Man Missing for Five Days "Just Went For a Walk"

robjvargas · Oct 30, 2014

So a man goes to his first pro football game. Denver Broncos versus San Diego Chargers on Oct 23. He took his stepson with him, and two friends. He disappears from the game.

They find him five days later.

Paul Kitterman, 53, was found safe Tuesday night in Pueblo, Colorado, about 110 miles south of Denver's Sports Authority Field at Mile High.

110 miles. From his stepson. I really don't care what he thought about football, or the game. He left his stepson there.

Despite it being his first experience at a Broncos game -- and the Broncos leading 14-7 at halftime in a matchup with division rivals, the San Diego Chargers -- Kitterman apparently decided to leave the game while [his stepson] was in a bathroom.

I haven't yet found the stepson's age, but he looks grown up in a photo on this page. Still, left him. For five days. And why?

...he told an officer that he had "had his fill of football and decided to go for a walk," the statement said. He wanted to walk "somewhere warmer," it said.

The friends that went with him said he had no mental issues. This looks like one now, to me. 'Course, I'm no medical professional.

Amadan · Oct 30, 2014

I have no idea what the point of this post is, so I'm going to make it about writing.

Stephen King's The Colorado Kid wasn't my favorite King, but one thing that struck me about that story was that it describes a lot of bizarre things that the characters only stumble onto after whatever happened happened, and they never get an explanation for them.

Which made me think of the events in any supernatural or urban fantasy story where weird stuff happens below the radar of the mainstream media, unknown to most of the population. So imagine what the aftermath of a vampire attack looks like to mundane cops, or how people would deal with some extradimensional artifact being left in the town park. Or somebody who gets yanked off to another world and then dumped back a hundred miles from where he started. What is he going to tell people - "Yeah, I got kidnapped by aliens and was adventuring on another planet..."?

So maybe this was something like that.

benbradley · Oct 30, 2014

robjvargas said:
So a man goes to his first pro football game. Denver Broncos versus San Diego Chargers on Oct 23. He took his stepson with him, and two friends. He disappears from the game.

They find him five days later.

110 miles. From his stepson. I really don't care what he thought about football, or the game. He left his stepson there.

I haven't yet found the stepson's age, but he looks grown up in a photo on this page. Still, left him. For five days. And why?

The friends that went with him said he had no mental issues. This looks like one now, to me. 'Course, I'm no medical professional.

I'll speculate that the guy could easily have "issues" that friends and family might not think of as such, but rather, if they consciously notice them at all, might think of as just "personality quirks."

But yeah, leaving someone without at least saying bye or otherwise acknowledging that you're leaving is at best antisocial and can cause others unnecessary worry as to what may have happened to you.

Scribhneoir · Oct 30, 2014

A family friend of ours started exhibiting this sort of logic shortly before the onset of Alzheimers. I wonder if that's the case here.

Don · Oct 30, 2014

I just wonder who he was shacked up with for five days.

Karen Junker · Oct 30, 2014

I've known people who have hitched their way across America in less time.

Fruitbat · Oct 30, 2014

Don said:
I just wonder who he was shacked up with for five days.

Ha, that was my first thought too. Hiking the Appalachian trail?

frimble3 · Oct 30, 2014

If he had told anyone what he was up to, they'd have stopped him. Argued, at least. Maybe called the paramedics. He didn't go particularly far, he didn't go fast, presumably if he'd planned his escape, he wouldn't have been walking, with no supplies.

I wonder if 'I had my fill of football' is some sort of code for 'I had my fill of the way my life was going'. Maybe he just had an 'Is this all there is?' moment, and acted on impulse.
What struck me as odd is that he's 54, he's described as 'a Bronco fan' (and had the hat) but that this was his first live game. Even if ticket are expensive, I'd have thought that if he was a fan, he'd have been to a Broncos game before. Maybe this was a plan, a 'get assigned to the work detail, and make a break once you're past the walls' plan.

Or, maybe Amadan's onto something: he could hardly have said "Some Scottish guy in a blue cabinet offered to show me something more interesting than the game, and the next thing I know, I'm getting out of the cabinet in Pueblo, and everybody's saying it's a week later.

Expat-hack · Oct 31, 2014

frimble3 said:
If he had told anyone what he was up to, they'd have stopped him. Argued, at least. Maybe called the paramedics. He didn't go particularly far, he didn't go fast, presumably if he'd planned his escape, he wouldn't have been walking, with no supplies.

I wonder if 'I had my fill of football' is some sort of code for 'I had my fill of the way my life was going'. Maybe he just had an 'Is this all there is?' moment, and acted on impulse.
What struck me as odd is that he's 54, he's described as 'a Bronco fan' (and had the hat) but that this was his first live game. Even if ticket are expensive, I'd have thought that if he was a fan, he'd have been to a Broncos game before. Maybe this was a plan, a 'get assigned to the work detail, and make a break once you're past the walls' plan.

Or, maybe Amadan's onto something: he could hardly have said "Some Scottish guy in a blue cabinet offered to show me something more interesting than the game, and the next thing I know, I'm getting out of the cabinet in Pueblo, and everybody's saying it's a week later.

This was my thinking too. At age 54 he just kinda thought "my job sucks, my marriage is just another chore, I'm never gonna get published, I'll probably never get promoted again, I live in a pre-fab 3 bedroom house surrounded by 1,000 identical pre-fab 3 bedroom houses, I'm mainly loved because I dependably go to a soul-sucking job every day and bring home a pathetic salary, the woman who I think is cute in accounting doesn't know I'm alive and I would never think of approaching her, the biggest thing to look forward to in my life is a 3-day vacation once every couple of months or so. Oh, god, another 11 years till retirement. But first I have to put my ungrateful step-son through college." Yup. He just walked. Jumped the fence. Made a break for it. Of course, you can run, but you can't hide.

I also like your last scenario. He became a Doctor Who Companion for 10 years but was brought back after an earthly time-lapse of just 5 days. I often think I hear the whirring of the TARDIS myself, only to be disappointed. Happy Halloween!

blacbird · Oct 31, 2014

Scribhneoir said:
A family friend of ours started exhibiting this sort of logic shortly before the onset of Alzheimers. I wonder if that's the case here.

This. Maybe not the single answer, but well within the Venn diagram of possibilities. His "decision" is irrational in a way that really does suggest a pathology of some sort. And if it's true, as his son-in-law said, that he never has had a mental problem, he does need to be examined by professionals now.

caw

Haggis · Oct 31, 2014

blacbird said:
This. Maybe not the single answer, but well within the Venn diagram of possibilities. His "decision" is irrational in a way that really does suggest a pathology of some sort. And if it's true, as his son-in-law said, that he never has had a mental problem, he does need to be examined by professionals now.

caw

Yup.

Which does kind of make it a family thing, rather than a public thing, and the input of strangers is probably not all that helpful. Especially when posted on public forums.

blacbird · Oct 31, 2014

Haggis said:
Yup.

Which does kind of make it a family thing, rather than a public thing, and the input of strangers is probably not all that helpful. Especially when posted on public forums.

Well, it did make news, nationally. Several days went by with this guy missing, from very odd circumstances, with his family publicly concerned about his fate. Police and other public agencies got involved in searching for him, in a big way.

So we're not supposed to discuss it?

caw

Haggis · Nov 1, 2014

No, that's not where I was going with that, though I expressed my thoughts poorly. I was thinking more about patient privacy, HIPAA laws and the like. That, of course, would only apply after he's seen a medical professional. Even then it wouldn't necessarily apply to anyone but the health professionals.

So like you said, it was in the news and it's fair game.

Fingers · Nov 1, 2014

I fail to understand why, with no information other than the guy wanted to for a walk, its automatically mental issues. I have done somewhat the same sort of thing myself. Sometimes a person just needs to get away and think about stuff. It doesn't mean that he is crazy, or has alzheimers or any of the mean spirited speculation about the guy. None of us knows him and its just mean to say things like that with no more information than you get out of a newspaper story.
My daughter disappeared for two years without so much as a howdy do to anyone. She came back with a grandson in her arms and a granddaughter in the oven. So maybe he just needed some alone time.

blacbird · Nov 2, 2014

Fingers said:
I fail to understand why, with no information other than the guy wanted to for a walk, its automatically mental issues. I have done somewhat the same sort of thing myself. Sometimes a person just needs to get away and think about stuff. . . maybe he just needed some alone time.

At halftime, from the stadium of an NFL game, when his son-in-law, who had taken him there, was going to the restroom?And nobody should be concerned about his disappearance? Seriously?

I've had times when I needed some "alone time". A lot of people do. You don't suddenly take "some alone time" at the halftime of a pro football game when your relative has taken you there to enjoy the game, and not tell him about it. You do that, any caring person will get concerned right quick, and authorities will be called upon, and rightly so.

This was not a "normal" kind of thing to do, and this man needs some professional discussion about it, at the very least.

caw

cornflake · Nov 2, 2014

Fingers said:
I fail to understand why, with no information other than the guy wanted to for a walk, its automatically mental issues. I have done somewhat the same sort of thing myself. Sometimes a person just needs to get away and think about stuff. It doesn't mean that he is crazy, or has alzheimers or any of the mean spirited speculation about the guy. None of us knows him and its just mean to say things like that with no more information than you get out of a newspaper story.
My daughter disappeared for two years without so much as a howdy do to anyone. She came back with a grandson in her arms and a granddaughter in the oven. So maybe he just needed some alone time.

It's not mean-spirited.

If someone I knew went out with people to an event, without ever expressing any desire to do anything but go to the event and go home, and wandered off for days, we'd call the cops. If, days later, miles away, the person said they just went for a walk, they'd be in a neurologist's office right quick.

That sort of behaviour does indicate there's a likely mental problem of some sort. There are people who have like, always wanted to go live alone in the woods and routinely go disappear on trips - those people tell people they're going, take along reasonable things, etc. Just disappearing is indicative of a problem.

Man Missing for Five Days "Just Went For a Walk"

robjvargas

Amadan

benbradley

It's a doggy dog world

Scribhneoir

Reinventing Myself

Don

All Living is Local

Karen Junker

Live a little. Write a lot.

Fruitbat

.

frimble3

Heckuva good sport

Expat-hack

Too much lost generation as a kid!

blacbird

Haggis

Evil, undead Chihuahua

blacbird

Haggis

Evil, undead Chihuahua

Fingers

My cat Toby

blacbird

cornflake

practical experience, FTW