The White Rock man who was missing for two weeks returned home Saturday with a tale of being robbed while in Mexico.
Daniel Bouchard, 20, was last seen walking home after drinking at a White Rock pub June 9. Friends and family circulated posters, fearing he was the latest victim in a string of men across the Lower Mainland to have gone missing.
Yesterday, his father, also named Daniel Bouchard, said that his son, wanting a break from the stresses of daily life, fled to Mexico by himself on June 10 without telling anyone. Upon arriving, he took a cab to a bus station, where he said three men robbed him.
“He had no money, no clothes,” said his father. “They took everything. He had his shorts and his T-shirt and that was it.”
With too much pride to call home and explain what had happened, Daniel Bouchard Jr. told his father that he wandered the beaches until he met a couple that spoke a bit of English.
“They had no money but they said they’d give him a meal a day if he painted their house,” said Bouchard Sr. “Finally, he just buckled on Friday and called and said, ‘I need to come home.’”
Bouchard Sr. booked a flight home for his son.
