The sheriff believed he might be at the gathering because his truck was found a few miles past the turn off to gathering parking with a bullet hole in it.
At some point, his mother started coming to the gathering. She and I would hike around the gathering together, I would introduce her to people and take her to different camps where she would show photos of Garrett to people. Every day at least a half a dozen people would say they had seen him, at breakfast this morning, at the drum circle last night, or at various kitchens. This gave Garrett's mother so much hope that Garrett was just trying to hide out from his parents and his friends.
When people said they had seen him, she would ask them to encourage him to call his family or friends and let someone know that he was OK.
If memory serves me right, we did this for three days before the search was called off. The Sheriff had organized a search of the woods from where the truck was found going away from the gathering. Unfortunately, they found Garrett, who had died of suicide. Based on the corners time of death, Garrett had been dead for some time and certainly for days before all the "sightings" occurred.
Mistaken identities happen, but I was heartbroken for a mother who was praying that her son had just run off to join the Rainbow Gathering, but unfortunately, that was not the case. I wish we could have run into him earlier. Maybe the outcome would have been different.
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