I kind of think maybe we should take something learned in the situation with Caron and her daughter and apply it here. There is nothing to suggest these parents had a tight leash on their son, but a lot to suggest something was happening with Bryce's behavior that began to worry them and eventually got to the point where they felt a critical emergency could be occurring.
We do not know everything that was happening at the time that made the mom ask people to check on her son and send LE to find him.
I think if they were that controlling, she wouldn't have allowed Bryce to move away, Bryce would not have had a girlfriend the family seems close to and Karen would not have said to give Bryce's keys back.
Also, both police and the roadside assistance guy reported that Bryce seemed in good spirits, not "angry".
It could be true, though, that Bruce became paranoid and felt he was being watched and thus tried to escape that, but Bryce was not being tracked or surveilled or hunted like a James Bond character.
You know, I have three brother in laws who I helped raise because they have no dad and mom is mentally ill. They are just dumb as stumps sometimes. They range now from 17 to 21, and to me, still lack significant maturity. They are still babies in many ways when it comes to the world, despite having a rough upbringing.
If one of them spontaneously began a road trip on a path and at a length they had never taken before, and started acting oddly before or during the trip, I would be sending the cavalry out after them if they didn't arrive on time. I'm not into helicoptering but this just sounds like a justifiably concerned parent.
I think this proves what I said above. Kern county LE clearly found that something was alarming enough that they better try to locate and then question a young man who was just a bit late in arriving after a road trip home. They don't tend to jump at the commands of nervous moms. There has to be something more.
Well Bryce is missing under odd circumstances so now the low odds become significant.
My 19 year old BIL just described a friend of his to me saying, "Everuthing good about being a human, that's Mikey, in one person.".
Kids that age can be passionate, feel intensely about their problems and view their friends as their saviors.
