No sign of Ryan Robichaud after nearly a week of searching in California

They've been all over parts of Orange County, distributing flyers and spreading the word. But the week is winding down, and discouraged volunteers still haven't spotted Ryan Robichaud.

The 23-year-old Burlington man went missing three months ago in a strange case that has involved cross-country phone calls, a mysterious baptism and a case of identity theft.

Ryan's mother, Tracy Beeso-Robichaud, has spent the week in Huntington Beach, Calif., searching with the help of local volunteers for her son, whose last disoriented phone call to her was in February. Not long after, he was baptized at a Huntington Beach church. Beeso-Robichaud now believes he is homeless.

Jeanene Jones, a Huntington Beach volunteer who's been helping Beeso-Robichaud since reading about her plight, says they've been trying everything.

Since Sunday, about a dozen volunteers have been on the ground, investigating sightings and distributing flyers. They're also raising awareness on social media, and through mainstream media in Orange County.

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On Monday, a private investigator offered his services pro bono, so he's searching too, Jones said. But he's told the group it's likely Robichaud won't be found before his mother flies back to Burlington on Sunday.

Jones still hopes he is.

"We are getting the word out there and hoping for the best," she said.

But "it's getting very discouraging."

Beeso-Robichaud traces Robichaud's strange behaviour back to a crash on Dec. 31, when his car hit a tree in Lowville. He walked 14 kilometres home to Burlington and was treated at Joseph Brant Hospital and released. 

House ransacked

He was last seen on Jan. 15, when Beeso-Robichaud came home to find her son gone and her house ransacked, she told CBC News this month. He was gone four days before he called her from a Hilton hotel in a Boston suburb.

"Mom, I needed to hear your voice," he said.

"I needed to hear your voice," she responded.

Her son said people could hear his thoughts, and that he'd tried to call numerous times, but "they wouldn't let it go through." He told her he'd died in the crash that day.

"I look in the mirror and I see Ryan, but my brain isn't working like it used to," he told her.

Beeso-Robichaud, tearful and scared, told him to come home. Robichaud was supposed to drive a rental car home, but he left it in Boston.

Suspected homeless

Days later, he called from a Staples store in Los Angeles, saying he didn't know how he'd gotten across the country. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) picked him up and dropped him off at the airport, where he tried to call his mother collect four times, but her provider didn't allow it. He never got on the plane.

The LAPD has also investigated an identity theft case involving Ryan's credit card.

Since then, Robichaud took his last money – $43 – from an ATM in Huntington Beach. He was also baptized at a Huntington Beach church, where the pastor described him as looking skinny and weathered. He had only a backpack and a roll-up mat.

Beeso-Robichaud's friend has raised more than $7,000 through a gofundme campaign to help. Beeso-Robichaud will be in California searching until Sunday.

Police in Westminster, Calif. are investigating and are accepting tips at 714-548-3815.