Sodus family says French police aren’t doing enough to find missing son

INTERPOL is now involved in the search for St. John Fisher University student Kenny DeLand Jr.

He went missing while studying abroad in France. The international search agency has issued a “Yellow Notice” for the global alert of a missing person.

It has been nearly three weeks since Kenny has contacted his family in Sodus.

Kenneth DeLand Sr. says French authorities have been slow to investigate his son’s disappearance. In fact, he says Paris-based investigative reporters from CNN are giving him more information than French police.

“I haven’t spoken to my son since, you know, Nov. 27th. I’m not happy with the results,” said DeLand.

Kenny reportedly packed a bag with some belongings, left the home of his host family, and boarded a train heading to the South of France. After using his debit card at a sporting goods store, it’s been radio silent.

“Because I have no feedback, I talked to the French prosecutor’s assistant. She just texted me and says she has nothing to report from the French prosecutor,” said DeLand.

He goes on to say some information the family has received actually came from an interview he did Wednesday night with CNN’s Anderson Cooper. The cable news network has its own investigative reporters following this case. They interviewed students at the school Kenny is attending abroad about his disappearance.

“It sounded as if they asked kids if they knew of it. They may have a picture of Kenny with them, and it sounded as if 90 percent of the kids weren’t even aware,” said DeLand.

The reporters tracked down the host mom Kenny stayed with while in France.

“She had a good relationship with Kenny, but she said the police did not reach out to her. So that was a big head-scratching moment for me,” said DeLand.

DeLand says his ex-wife Carol Law also reached out to the host mom.

“She had difficulty trying to communicate, and trying to find out exactly what was going on due to the language barrier,” said DeLand.

Although the family created a website to help find Kenny, no missing posters are anywhere to be found in France, according to DeLand.

“It’s just concerning to me, and alarming that there’s not more police prioritizing. It feels like this is on the bottom of their priority list, or not at the top I should say, and my son is missing. It’s been several days,” said DeLand.

Kenny is scheduled to fly back to the US this Saturday. The Delands and their extended family are hoping that is the case. News10NBC has reached out to French authorities, who have declined our request for an interview.

Read more:

• Family of missing Fisher student holds out hope (Dec. 13)
• NBC News: American college student reported missing while studying abroad in France (Dec. 12)
• Clifton Springs community prays for Fisher student who went missing in France (Dec. 11)
• French authorities open investigation into disappearance of Fisher student (Dec. 9)