Brandon Cairney was 31 when he disappeared from Port Alberni in October 2017. But on Friday the host of a Port Alberni-based podcast called Island Crime received a tip that a missing person had been found in Burnaby the day before. Laura Palmer spoke to several families and narrowed it down to Kearney, which has since been confirmed by police. Cairney was questioned by police after he was found sleeping on a bench in Burnaby, but what should have been a happy ending takes an unfortunate turn. “So he’s identified by his fingerprints after he’s arrested, and unfortunately, Brandon tells the police and border agents that he’s an American citizen, he says under a different name, and he says he’s not Brandon Kearney,” Palmer told CHEK News on Sunday. In a surprising twist, the man whose fingerprints identify him as missing Port Alberni man Brandon Cairney is telling police he’s not him. Cairney had minor brushes with the law before he disappeared, which is why the police have his fingerprints. He had also suffered a severe brain injury in a car accident that almost killed him when he was 19 and it has affected his daily life ever since. Before that he had graduated from high school and was a star athlete. He loved basketball, played high-level soccer and won track and field trophies according to Palmer. He also loved music and art. In the years that followed he was often seen walking around Port Alberni. CHEK News was unable to reach the RCMP on Sunday, however Palmer spoke with the Burnaby detachment. “As far as they could tell he was in good health and clear-headed enough to say that he wanted nothing to do with Brandon Kearney’s life and that he insisted that he was not who he is,” Palmer said. Kearney’s uncle Mark spoke to Laura Palmer on Saturday and says the family is upset by the news and that it appears Brandon had spent much of the past five years in the US legally, possibly as a vagrant. “Did he have another injury that might have caused more changes? You know we’re grateful and thank God he’s alive, but there’s certainly no end to the questions,” Mark Cairney told Palmer. They don’t know where Brandon Cairney is now, but his family says they’re desperate to talk to him, and the relief that they’ve found him is only being replaced by even more pressing questions.
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