had met Chris at a bus station in Chicago as the teen waited to board a Greyhound to Denver last Tuesday. The man described Chris’ bicycle, belongings and comments he made that all but confirmed his identity, his father said.
Mike Carpenter and his wife, Janice, came to Denver Saturday to search. Their bank notified them that someone tried to access their bank account from an ATM in downtown Denver at about 9 Friday night.
Carpenter said his son worked at a summer camp in Almont and returned on Aug. 6. He might be headed there.
Chris is about 5 feet, 10 inches tall, about 150 pounds and has brown hair and hazel eyes. He is traveling on a silver bicycle and is carrying a large backpack and a laptop computer.
A Facebook page — titled “Chris Carpenter missing” — has 795 members. Anyone who sees Chris can leave a message there, notify their local law enforcement or Denver police at 720-913-2000, or Mike Carpenter at 630-908-9468.
Joey Bunch: 303-954-1174 or jbunch@denverpost.com
