SEQUIM –– Runaway Jonathon Chrysler Jr. is now home, and much of his tale is false, police said.
The 15-year-old who ran away Thursday and told his parents he did so with the help of the online “The Runaway Guide” returned to his Sequim home at about 9:30 p.m. Monday.
He had been in Olympia and had never been in danger, said Sgt. Dave Campbell of the Sequim Police Department.
Jonathon Chrysler Sr. said his son told them that strangers whom he had met through the online site had taken him to Boise, Idaho, and then to Montana and were armed gang members.
“Allegations that he made were self-admittedly false,” Campbell said. “He was not held at gunpoint. He was not absconded with.”
The boy had arranged for a distant relative to pick him up and take him to Olympia.
He stayed in Olympia the entire time he was missing, Campbell said.
“At no time was the boy ever held against his will by armed strangers nor was he ever an endangered missing person,” Campbell said in a written statement.
Chrysler Sr. said the boy was sent to the Crisis Residential Center at the Clallam County juvenile detention facility in Port Angeles on Tuesday.
He said his son was scheduled for a judicial evaluation Wednesday.
“It’s been a rough time since we got him back,” Chrysler Sr. said.
“But we’re just happy he’s home.”
Jonathon called his parents from a phone with a Montana area code Friday after running away in the early morning hours Thursday.
The boy told his parents he had left with a pair of adults he met through “The Runaway Guide” blog and Facebook page.
Chrysler Sr. said his son told them Saturday that he was between Spokane and Seattle on his way back to the Peninsula.
Area law enforcement put out a call for a black four-door Nissan with Jonathon and four other men Saturday afternoon.
The Chrysler parents posted a Facebook page, seeking to have “The Runaway Guide” taken down.
The guide’s author, who identified himself only as “Leif,” wrote on his blog that he had no contact with Jonathon and that there is “absolutely no way [it] would be possible” for the teen to meet adults through his blog.
“Regarding the recent runaway named Jon, I am very sorry about this situation,” Leif wrote Tuesday.
“However, I will not take responsibility for it in any way.”
Campbell said in the statement that the boy returned home “after his parents promised he would be rewarded with the return of privileges recently removed for violation of household rules.
“It appears the boy had made the phone calls to his father making these allegations as a means of seeking attention and sympathy,” the statement said.
Campbell said the investigation is continuing as a custodial interference case pertianing to the relative.
Sequim-Dungeness Valley Editor Joe Smillie can be reached at 360-681-2390, ext. 5052, or at jsmillie@peninsuladailynews.com.
