A missing woman who walked out on her family without warning after a magazine salesman knocked on her door more than three months ago has surfaced in San Bernardino, Calif., her family said Tuesday.
Darby Anne LeBrun, 21, disappeared in July, saying she planned to sell magazines door-to-door, and hadn't been heard from since. After the call, her family still doesn't know how to reach her, and will have to take her word that she is safe, said Darby's grandmother, Caryl Wilson. But at least they know she's alive, she said.
"She's a little brain dead, but OK," said Marcy LeBrun, Darby's mother. "I can't believe I raised a self-sufficient daughter that is letting herself be controlled by this group."
Details remain sketchy as to exactly where Darby is and what she's doing, LeBrun said. She talked to her daughter for 10 minutes Sunday before Darby said she had to go.
What LeBrun knows is that her daughter, who apparently drove down along the West Coast with the man who came to her door, is living with a group of people associated with the magazine salesman's company. LeBrun doesn't know the group's name and has no contact information for her daughter, though Darby said they were "very upbeat and positive people."
Darby said she's only allowed to make one phone call each week, on Sundays.
She said she was afraid to call earlier because she thought her parents might be mad, but that she is making money and is happy, LeBrun said. But when she pressed her daughter about the money, Darby said her manager controls it and she doesn't have the bank account number, according to LeBrun.
Although her family doesn't know what Darby's specific experience has been, Wilson said she was disconcerted after reading a New York Times article published Feb. 21 of this year that chronicled the shadowy existence of some magazine "crews."
In it, young adults who became magazine salespeople describe a cult-like life of drugs, violence and coercion. Rather than being a job, selling the magazines is often a lifestyle in which the youths are exploited by unscrupulous managers who put them up in sleazy hotels, pocket their earnings and keep the "team" in line with threats of violence, according to the Times.
Darby's family filed a police report for the first time two weeks ago because they thought she would have been back by now. Before she left, she told Wilson she was leaving to learn about running a business and would be able to contact them in about two months. But she never did.
Wilson met the man Darby left with briefly. He told her he gets kids off the streets and would take care of Darby. Wilson said the man yelled at her, saying she "wasn't a good person."
Darby hurriedly packed up a few belongings but left most of her things behind, including her debit card and passport, Wilson said.
The reason Darby gave for finally calling Sunday was that her manager had been contacted by an investigator who said police were looking for her, LeBrun said. She did not say whose investigator, and efforts to contact police in San Bernardino on Tuesday were unsuccessful.
Anchorage police loaded her missing persons information into a nationwide database, but police spokesman Lt. Paul Honeman could not confirm if Darby had, in fact, been contacted by a law enforcement officer. Until police can confirm she's actually free to act as she chooses, they will continue the investigation, Honeman said.
"The family reported that they'd heard from her, but we haven't, so we're going to leave the case open until we hear that she's not under duress and that she's acting of her own free will," Honeman said.
But contacting her directly could be a challenge.
The youths are often shuffled between states to avoid having them rack up arrests for illegal solicitations, according to the Times article, which describes an industry, consisting of thousands of youths, that has been difficult to regulate because the companies are small and frequently change names.
Many operate out of post office boxes. Because the sellers are classified as independent contractors, they have few labor protections, the Times reported.
In a 1987 congressional investigation into the industry, a Senate committee that reviewed the records of one company found that 413 of its 418 sellers ended the year in debt to the company. The company itself reported huge profits.
Anchorage police have not dealt with this kind of case before, Honeman said.
For now, Darby's family will have to wait for her to decide to come home, Wilson said, though there is no telling when that might be.
"At this point it's good to know she's safe," Wilson said. "We have to take her word for that."
Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.
