LAKEPORT, Calif. – An unsolved missing person's case is getting new attention as police follow up on leads and use the latest technology to try to discover what happened to a young Lakeport man 20 years ago.



The case of Steven William Branston, who was 20 years old at the time he was last seen by family in the summer of 1996, recently has made its way back to the top of the Lakeport Police Department's caseload in the wake of two possible leads.



And while neither lead turned out to be a match, both the police and Branston's family are hoping that new media attention and the Internet – now a hugely effective way of sharing information about such cases worldwide – will help renew interest and lead to new information that will help finally solve the case.



Branston's disappearance is the only outstanding missing persons case in the city of Lakeport's jurisdiction, according to Lakeport Police Chief Brad Rasmussen, who himself investigated the young man's disappearance while working as a detective.



He said his agency wants to do everything it can to find out what happened to Branston.



In addition to Branston, there are seven other open missing person's cases from Lake County listed by the California Department of Justice's missing persons database.



A family's loss



The last time Susan and Jim Branston of Lakeport saw their son was in the summer of 1996.



In July of that year, they took a trip to Wyoming, and their son stayed at their home to take care of it for them.



Over the previous several years, the couple had watched their son begin to struggle with mental health issues.



Susan Branston said her son had at one point been good in school. He was artistic, mellow and easygoing.



The family had taken a memorable trip to Hawaii when he was 13, she said. “He loved it over there. He liked the warm weather, the water, the beach life.”



As he moved into his teens, he began to be more difficult to handle, she said. He had a hard time in school, his grades dropped, and he began attending a continuation high school. He also began smoking cigarettes and using drugs, primarily marijuana.



When he was about 16, his grandmother gave him some money and he flew to Hawaii. Susan Branston said her son was under the impression that he could go to the tropical state and simply live off the land. But the reality was starkly different.



He returned to California. His mother said he at one point overdosed on LSD, which addiction experts say can lead to hallucinations, psychosis and depression.



Steven Branston subsequently was diagnosed with mental health issues, including schizophrenia, a condition which his family was concerned may have been brought on by his use of LSD.



His mother said he began taking medication and was overseen by a psychiatrist.



By the summer of 1996, he had once again started thinking of returning to Hawaii. He had stopped taking Risperdal, the medical prescribed for his schizophrenia, and didn't want his psychiatrist to know, as his parents later would find out.



Susan and Jim Branston said they last talked to him around Aug. 1, 1996, as they were heading home from their vacation in Wyoming. They believe he left for Hawaii four days later.



“He carefully planned his escape,” said Susan Branston.



Susan Branston said they had not wanted him to go, but if he did they wanted to try to get him into group housing or arrange other help. However, he had other ideas.



“I guess he decided to take things into his own hands,” Susan Branston said.



At first, since he was an adult, the family decided to take a wait and see approach. But by October, the Branstons decided to report his disappearance to police.



Rasmussen said Branston's parents contacted the Lakeport Police Department on Oct. 5, 1996, reporting that they hadn't spoken to him since August.



The Lakeport Police Department immediately began its investigation, with officers entering Branston into the California Department of Justice Missing and Unidentified Persons System, Rasmussen said.



He said his agency also transmitted its investigation report to the Honolulu Police Department Criminal Investigations Division Missing Persons Detail, which began an investigation in their city and county. Lakeport Police would be in contact with then-Det. Phil Camaro, who worked with the Branstons in the effort to find their son.



Rasmussen said the initial police investigation confirmed that Steven Branston arrived in Honolulu after traveling there by himself on Aug. 5, 1996.



The last locations where authorities were able to confirm Branston had been were at the Honolulu Airport and at Honolulu's Hy-Pac Self Storage in August 1996, said Rasmussen.



On Aug. 12, 1996, Branston rented a locker at Hy-Pac Self Storage, where he left some personal property, and then opened a bank account on the same day, as he had transferred his Social Security payments to Hawaii, Rasmussen said.



The bank account records at the time of the report showed that two Social Security Income checks, for the months of August and September 1996, had been deposited into the account but no withdrawals had been made, according to Rasmussen.



Branston's parents monitored the bank account for at least a year and found that checks continued to be deposited but no money was ever withdrawn while the account was active, Rasmussen said. The family also monitored the storage locker, which Branston didn't make any more payments on after the initial rental.





A fruitless search



While the August 1996 sightings of Branston in Honolulu were the last of him to be confirmed, Rasmussen said there were several reported but unconfirmed sightings of him in Hawaii beginning that same month and lasting through the following June.



During that time, he was reportedly seen on the islands of Oahu, Molokai, Maui and Kauai, Rasmussen said.



Susan Branston and her family would travel to Hawaii in the coming years, attempting to find their son and follow up themselves on the reported sightings of him.



The summer after his disappearance, they spent about two months scouring the islands, visiting homeless shelters and adult service agencies, and passing around fliers, Susan Branston said.



She said they also were taken around and shown possible areas where he may have been seen by Det. Camaro, who had told them that, in 90 percent of the cases, missing persons are found.



Rasmussen agreed with Camaro's estimate, noting that missing persons usually are found, and found quickly.



But not in this case.



With the family exhausting its resources, Susan Branston said she had to return to Lake County to go back to work. “We were very upset and didn't know what to do,” she said.



She said her family had considered trying to hire a private investigator, but concluded that they simply couldn't afford it.



So they continued their own efforts. When friends would visit the islands, the family would send more fliers about his disappearance with them to post.



When his third grade teacher thought she saw him in Kauai on one trip, the Branstons returned to the islands, paying special attention to Kauai and again looking everywhere and following every lead.



They would get tips of possible sightings and chase them from one location to another, but never were able to confirm that their son had actually ever been in those spots.



“We don't know if anyone ever saw him,” Susan Branston said. “We don't have anything concrete.”



One of the last leads they received during their visit to Kauai was from a woman who believed she saw Steven Branston on Maui. Susan Branston said they didn't have enough time to get to Maui before they were scheduled to return home.



“We were getting people seeing him everywhere, so it was very confusing,” she said, adding they were never sure whether to believe the reports of the sightings or not.



Such sightings in a missing person's case are common, said Rasmussen, noting that police often will get numerous leads from people believing that they saw the person in question.



Rasmussen said the the county of Kauai Police Department also conducted an investigation regarding Steven Branston’s disappearance in the year 2000, but turned up no leads.



That same summer, when Rasmussen was a detective working the Branston case, he contacted Camaro at the Honolulu Police Department at about the time the local police were working to submit Branston's dental records to the California Department of Justice.



Susan Branston believes it's possible that her son could still be alive somewhere, but added, “We have no idea what happened to him.”



Her family would like to have him home, and have closure. That includes daughter, Tammy Varnum, five years younger than her brother and now married and living in Bishop. “She loved her brother very much,” Susan Branston said.



She said the despite his mental health issues, her son was “a nice kid,” who wasn't violent and wouldn't have harmed anyone.



But she is concerned someone may have harmed him.



New case leads



Rasmussen said the Lakeport Police Department's investigators over the years have continued to work the Branston case in an attempt to develop new leads.



Then, this past July and August, new cases were brought to the Lakeport Police Department's attention that had raised the possibility that Branston may have been found, Rasmussen said.



Det. Dale Stoebe, with the assistance of a California Department of Justice Missing and Unidentified Persons System analyst, conducted followup investigation on two cases involving unidentified deceased persons who were possible matches to Branston's characteristics, Rasmussen said.



At that point, Stoebe also contacted Susan and Jim Branston to let them know of the possible developments, according to Rasmussen.



Rasmussen said the first case was from 2001 in Washington state, while the second was a 1998 case from Mississippi.



The Washington case involved an unidentified male who died at a motel in the Lake Quinault area of Grays Harbor County, according to that county's coroner's office.



The man in question appeared to be in his 20s, close in height and build to Branston, with similar coloring and other physical characteristics, based on the case description.



Rasmussen said a citizens group that investigates missing persons cases around the world sent details of that case to his department this summer, thinking it might be a match. However, Branston's fingerprints that were on file showed it wasn't the same man.



The second case involved a man in his 20s who was seriously injured by a drunk driver in a hit-and-run crash in Hattiesburg, Miss., while hitchhiking along Interstate 59 in December of 1998, according to Rasmussen.



A report on the case said the man had identified himself as Steve Hex or Hicks and had claimed to be a resident of West Virginia before he lost consciousness after the crash. He died the following May due to complications from his injuries.



Pictures of the man showed that he, too, bore a strong physical resemblance to Branston, but Rasmussen said a blood test showed that it was not, in fact, Branston.



As a result of those followup cases, Rasmussen said his department decided to do a DNA profile on Branston. “We determined that really needed to be done as soon as possible,” he said, with police obtaining samples from Branston's parents.



Rasmussen said Branston's information – including dental records, fingerprints and last known photographs – remain on file with the California Department of Justice Missing and Unidentified Persons System, which is linked to the state of Hawaii's missing persons database.



California's and Hawaii's missing persons databases also are connected to the United States Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Missing and Unidentified Missing Persons System, Rasmussen said.



Branston's newly added DNA profile will be checked against existing cases, with the system also running a check for possible matches every time a new profile is added, Rasmussen said.



Rasmussen said it's possible Steven Branston is still alive, possibly living under a different name and identity, and that someone may recognize him, which will help finally wrap up the case once and for all.



“There's always hope,” Rasmussen said.



Have you seen Steven? How you can help



The physical description of Branston from the time of his disappearance is for a white male adult, 6 feet tall, 170 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes.



At that time he had long curly hair which he wore in a ponytail and may have had a light brown curly beard.



He had a history of smoking cigarettes, and may have been wearing a scarf headband, a tie-dye shirt or black or white shirt, jeans or cutoffs and sandals.



Rasmussen said the Lakeport Police Department is working on getting an image developed that will show what Branston would look like today, at age 40.



The Lakeport Police Department plans to continue to work with authorities in Hawaii on the case, a full rundown of which Rasmussen said will be posted at the Lakeport Police Department Web site, http://www.lakeportpolice.org/ .



Anyone with information is encouraged to contact Lakeport Police Det. Dale Stoebe or any other officer at 707-263-5491.



Private messages also can be sent on the department's Facebook page @LakeportPolice or by sending an anonymous message through Nixle on your cellular telephone by texting the words TIP LAKEPORT followed by your message to 888777.



Anyone with information in Hawaii can call the Honolulu Police Department at 808-529-3111.



Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.