[narrator] Alex Gumm disappeared
on February 22nd, 2018.
One day Alex told me that he was leaving for Kauai.
You're thinking as a parent, "Let him go.
Let him have his time
and... sooner or later he'll come home."
Didn't happen.
[narrator] His family is desperate for answers.
Spiritual seekers and members of cults
have long come to Kauai seeking this sort of
mythological Eden that for some of them isn't mythological, it's real.
[Spenser] As soon as I got off the plane
you just feel this like, weird energy.
That island is scary and dangerous.
We thought, what if he did get involved into a cult?
[narrator reading]
retraces Alex's last known steps.
We are gonna go to Hawaii now
and really go look for our friend.
Alex thought he was in communication
with something outside of this world,
extraterrestrial perhaps.
This is not some fun adventure.
This isn't a game like. This is life and death.
[narrator] The more people who know Alex's story,
the greater the chance of bringing him home.
[narrator reading]
Help find him.
My name is Ben Gumm.
I am Alex Gumm's father.
My son disappeared
on February 22nd, 2018,
in Kauai, Hawaii,
and he's still missing.
Alex grew up in North Berwick, Maine,
a very small town, 4,000 people.
I'm Sally McLaren, Alex's mom.
He showed a great aptitude for art at a very young age.
His doodles good. They were like cartoons.
So he was very artistic.
I hear you're looking to find the Holy Land.
I will tell you where to go
and give you the powers that you need on your journey.
[Ben] He was very interested in graffiti
and spend hours and hours and hours
looking at graffiti books,
perfecting what he did.
[Sally] And we let Alex do murals in our basement.
And once he honored me in one of his murals.
He put a heart,
he put the name MOM next to it.
[Ben] I tried to get him into all the traditional sports,
but then he gravitated towards skateboarding.
And once he got on his skateboard
that was the focus of his life.
It wasn't long before he met a group of friends
that also skateboarded right in town, that was great.
My name is Ian Davis.
I've know Alex since I was 15 years old.
I met him through skateboarding.
Even though Alex was a few years younger than all of us,
he really stood up because he had no fear.
He would try anything and he would always, like,
miraculously land the things he was trying.
So that earns you respect
in that kind of group, you know.
I'm Spenser Macleod I'm Alex Gumm's friend.
I met Alex, I think I was 15 years old
and Alex was much younger than me.
Me and Alex were really close friends.
But I always looked up to him
because he was so good at everything.
[Ian] Alex seemed a little immature at times.
But when you got to talk to him
you knew there was a lot more going on there.
Deep down he was like an old soul I would say.
[Ben] After Alex's freshmen year
all of his good friends
graduated from high school.
So his sophomore year in high school
was very difficult for Alex,
and he really lost interest in school.
[Spenser] I always thought he was like a closet genius.
He was so smart. He was one of those,
those people that they say is too smart for school.
It just didn't intrigue him enough.
He didn't graduate with his class,
and um, obviously we were very disappointed.
But he decided to get his GED.
[Sally] Alex started recording music.
And I was quite amazed
because he got himself a sounding board,
and he would pull things into his room
from around the yard. I mean I remember
he took my chimes off the porch
and he would make all the tracks
and all the sounds of the instruments
by himself.
[Ben] So he was 22 when he went to LA to pursue music.
He gravitated more to folk music
and the music that he wrote was very introspective.
He probably wrote a 100 songs.
This became his real focus.
So the music community over there,
it was very, like psychedelic '60s reborn.
He had found a girlfriend.
He had a job.
Alex was very happy.
[Spenser] When Alex put out,
like, multiple full-length albums
with different bands and by himself,
it was some really, really awesome music.
We were really excited for him.
And we were in touch with him
back and forth all the time on the phone.
So Alex arranged a night of music
where he would bring in his band
and two or three other bands to perform
and unfortunately
they didn't have a lot of people there
and uh, everything seemed to fall apart,
uh, after that night.
[groans]
He lost his job at the restaurant.
He lost his girlfriend.
And he left the band.
[Sally] We got the phone call. "Well, I'm ready to come home.
I think know what LA is all about.
And I miss you guys, so...
pick me up at the airport." [chuckles]
And we went and got him.
Alex came back to Maine
and really with his head between his tail.
He totally changed his demeanor.
And his demeanor at home
reflected a lot of his new-found interest
in Eastern philosophy.
He took a mattress off of his bed,
laid it on the floor
and he set up a little temple.
I couldn't go into his room if he was meditating
and he really had this
Eastern way of life at that time.
[Ben] He had become a vegan,
and he spent his time writing music,
reading spiritual texts...
all kinds of spirituality.
He read the Bible.
He read the books from Buddhism,
Hinduism, Shintoism,
uh, you name it, he was interested in it.
He was also very interested
in the television show Ancient Aliens.
[Spenser] Alex was always interested in aliens and stuff like that.
And uh, we were watching Ancient Aliens on TV,
"Oh, that's real."
He was really interested in like, all that stuff.
[Sally] When he would talk about extraterrestrial beings,
it seemed very scientific that he had researched,
and he had answers.
I discounted his interest in
extraterrestrial to be the minor of all of this,
that his true interest
was more in elevating his consciousness,
but maybe he believed it.
One day Alex came down the back stairs
and he told me that he was leaving for Kauai.
And I thought, "Oh, okay, that's an interesting choice
because..." and I think,
Kauai is a series of inactive volcanoes,
beautiful beaches, so made sense to me.
[Ben] So on the morning of February 22nd,
we drove him to the bus that
goes to Logan Airport.
He was wearing his signature leather broad brimmed hat,
and his parka
that looked like a Mexican parka.
Had his backpack.
[Sally] When we got into the bus station,
he wouldn't even embrace us or give us a hug or bye.
Of course you're thinking as a parent, "Let him go,
and let him have his time
and... sooner or later he'll come home."
Didn't happen.
My name is Brittany Lyte.
I'm a reporter of Honolulu Civil Beat,
and I've been covering the Alex Gumm case.
Kauai is the oldest island in the Hawaiian archipelago.
It is commonly referred to as the "Garden Island."
It's so verdant and lush.
It's sort of like another worldly jungle paradise.
And it's no surprise that a lot of folks
who love adventure and want to backpack
and camp, you know, they flock here.
[Sally] He was gone for maybe a week.
So I called him.
And it immediately went to voice mail.
Another week goes by,
trying again, this time I leave a message,
"Alex, it's Mom. Haven't heard from you.
Please give us a call. I just want to know you're all right."
Still didn't hear from him.
We weren't overly concerned about this
because he had gone to other places
over the last four or five years.
California...
Oregon...
India.
But we could access his bank accounts
and we could see that Alex arrived safely in Kauai
because there was a charge on his debit card
for a one-night stay at the local youth hostel,
in Kauai.
[Sally] I called the hostel
and the woman that I spoke with
remember Alex had been there only one night
and they really didn't know anything more
other than he left. He been there and he left.
After that the trail went dead,
and we had no indication of where Alex was.
I was worried.
But then the two weeks turned into a month
and I thought, "Well, how he was fascinated with aliens,
and that maybe it's culminated
in his trip to Kauai.
[Brittany] Alex was fascinated
with this mythological place called Lemuria
which is this ancient continent
that was inhabited by aliens,
uh, from another star system.
And there's quite a bit of literature
on the Internet that describes the island of Kauai
as being Lemuria, and so
it seems that Alex got the idea that
Kauai was Lemuria and he wanted to come here.
So Kauai is supposedly the modern-day place
where Lemuria was or is.
So, if you believe in that origin story of humanity
and that the aliens had seeded the Earth
and you wanted to connect to that place
it would make sense to pursue that
and to go there and try to do that.
Spiritual seekers and, and members of cults
that worship Lemuria have long come to Kauai
seeking this sort of
mythological Eden that, you know,
for some of them isn't mythological, it's real.
With all of Alex's interest in Eastern philosophy
and extraterrestrial beings
we thought, "What if he did get involved into a cult?"
[Ian] So Kauai is supposedly
the modern-day place where Lemuria was or is,
and if you wanted to connect to that place
it would make sense to pursue that
and to go there and try to do that.
Before he went to Kauai he developed the philosophy
that the Earth was populated by aliens.
[Ian] The whole Lemuria thing came up
because we were watching an Ancient Aliens episode, it just came on
and it was about Kauai and how they think that
that's where the ancient Lemuria's actually located.
Kinda like one of those Atlantis stories.
That fascinated Alex.
Alex thought that he was...
a Pleiadian,
which is like a certain race of aliens
coming from the star system and they seeded the Earth.
And where they seeded the Earth
was once called Lemuria,
and it's now where Kauai is.
Like, so that was, like. an alternative origin story
for civilization or for humanity,
and he subscribed to that from what I understand.
I know that at one point Alex thought he was potentially
in some sort of communication with something else
outside of this world, extraterrestrial.
Perhaps he thought he was communicating with something.
To some people his behavior might bring up questions
and, you know, how is Alex's mental health?
Was he, you know, diagnosed with bipolar disorder?
Or schizophrenia?
[Sally] During all of this,
of course it's crossed our mind,
you know, is... is something troubling Alex?
Is he...
disturbed in any way?
[Ian] I would say he seemed
too lucid and like...
I don't think it's anything like schizophrenia
but if anything it seems...
like, some sort of manic, bipolar
but not like a schizophrenic.
[Spenser] Our friendship definitely dissolves,
me and friends will go all the time. This one was tough
'cause he was definitely like a younger brother to us.
[Ben] I felt that Alex might have needed some help,
but he didn't want to.
Well, obviously we were devastated.
Well, that was a little hard to understand
but I think he was searching for something.
[Brittany] So this idea that Kauai is Lemuria
has certainly attracted uh, pilgrims.
Recently there was a cult that came to Kauai
from the mainland and they apparently believe that it was Lemuria.
It's wholly possible that Alex came to Kauai to join one of these groups
who you know believes that Kauai is Lemuria.
[Sally] I contacted the police
and they did list him on the missing persons list.
[Ben] Then we immediately reached out
to the local media to help us.
And so we contacted the local newspaper,
explained the story,
and, uh, one of the reporters there
was nice enough to write a story
for the local Hawaii newspaper
about Alex's disappearance.
[ringing]
[Sally] Every time the phone would ring,
we'll say, "Maybe that's Alex. Maybe that's Alex."
He's gonna say, "Hey, Dad, can you come pick me up?
I'm at the airport."
But that just never came to be.
I mean that was the epitome of my frustration.
Anyone who's been a parent
or is a parent
knows how they love their children,
and I can't find Alex.
So at this point there'd been
lots of tips that have come in,
but nothing has panned out.
[Sally] We were not in a position
physically or business-wise
to be making that trip to Kauai
and you know you go out there...
and you know, how much time do we spend?
What if we haven't found him?
How do I get on that plane to come home?
I can't.
So I can't even go.
But I did go through his room looking for any possible clue.
I found a map of Kauai in his computer desk
with a couple of places circled,
couple of the towns.
But I couldn't go on the computer
because I'm not computer savvy.
And then one of his skateboard friends contacted me to help.
[Ian] Nobody's heard from Alex for over a year
and I was working with Hunter, Spenser's brother,
and he said, "Did you know Alex Gumm is missing?"
And I said, "What do you mean Alex Gumm is missing?"
So I immediately pulled my phone out,
searched his name...
missing and articles popped up.
And it was... it was very shocking,
and very concerning.
And that's when we decided to... to get involved.
[Spenser] We started digging through his stuff
and I'm just like...
"Sally and Ben, how deep did you guys go?"
For us we know how to dig in.
So, we went through his search history
and wondering about the whole cult thing.
[Spenser] We were trying to dive into, like, his google searches
and get into his computer and...
as much as we could we...
we gathered a lot of information.
It's like I couldn't believe it.
[Spenser] So we were looking through, you know, Alex's computer,
the stuff that came up on the search
was like foraging for your own food
and... and stuff like that,
and him being a raw vegan
in a place that's
tropical island
you can live off the land so.
He's not someone who would be
falling under the spell of,
like, a cult leader.
But this off-the-grid thing...
I mean anything is possible with the story.
[Ben] So his friends tell us
that maybe Alex had gone off-the-grid.
And that he was emailing
um, outfitter of businesses
in Kauai
prior to him leaving.
Alex wasn't a roughing-it type of guy.
But he was looking to buy camping equipment.
Alex had researched it, looked into it.
You know, researched edible fruits and berries.
He was preparing himself for living independently...
Kauai has long attracted free-spirited, hippie,
counterculture holdout types,
who wanted to live off-the-grid.
It's completely possible that Alex is living off the land,
living off-the-grid, doing his thing
that he, you know, seems wanted to do.
I can see him just being like, "I could be self-sufficient out in the jungle."
Like, I could see him totally living that life
and being okay with that.
[Sally] We thought that Alex was living off the grid.
And about si...
six months after Alex went missing
the private investigator contacted us
and offered his services.
My name is Brian Fujiuchi.
I'm a private investigator on Kauai.
I was hired by...
Ben and Sally Gumm
to find their son who went missing in Kauai.
I don't know if Alex wanted to be found,
but I think he wanted to be by himself.
If you wanted to be by yourself
you could just walk into one of the valleys
and pitch a tent,
or build a house, a treehouse, whatever,
and you can, you can survive.
I've known and spoken to a gentleman who lived,
you know, in a valley for 12 years,
you know, by himself,
by catching rain water and surviving.
[Sally] Brian suggested that
many people who go to Kauai to drop off-the-grid
and they can get along very well,
uh, living off the land.
And our hope goes up again.
That maybe Brian, he's just gonna find him.
So the investigation starts backwards,
what... what happened?
You know, where did he go?
Yeah, I went down to the Salt Pond Beach Park
just to canvas there, put up a flyer.
[Brittany] Salt Pond Beach Park
is on the island's western shore.
It's frequented by tourists as well as local residents,
and there is often a community of homeless folks
who are living there as well.
[Brian] I started putting up the posters
and a local lady, she'd one cold night
made a big pot of soup
and brought it down to the Hanapepe's,
uh, Salt Pond Beach Park and so she saw this...
uh, young man sitting at a table reading a book.
She said, uh, the book appeared to be
some kind of a religious book that he was reading.
So she asked him, "You want some soup?"
And he said, "What's in it?"
And she said, "Ham."
And he said, "Oh, I... I can't have any."
Because he was a vegetarian.
And at that time she noticed
the tattoo on his hand.
A tattoo can be like a fingerprint
because if it's one of a kind
then it's easy to identify the person.
And so she was said,
well, describe the tattoo,
and she was, "blue, kind of like a triangle shape."
That was almost a 100% proof that that was Alex.
[Brittany] This was a pretty credible tip
because she saw him down with the same tattoo,
the fact that he didn't wanna take the soup
because he doesn't eat meat.
All of these things made this tip
very, very credible.
[Brian] This area is known as Hanapepe.
And this beach park in particular
is called the Salt Pond Beach Park.
Well, because the information was relatively new and fresh,
I came down here right away.
Checked around, and there was nobody that fit his description.
So I started going to each tent
and talking to people.
And one of the guys that I talked to said,
"Yeah, there's a... He stays with this girl,
you know, in a white car."
And I saw a white car is in the parking lot.
So I looked in the white car
and the back seat
filled with religious books.
So, I'm thinking, "Wow, yeah, maybe...
maybe Alex, you know, made a friend
and was using-- riding the car."
So I then came back to the park,
walked around and the same guy
that I talked said, "Hey, you looking for that couple?"
I said, "Yeah." He said, "They're right here in this tent."
So I went up to the tent and the guy that came out
was a tall, tall gentleman,
slim, you know, with slight, slight beard.
And so I asked him, you know, "What's his name?"
And he gave me his name.
And so I, "Do you have any identification?"
He said, "Why?" I said, I'm looking for this,
you know, showed him the pictures.
So, "Oh, no, that's definitely not me."
So he showed me his hands.
No-- He had tattoos on his arm
but not on his hand.
So I said, "You guys ever see this boy around?"
He goes, "No, but you see, you know,
we're not here every day all day.
So, you know, he may have come
and left, you know?
So I put up more flyers in the town,
hoping that somebody else would call me,
to say that they've seen him.
But then as time went on the tips stopped coming in.
[Ian] So by the fall of 2019
uh, we decided to start running social media ad campaigns
with missing posters of Alex,
targeted for the entire island of Kauai,
trying to generate leads about where he might be
in order to conduct our search effectively.
So a guy reached out to me on Instagram
and he said, "Hey, I think I've seen your buddy.
I think he stays at Donkey Beach."
It's a beach, I thinks it's 20 minutes north
of where the airport is.
Not too far. Not too hard to get to.
This guy said, "Yeah, I think he...
he's camping on Donkey Beach,
and I'm pretty sure he goes to a food pantry
every Wednesday, in Princeville.
At the end of the day, like, we got to do something,
and that what we decided to do.
We're gonna go to Hawaii now
and really, go look for our friend and,
so it's myself, uh, my brother Hunter,
uh, one of my best friends Ian,
uh, our friend Alec,
who was along for the ride,
and we convinced our really good friend, Shane in LA,
the night before we're flying out to join us.
That was the group.
Growing up and filming Alex
and being in that whole way, documenting his life,
we decided that we're gonna search for Alex
and film this and turn it into a documentary,
in a... in a bigger project.
It just felt like the right thing to do.
Just to get us who are willing to go on this adventure
to find our friend because we do--
We knew he was out there.
We really, really did.
Alex Gumm was last seen February 22nd, 2018.
If you have any information, please visit
searchingforalex.com
[Ian] As we're coming in you see just how Kauai is absolutely remote
and lush and just staggeringly beautiful.
Everything about it seems larger than life.
And there's something about it seems kinda like
mysterious I guess.
It feels like there's some sort of like
natural beauty and power to that place that's...
There's something there,
like beyond, like, what you see, I would say.
[Spenser] As soon as I got off the plane,
you just feel this like,
weird energy.
Not that it was bad. It was just weird.
[Ian] The plane lands in and I'm like, perfect.
We'll post up in Princeville,
at the food pantry, like a stake out,
Alex will come out to get his weekly rations
and we'll walk up and say, "Hey, man." Like, "What's going on?"
But I get a message from the same guy
and he's like, "Hey, I had a chance
to talk to that guy. It's not him."
It's just kinda like...
"Okay, so there goes this lead where we really thought,
like, we know where he is."
I was so convinced going there that we're gonna find him
and be like, "Okay, we can confirm he's alive,
find out why he went, solve the mystery."
So that was really deflating when we landed in
and this lead is, like, was immediately gone.
It is sad because we had just got there.
I mean none of us had ever conducted, like, a search for somebody.
But we are just trying to create a plan.
I do remember that from his search history he was looking--
At YouTube he's looking at
a couple of different monasteries in Kauai.
Alex was interested in being a monk
and going through the whole steps in that.
So there is monasteries
on that island specifically
and that's definitely something Alex was interested in.
[Brittany] The hostel where Alex spent his first night when he arrived on the island
is only about a 20-minute drive
from the Hindu monastery here on the island.
So it is possible that he came here
with the intent to perhaps join the monastery,
or at least try to make some inroads there.
And when you're a monk, at least from my perspective,
you cannot have any ties back to home
and you got to leave your life behind.
He could be doing that right now.
We ended up going to a monastery there.
We asked if they knew Alex.
They said, "No."
We all got the same vibe
that they kinda didn't want us there.
They weren't helpful. We showed a picture
and they weren't really interested in looking at it
and just kinda say, "Yeah, he's not here."
So we left there just kinda, like, unsatisfied with that answer.
Um, there was something about it
that was just off-putting.
Maybe they don't want to be
forthcoming with information.
They're a little cagey because...
perhaps...
they respect that, that person made that decision to join.
That makes sense.
But at this point we only covered the surface.
It was just like, "Let's keep going.
We need to find him."
[Spenser] A lot of the locals kept talking about this Kalalau Valley
and there's a community out there.
I could see Alex joining a group of like-minded people for sure
that are living off the land
and have no rules. There are no tie to society.
And so we are, like, "We need to go look there."
Kalalau is an extremely isolated beach and valley on the island of Kauai.
Kalalau Beach is surrounded by
2000-3000 ft tall cliffs.
Just a cathedral of volcanic mountain peaks
and just soaring cliffs with razor-sharp edges.
You cannot drive there.
You cannot take a helicopter there.
And for that reason it's sort of this, uh...
alternate universe.
[birds chirping]
[Brittany] There are...
clean streams that you can drink from and bathe in.
There are folks who do farming there.
Grow their own food.
There are pigs you can hunt there.
So there's sort of always been this
illicit off-the-grid community
living in this valley.
It is a 16-mile trail through the jungle.
And it's up and down cliffs
and many mountains
and in and out of wetlands, drylands, the whole way.
It's not like you're walking down a nature trail.
It's very, very dangerous.
The problem is we had very limited time,
so we couldn't hike out there feasibly,
and we didn't have any gear.
And that's when, um, we are put in contact
with somebody who can drive us in a boat up there,
cut down the whole hike and make it
so we can just enter the valley from the beach.
So we got in the boat.
It's like an hour-plus boat ride.
It's gorgeous. I mean, it's amazing.
You're in what-- It's like Jurassic Park.
It's like so isolated, it's so beautiful. It's a jungle.
But what they didn't tell us is when
the boat brings you there...
they can't bring the boat right up the shore...
because waves are so big.
We're like a football field away
and he's like, "When I go in
you guys all have to jump."
That's when like the nerves really hit.
[speaks indistinctly]
[Ian] I realized my shoes are still on.
I have a trash bag full of camera gear.
I'm just not prepared.
[laughing nervously]
Oh!
And I'm now in the ocean. There's no turning back.
[gasps]
I caught the wave but I just got thrown head first into the water.
I was completely vertical, like head facing down.
Tossed around underneath the wave.
This is really happening.
This is not some fun adventure.
This isn't a game.
This is life and death.
I was under for, I don't know how long
but it felt like a long time, waiting to come up.
[coughing, gasping]
[Spenser] This is straight chaos.
I look over at Ian
and he's white as a sheet,
like, he just puked.
[Ian] We'd felt like being on a different planet.
I was getting really overwhelmed,
like emotionally.
We had a huge area to look for.
This is the trail based on the map.
Heading into the valley, we kinda have the loosest trail
and we're like bushwhacking it through the jungle.
[splashing]
Oh, it's so hot.
That's how far we got and...
[Spenser] Alex, we're out here. We really wanna find you.
Give us a sign.
Where the hell are you?
[gasping]
[Spenser] We did as much as we could
to try and find people out there.
But we couldn't find Alex.
So we ended up going back to the beach
and I remember turning at the end of the trail,
turning and seeing the waves and my heart sunk.
The waves are huge and I'm horrible at swimming.
I don't know exact distance
but like, couple of 100 feet to swim,
from like the beach to the boat
which with huge waves
it's just like, pretty, you know, intense.
[sighing] I'm like, "All right, I'm either gonna have a panic attack right now
or I'm gonna try and do this."
I dove through the wave and I just timed it wrong,
and it just threw me down.
I never felt the sensation of being drowned by a wave before.
But you feel that over and over again
and then as soon as you can,
you know, get deep down in your body
to push off the bottom...
and jump back up
when you could barely gasp a air
and you get dropped back under again,
and so I got really, really rocked.
And I nearly drowned.
I came up like a dead fish on the... on the sand.
Just like, no strength,
shaking, like, water coming out of my nose.
And I was the only one who didn't make it back on the boat.
And so I, like, got up.
I'm like trying, like, to signal to the boat...
I'm just like, "I'm done."
[Ian] So we had to just accept the fact that,
"Okay... Spenser is staying the night
and hiking out by himself."
Like, it was just overwhelming
with the fear of what could happen.
I dragged these guys out here and we're trying to find Alex
and now we're gonna lose another friend.
Didn't sleep a wink that night.
I'm thinking it's hopefully it's a chance
to keep looking for Alex in the morning.
I got up at 4:00 in the morning and it's still dark.
And I had my backpack
and my shorts on
and have to start the 16-mile hike...
up and down, in and out of the jungle.
Every turn and every little, you know, stopping point,
I'm like, "There Alex could be."
And I'm just gonna have to take a selfie with him,
just so everybody knew that I had found him.
And, I'm like head down hiking up this steep hill,
and I hear...
"Hey, brother."
I'm like, "Wait a minute."
Wait, I thought, I mean, Alex...
But he wasn't there.
My brother Hunter had hiked in two miles
to catch me.
[bleep] How're you man?
[speaking indistinctly, laughing]
That's crazy, bro.
[Spenser] And I looked...
I'm like, dude, what are you doing here, like, you know...
breaking down in tears.
It was really good to see them.
And then we hiked back the two miles
and... finally got back to society and civilization.
It was quite a... quite the journey.
[Ian] We left the island feeling like,
we put in a valiant effort to try to find Alex.
Everything we did, we're just... just you know, five guys
in their 20s just trying to do
what they could to find a friend.
[Ben] They were all very, very disappointed
in not being able to find Alex.
We are very, very grateful to the young men
who went to Kauai.
[Spenser] That island is scary and dangerous.
There's a lot of risks there and...
many people visiting
either drown or get lost, and fall off the cliff.
[Ian] This is not a place where you can go and it's a ride.
This is real life and it's very dangerous and treacherous.
That being said, Alex is a really smart,
resourceful guy.
An accident can happen to anybody.
Bur something tells me like
he would be too careful for that to happen.
He's too calculated.
[Ben] From the very beginning
we knew that the possibility that Alex had died
was a very real possibility.
But as every day goes by...
and a body has not been found,
we have more hope.
[Ian] Did he go there and shave his head and become a monk?
Or is he just on the beach playing the guitar?
Both are possible.
There's evidence for both I would say, arguably.
But we don't know.
[Spenser] Alex Gumm has been missing for five years,
and I do still feel like he's alive and out there,
in need of somebody to say,
"Say hi to your mom. Give her a call."
[Ben] If anyone knows how we can contact Alex,
please contact us.
We would be forever grateful.
[Ian] So we built a website called "searchingforalex."
And the whole idea is, like, if you have any tips or any information,
please, you can be anonymous.
[Sally] I would say, "Alex, we love you...
[voice breaking] more than you know."
Give him the wiggle.
And you are a gift.
I picture him just living a quiet life.
But I keep praying that
somewhere there's a little voice
inside of his head that's gonna say,
"It's time. Call Mom and Dad.
Get in touch with them."
-[bagpipe playing] -It's like he disappeared
off the face of the Earth.
He started doing drugs, and he didn't know how to stop.
My fear is just that he ended up owing these people money.
[man] The longer time goes on,
it becomes a challenge to find him.
It is the worst feeling as a mother,
to not know where your child is.