Anchorage Daily News

Before a magazine salesman knocked on her door one July day, Darby Anne LeBrun seemed to be leading the life of a fairly normal 21-year-old, Anchorage police say.

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Darby Anne LeBrun

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Nobody knows exactly what the man, apparently a stranger, said to cause her to walk out the door with him, according to police and LeBrun's family. A day or so later, she returned to pack a few possessions and left again.

After more than three months, her family still doesn't know where she is. They don't even know if she's alive.

"Foul play's not essentially suspected at this point, but I would call this a unique situation," Anchorage police Lt. Paul Honeman said.

"We're turning over every leaf. If someone had heard from her recently, then we would know she's safe. We haven't heard even that."

LeBrun's mother, Marcy LeBrun, said the family filed a police report last week because they thought she would have been back by now. She said she thinks her daughter is OK, but doesn't understand why she left.

"We don't know what to think," Marcy LeBrun said. "One day she turns 21, we go shopping, then she's gone."

LeBrun was living with her grandparents when she disappeared. They were out at a cabin on the Deshka River when the man apparently first showed up, but grandmother Caryl Wilson was home when he and LeBrun briefly came back.

The man -- LeBrun never identified him -- said he helps get kids off the streets and that he had fed and sheltered LeBrun, Wilson said. He planned to teach her how to run a business and said LeBrun wouldn't be able to contact her family for two months while she was in training, Wilson said.

LeBrun told her grandmother she would write postcards because she didn't know where she was going.

There hasn't been a call or a card since. LeBrun last logged onto her MySpace page the day she left, and a page she had on another networking site hasn't been touched since a week before she disappeared.

Cell phone records and bank transactions have similarly shown no activity, Honeman said.

"By all accounts she seems to be a pretty stable person, and it seems pretty odd that she would disappear for so long," Honeman said. "It's pretty scary."

LeBrun had lived with her grandparents since about February, after she broke up with a former boyfriend, her grandmother said.

Wilson said LeBrun's new friend was rude and yelled at her.

"He gave me to understand I was not a nice person," Wilson said. "I asked him to leave and I raised my voice. I almost pushed him."

LeBrun seemed determined to leave, her grandparents said.

"She was trying to find something to make her happy, and these people made her a promise so she went," said her grandfather, Steven Wilson.

LeBrun's 17-year-old brother, Kevin LeBrun, said she left behind her bank debit card, computer and most of her clothes.

LeBrun is 5 feet 10 inches tall and 130 pounds. She has green eyes and wears prescription eyeglasses. Her natural hair color is blonde, though she dyes it and it could be red or brown.

Police described the man as in his mid-20s, about 5 feet 11 inches tall, with a stocky build and light brown hair. He drove an older model blue van.

Police are asking anyone with information about LeBrun's whereabouts to contact them at 786-8900.

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.