Update: It was the outcome everyone has been wanting, no matter how unlikely it might have seemed at certain points.
Tyler Allen, the twenty-year-old University of Colorado Boulder student who was officially reported missing on April 18, turned up looking hungry but otherwise unharmed over the weekend.
A Boulder Police Department release says he had been on the CU Boulder campus the entire time searches for him were being conducted in locations such as Chautauqua Park and beyond.
Plenty of questions remain unanswered at this writing — and unless the family comes forward to clear them up, they may well remain that way.
In the wake of our previous coverage, on view below, Allen's parents began keeping concerned parties in Colorado and his home town of Western Springs, Illinois, abreast of efforts to find him.
Using a Facebook page dubbed "Find Tyler," they rounded up volunteers to look for him at Chautauqua last Wednesday — and according to the Boulder Daily Camera, they were in the midst of expanding their efforts to other locations in Colorado, as well as places in Utah, Nevada, California and Austin, Texas, when Allen simply returned to his off-campus home.
A release from the Boulder Police Department reads in part:
On April 26, 2015, Boulder Police were advised that Berry Tyler Allen had returned to his residence in Boulder. Allen, a student at the University of Colorado, was reported missing to the Boulder Police Department on April 18, 2015 by his family.
Boulder Police have spoken with Allen and members of his family. According to Allen, he remained on the CU-Boulder campus and he was not the victim of any criminal activity.
Sheryl Allen, Tyler's mom, added a few more details during an interview with ABC7 in Chicago. "His roommates called us and said that he had come back to their house, so that was so exciting," she says in a video also shared here. "He was unaware of the search, and I think he was quite a bit surprised what all has been happening."
The return was prompted by seeing a poster about the search, Sheryl noted.
He could hardly have missed the posters. I was in Boulder on the outskirts of the campus on Saturday, and the signs were extremely prominent — so much so that anyone who was out and about for five minutes would have had a hard time not stumbling across one or more.
In her ABC7 interview, Sheryl said she didn't know all the details about what Tyler had been doing during the past week-plus — and those who've been regularly checking in on the "Find Tyler" Facebook page won't find any info there. It's no longer online, and Tyler's personal Facebook page has also been at least temporarily removed, too.
Of course, the most important matter is Tyler's safety, and while he was reportedly hospitalized upon his return out of an abundance of caution, his parents are understandably overjoyed that he's back. In a statement, they thanked "everyone in Boulder, the fantastic detective's office, the university community, the students, the media in Colorado and Chicago and friends and strangers far and wide who have joined together with us in this effort to find our son.... We couldn't have faced this crisis without you and we are without words to express to you the depths of our gratitude,"
Here's the report from ABC7 in Chicago, followed by our earlier post.
Original post, 8:50 a.m. April 21: CU Boulder student Berry Allen, a twenty-year-old known to his friends as Tyler, reportedly sent a text last Thursday, April 16, that read in part, "“Oh, I’m alright, spent one night with a friend and one all nighter at library.”
Since then, no one has heard from him — and he's now the subject of a missing-person investigation by the Boulder Police Department.
There's been no recent activity on Allen's Facebook page.
The most recent item is from last November. That post features an image of Allen crossing a street in the fashion of the Beatles on the cover of the Abbey Road album:
The Boulder Police Department sent out a cropped version of this image, as well as two other tiny shots, which we've enlarged:
More details are provided by the CU Independent, the CU Boulder student newspaper.
The piece on Allen reveals that he is a communications major who transferred to CU Boulder in January from Clemson University in South Carolina. He's musically gifted, playing guitar and singing with CU's University Choir.
He's said to have hiked in Chautauqua Park on April 11 and attended choir practice on the night of April 13, and his roommates saw him the next night (he lives off campus). As for the April 16 text, it was sent from near Folsom Field, on the CU Boulder campus.
In the days between now and then, there's been radio silence, and if Allen left the area, he likely didn't go far. He doesn't own a car or even a bicycle.
Alarmed, Allen's parents reported him missing on April 18 and they have since distributed fliers around the area. ·He's described as a 140 pound white male with blonde hair and blue eyes.
If you have any information about Allen's whereabouts, you're encouraged contact Detective Sarah Cantu at 303-441-4328 or Northern Colorado Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477). In the meantime, here's Allen's class schedule, as shared by the CU Independent.
Monday-Wed-Fri
COMM 1300-023 Public Speaking, 8-8:50 a.m., Hellems 193
ENGL 1600-001 Masterpieces, American Lit, 10-10:50 a.m., Hellems 137
Mon-Wed
EMUS 1227-001 University Choir, 1-1:50 p.m., Macky Auditorium 102
ENGL 1191 Intro to Creative Writing, 3-4:15 p.m., Ekeley Sciences EB175
Tues-Thurs
EMUS 1227-001 University Choir, 1-1:50 p.m., Macky Auditorium 102
Send your story tips to the author, Michael Roberts.
