Police Think Missing Teen Might Be a Runaway

Police are investigating whether missing 17-year-old Bogdan Predescu might have run away from home.

Predescu left Walnut Creek in his mother's Honda Civic, without her permission, on July 10, and hasn't been back since, his mother Adina Ionesco told Patch in.

Police don't believe foul play was involved, said Lt. Dan Connelly of the Pleasant Hill Police Department.

Connelly described Predescu as "tech-savvy" and said he has been communicating with friends using an iTouch. He did not take his cell phone with him, Ionesco said.

"It looks like he staged his disappearance," said Connelly Wednesday, without elaborating.

"He's 6-1, 180," said Connelly. "The chances that he was abducted are pretty slim."

Ionesco said she reported her son as missing to the Pleasant Hill police. Predescu is due to be a senior at Las Lomas High in Walnut Creek this fall.

In the days before he left, Predescu had been through some emotional upheavals, his mother said — a breakup with a girlfriend and a goodbye to relatives who had visited and were returning to Romania.
Predescu had told friends he planned to visit Lake Tahoe, Sacramento, Santa Cruz, Southern California or Arizona.

Friends worried about Predescu have launched a "Finding Bogdan" Facebook page looking to publicize his disappearance. It includes the license plate of the Honda Civic and has collected more than 560 fans.

That license plate number has been entered into a national data system so police officers are on the lookout, said Connelly.

Walnut Creek and Pleasant Hill detectives have been communicating about the case, Connelly said.