http://cnycentral.com/news/local/a-mothers-nightmare-son-missing-in-austria?id=195253
.Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:21:36 GMT Everything was in its place at Aeryn Gillern's apartment. His clothes were still in the washing machine where he'd tucked them before running off to work. Rice Krispie treats he'd baked for co-workers still sat on the counter, forgotten in the morning's haste.
But entering her son's Vienna apartment was the start of a nightmare that has devoured Kathy Gilleran's life: Thirty-four-year-old Aeryn Gillern vanished Oct. 29 ago while working as a research clerk in Austria for the United Nation's Industrial Development Organization.
"A part of me wanted to believe that he was going to meet me at the airport or he was just going to surprise me when I showed up at his apartment," said Gilleran, a 56-year-old retired Ithaca, N.Y. police officer. "The other part of me knew going into that room I was entering the worst part of my life."
Kathy Gilleran doesn't know what happened to her son - who was openly gay; a first runner-up in the 2006 Mr. Gay Universe competition