Kenny DeLand Jr., a missing student in upstate New York, “is alive,” according to his father, who shared the “good news” after speaking to him in the middle of an interview.
“He’s alive, that’s all I can say,” his father Ken DeLand Sr. told CNN on Friday.
French prosecutor Eric Vaillant confirmed the news, telling CNN that the Rochester student who disappeared while studying in France is now somewhere in Spain.
Neither the father nor the official said where exactly the 22-year-old student was or what he had been up to in the past two weeks.
The breakthrough came when DeLand Sr. was on the phone with a CNN reporter discussing his son’s case.
The father hung up – then quickly replied to share the “good news”, without giving further details, the broadcaster said.
The initial report said the prosecutor was unaware of the breakthrough, which was quickly updated with his confirmation.
The St. John Fisher University senior in Rochester attended the University of Grenoble Alpes and last reached out to his family on Nov. 27 via WhatsApp.
His classmates reported him missing on 29 November, with the French Interior Ministry describing him as “frail in mood” and possibly “depressed”.
The eerie disappearance – or seriously missing persons – the report also noted that the student “doesn’t speak French well.”
His father previously told the outlet that not hearing from his child “creates all the worry a parent could ever feel.”
