It sounds to me as if the father is going to be made a bad guy in all this whether it was intentional or not. If my son were missing when the balloon went up, I would suspect him to be on it too, regardless if it were possible or not. I'd have been nuts.
I lost one of my boys one evening. We were motorcycle riding on a large vacant piece of land with sand dunes on it and a few lakes. The sun went down before we found him. I was beside myself. Gael called the police and they brought all kinds of 4 wheel drive vehicles, including atv's. They also had a helicopter in the air. We had other bike riders looking too.
At midnight they found him. He had parked under some small trees, leaned up against his bike and went to sleep. He had run out of gas. He could hear us yelling for him but said he didn't figure we would hear if he yelled back and decided that we would find him. People, including me and his brothers, had been within 100 feet of him. Go figure? What goes through a kid's mind?
I was a nervous wreck for days after that.
Kids use strange logic for their actions and, ultimately, are embarrassed and afraid of retribution. I think that there is a good chance that this was all an accident and the best thing for the family is to be left alone. I wouldn't have been looking for an interview, if it were me, but then it was kind of a national event.
