Brandon Tucker's family pleads for information as search for Gander man enters 2nd month
A Newfoundland family is pleading for help from the public as the search for 29-year-old Brandon Tucker enters its second month.
Tucker was last seen at his home in Gander on July 8. He walked into the woods behind his house at 8 a.m., leaving behind his wallet. His phone was pinged by a cell tower just outside Gander that afternoon. Then, silence.
Nobody has seen him since.
"This is a very isolated incident for Brandon," said Tucker's sister-in-law, Caroline Matthews, on Thursday.
"He's never left without a word to the family before, so this is definitely new and shocking to everyone. Not something that we expected."
Matthews said Tucker's family wakes up every day to the nightmare of not knowing whether Tucker was alive and in hiding, in trouble or dead. His brother, she adds, struggles with basic tasks.
Even if Tucker simply wanted to be left alone, she says, the family is pleading with him — or anyone who may have seen him — to signal that he's safe.
"If he, or someone with his whereabouts, were to speak out and let us know he is OK, he just doesn't want to speak to us at this time — that doesn't matter to us," Matthews said. "We don't care about that.… We just want to know he's OK."
The family offered a $10,000 reward this week for anyone who has information about Tucker's location that leads to his physical recovery: anyone who may have given him shelter or picked him up along the highway could help, she said.
They've received only one phone call, she said, which didn't lead anywhere.
"We as a family are pleading at this point," she said.
"We're desperate for any information whatsoever. So if you think for a second you saw him … it doesn't matter if it was yesterday or two or three weeks ago.… If you gave him a hotdog at a stand, it would be helpful."
