The following story by Mia Thomas is from the Burnaby NOW archives. It originally ran on Saturday, June 9, 2007. Ten years later, Bryan's disappearance remains unsolved.
Janice Braumberger's eyes were full, tears that didn't spill until she talked of her need for her missing son, Bryan.
"Somebody knows," Janice pleaded before a press gathering on Thursday morning. "Somebody knows something. They have to tell us. This has gone on way too long.
"We miss him, his friends miss him, his family misses him."
Janice and her husband, Ron Braumberger, were speaking to reporters at the Burnaby RCMP detachment as detectives stood in the background and watched.
"It's tearing us apart," Ron said. "We can't go on like this any longer. "Bryan, we love you."
Her tears fell as Janice held up a photo of Bryan for cameras.
"This is my son," she said, voice breaking.
Janice said Bryan was a normal teenager without any serious problems.
"Everything in Bryan's life was going fine," she said. "When I talked to him on Wednesday (May 30), everything was fine."
Ron described his son as "a good kid," adding they want him back.
"No matter what's going on, we need him home," he said. "Enough is enough.
"We need people to send Bryan home if they have him for any reason.
"We'll deal with whatever we need to deal with when we get him home. But we just need to get him home."
The 18-year-old apparently vanished into thin air after talking to a friend shortly after midnight on May 31.
They had been talking for about 10 minutes, in a church parking lot on Eighth Avenue in New Westminster, when Bryan told his friend he had to go home because he was working the next day.
But Bryan didn't show up for work. His car was abandoned at the George Derby Centre on Cumberland and 16th Avenue and towed the next day, June 1.
Police later said the car was unlocked but with doors closed, and the headlights had been left on. That wasn't necessarily unusual - Bryan would sometimes leave the lights on when he got out of the car.
What was unusual was the fact it was just a couple minutes from the family home.
"He was so close to home," Janice said. "If his car had broken down there, he would have walked home."
"It just doesn't fit," Ron added.
His parents arrived home later that day after being away for a week and waited for their son to show up.
There were phone messages from his work and about his towed car, both of which concerned his parents because it was out of character for him to not show up for work and he considered the car his "baby," Janice told police.
It was unusual for him to not come home for the night to sleep, eat and shower, his parents explained.
"This has never happened," Ron said.
At about 3 a.m., they called police to report him missing.
Detectives examined the car but didn't turn up any forensic evidence, according to Const. Kalinda Link, spokesperson for the Burnaby RCMP.
Police, dogs and up to 25 volunteers from Coquitlam search and rescue covered the five-and-a-half hectares in the George Derby Conservation Area on Monday and Tuesday but didn't find anything.
Don Seki, manager for the Coquitlam team for the search, explained in a press release that there was a concern Bryan might have crossed through the wooded area and possibly hurt himself.
"The terrain was more difficult than we originally imagined," Seki said of the search, in a press release. "There was a lot of heavy brush, high grass, swampy areas and ravines."
Janice and Ron said they don't know what steps to take next.
"We don't know what areas to search," Ron said, adding, "We just don't know what to do. We're at a loss."
They said he couldn't have disappeared off the face of the earth and asked for anyone with any information to come forward.
"Any little bit will help," Janice said.
Bryan is described as Caucasian, standing six feet tall and weighing about 185 pounds. He is clean-shaven and has brown hair and brown eyes.
He was last seen wearing a black T-shirt, shorts and white Adidas runners with no laces.
Anyone with information is asked to call Burnaby RCMP at 604-294-7922 or, to remain anonymous, call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
