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Family asking for help after son went missing on 18th birthday near Newport Pier, on visit from England – Orange County Register
The Nguyen family had plans during their Orange County vacation: visit family, eat good food, perhaps head up to San Francisco and explore the coast along the way.
But a day after they arrived from England, an early-morning outing on July 1 in Newport Beach turned tragic when Christopher Nguyen, celebrating his 18th birthday, mysteriously went missing near the Newport Pier.
“We don’t know if he’s in the sea, if he’s been taken, if he ran away,” said his older sister Tricia, who is staying with family in Westminster as they search for clues.
“Anything is better than we have at the moment,” she said.
Christopher Nguyen had just finished high school and before starting university in fall his father, Cuong, wanted to bring him on a birthday trip to California, a place his son hadn’t been since he was six months old.
He was happy, Tricia said, and had no reason to run away. Like many teens, she said, he had nights when he stayed out too late — but nothing like this.
It just doesn’t add up, she said. Why would he leave without birthday money in his wallet and his shoes, left on the sand while he went out for a swim? He wouldn’t leave his cellphone behind, she said. He doesn’t know anyone in the area and wouldn’t even have known the name of the beach his family took him to that morning.
All he had was the white swim shorts he was wearing, a pair of swim fins and a snorkel with an orange tip that his father had bought him that morning, Tricia said. Christopher knew how to swim, she said.
He was last seen on the sand, chatting with people passing by at about 7:30 a.m. “He is a social person, he was talking to people on the beach,” Tricia said.
Christopher and his dad, who went for a walk on the pier, agreed to meet up at lifeguard tower 22 at 8:15 a.m., when their parking meter was set to expire. But Christopher never showed up.
After his father reported him missing, lifeguards searched the water from paddleboards with masks and snorkels, as well as with rescue boats Monday. Waves were small that day, in the two-foot range, and visibility was about 10 feet, lifeguards said.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol helped with a patrol boat and fire boat and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department helped from the air with a helicopter.
One person told lifeguards and police he saw a person – who he thought was Japanese — struggling in the water, but said he thought the person was wearing a wetsuit, Tricia said. The police said it wasn’t a credible report because his information kept changing, she said.
No one saw him actually go in the water, she said.
“Lifeguards and police are doing everything they can,” she said. “If anyone has seen anything, something they thought was out of the ordinary or might have remembered him, anything would help us. Maybe someone saw him in the water.”
The police have put out a missing person’s flyer, she said.
“There’s nothing else we can do,” she said. “We don’t know anything. We just want as much information as possible — any information is more than we have at the moment.”
It’s the unknown that is making it especially difficult, she said. She’s spent afternoons walking along the beach in Newport, taking to lifeguards and anyone who might have seen Christopher.
“I’m hoping he’s run away. He’ll know he can come home. Or he’s hit his head or is disorientated. That’s the best-case scenario,” Tricia said.
“If you’re in the sea, you might find a body, you might not,” she said. “We just don’t know if he’s in the sea or on land … the sea is a massive thing, you don’t know how it behaves, or the currents. You just don’t know.”
Her mother is at home caring for Christopher’s younger siblings, ages 9 and 11, and Tricia and her father are trying to figure out if they should return home or stay in Orange County searching for answers.
“We don’t know,” she said. “If there’s leads, we’ll stay out longer.”
The Nguyen family had plans during their Orange County vacation: visit family, eat good food, perhaps head up to San Francisco and explore the coast along the way.
But a day after they arrived from England, an early-morning outing on July 1 in Newport Beach turned tragic when Christopher Nguyen, celebrating his 18th birthday, mysteriously went missing near the Newport Pier.
“We don’t know if he’s in the sea, if he’s been taken, if he ran away,” said his older sister Tricia, who is staying with family in Westminster as they search for clues.
“Anything is better than we have at the moment,” she said.
Christopher Nguyen had just finished high school and before starting university in fall his father, Cuong, wanted to bring him on a birthday trip to California, a place his son hadn’t been since he was six months old.
He was happy, Tricia said, and had no reason to run away. Like many teens, she said, he had nights when he stayed out too late — but nothing like this.
It just doesn’t add up, she said. Why would he leave without birthday money in his wallet and his shoes, left on the sand while he went out for a swim? He wouldn’t leave his cellphone behind, she said. He doesn’t know anyone in the area and wouldn’t even have known the name of the beach his family took him to that morning.
All he had was the white swim shorts he was wearing, a pair of swim fins and a snorkel with an orange tip that his father had bought him that morning, Tricia said. Christopher knew how to swim, she said.
He was last seen on the sand, chatting with people passing by at about 7:30 a.m. “He is a social person, he was talking to people on the beach,” Tricia said.
Christopher and his dad, who went for a walk on the pier, agreed to meet up at lifeguard tower 22 at 8:15 a.m., when their parking meter was set to expire. But Christopher never showed up.
After his father reported him missing, lifeguards searched the water from paddleboards with masks and snorkels, as well as with rescue boats Monday. Waves were small that day, in the two-foot range, and visibility was about 10 feet, lifeguards said.
The Orange County Sheriff’s Harbor Patrol helped with a patrol boat and fire boat and the Orange County Sheriff’s Department helped from the air with a helicopter.
One person told lifeguards and police he saw a person – who he thought was Japanese — struggling in the water, but said he thought the person was wearing a wetsuit, Tricia said. The police said it wasn’t a credible report because his information kept changing, she said.
No one saw him actually go in the water, she said.
“Lifeguards and police are doing everything they can,” she said. “If anyone has seen anything, something they thought was out of the ordinary or might have remembered him, anything would help us. Maybe someone saw him in the water.”
The police have put out a missing person’s flyer, she said.
“There’s nothing else we can do,” she said. “We don’t know anything. We just want as much information as possible — any information is more than we have at the moment.”
It’s the unknown that is making it especially difficult, she said. She’s spent afternoons walking along the beach in Newport, taking to lifeguards and anyone who might have seen Christopher.
“I’m hoping he’s run away. He’ll know he can come home. Or he’s hit his head or is disorientated. That’s the best-case scenario,” Tricia said.
“If you’re in the sea, you might find a body, you might not,” she said. “We just don’t know if he’s in the sea or on land … the sea is a massive thing, you don’t know how it behaves, or the currents. You just don’t know.”
Her mother is at home caring for Christopher’s younger siblings, ages 9 and 11, and Tricia and her father are trying to figure out if they should return home or stay in Orange County searching for answers.
“We don’t know,” she said. “If there’s leads, we’ll stay out longer.”
