Search continues for missing man, son
An urgent search continues for a father and his young son from northern Butler County who have been missing since Monday night.
“I'm very concerned for their welfare,” state police Lt. Eric Hermick said this morning.
Ronald Brain, 30, and Grant Brain, 10, have been entered into the National Crime Information Center as “missing and endangered,” authorities said.
Criminal investigators said Brain could be on a drug binge.
“We're highly concerned with what the father's intentions are and why he took the boy,” said Hermick, the crime unit supervisor at the Butler barracks.
Brain and his son were last reportedly seen at 9:30 p.m. Monday when they left their home in the 600 block of West Mercer Street Extension in Mercer Township.
Brain told his wife that he was going to the hospital to visit a family member.
“But he never made it there,” Hermick said.
The father and son were last seen driving in a silver, 2002 Pontiac Bonneville sedan with the Pennsylvania license plate HYG4643. The car's trunk is believe to be tied down with bungee straps.
Police said the last known contact anyone had with Brain was about 11 p.m. Monday, when his wife reached him by cell phone.
“She said he was abusing drugs again and was acting very volatile,” Hermick said.
Investigators said further attempts to reach Brain on his prepaid cell phone have been unsuccessful.
The so-called “burner” phone makes it easier for users to hide calls.
“We don't know if (the phone) died or if he shut it off,” Hermick said of Brain.
Court records showed that state police in March charged Brain and a 27-year-old Slippery Rock man for misdemeanor drug possession stemming from a Jan. 26 traffic stop on Interstate 79 in Cranberry Township.A preliminary hearing in the case is set for Sept. 23.More recently, state police on April 27 arrested Brain on a pair of felony charges in connection with a theft in Slippery Rock Township.He was placed in the Butler County Prison until his arraignment the next morning. He was released on his own recognizance April 28, prison officials said.Anyone with information about their whereabouts is asked to call police at 724-284-8100.Efforts to reach Brain's family for this report were unsuccessful.
