Family Holding Out Hope To Find Missing Brainerd Man
BRAINERD, Minn. (WCCO) -- A Minnesota family is doing everything it can to help get some new leads on the whereabouts of a missing loved one.
Marc Welzant, 47, has been missing since October. His brother, Dave Welzant, said Marc walked out of a group home in Brainerd where he lived and headed to a nearby gas station. Then it is as if he vanished into thin air.
"It is hard to imagine if you haven't been through this, you think about it every day," Dave Welzant said.
Welzant said Marc is the youngest of 11 children and he sometimes left his group home alone.
"It's not unusual for him to wander down to a convenience store but normally within half hour they see him on street or he wanders back," Dave Welzant said.
Dave Welzant said Marc was diagnosed as a child with Prader-Willi, a rare genetic disease that causes physical and mental problems. The disease also makes people feel as though they are never full.
Dave Welzant said his brother was at a healthy weight when he disappeared because of help and a healthy regimen at his group home.
According to the family, there is video of Marc leaving a holiday gas station near his group home on Oct. 26, 2014.
"After that there is nothing, not even small piece of evidence he was anywhere after that gas station," Welzant said.
Dave Welzant said Marc is a skilled fisherman and has a friendly demeanor so he is likely to strike up a conversation with a stranger. His friendly demeanor is why the family is hopeful a new $10,000 dollar reward for information that helps find Marc will trigger someone's memory.
"Someone saw something that afternoon," Welzant said of the day his brother disappeared.
Dave Welzant said his siblings have exhausted other options like posting billboards, posters and conducting extensive searches alongside police.
Welzant said some family members have even turned to psychics for help in the past three months to locate Marc Welzant.
"It's difficult to describe. There is something missing inside you, a connection you haven't been able to close," Dave Welzant said.
Marc Welzant was last seen in the 400 block of South 6th street in Brainerd.
Dave Welzant said Marc also has very low sensitivity to cold and heat, so time out in the elements is especially dangerous for him. Investigators WCCO-TV spoke with Sunday said there have not been any new leads in months in Welzant's disappearance.