CA CA - Daniel Yuen, 16, Running Springs, 8 Feb 2004

CEDU Schools filed bankruptcy and closed soon after Daniel vanished according to this 2005 post from a parenting and education website.
http://lizditz.typepad.com/i_speak_of_dreams/2005/04/cedu_closing_re.html

"It is a great relief to hear of the closing of CEDU schools," Hoffman said. "Although the concept of helping troubled youth seems honorable, the execution of such a concept was disastrous in this setting. Many of us can now move forward knowing that no other adolescents will have to go through such a traumatic experience."
<snip>

"As the truth has emerged about CEDU," Locker stated, "it simply became unviable."

The family of Daniel Yuen filed the second suit. Yuen, 17, was last seen leaving CEDU on Feb. 8, 2004, just two weeks after he arrived in Running Springs. He was 16 at the time of his disappearance.

"My son was last seen in the San Diego area," the boy's father, Wayne Yuen stated. "I wished I never sent my son over there and he does not have to run away. He still is missing and we wish he is safe and coming home soon."

Click to expand...

Daniel went missing 11 years ago today.

Saw this case mentioned on Missing Persons of America a few days ago. How sad...

Three boys turn up missing from the same therapeutic boarding school located in Running Springs, California. Are their disappearances connected?

CEDU's Missing:

John Christopher Inman- January 16, 1993, few details available. (of note, he suffered from seizures and required medication)
Blake Wade Pursley- June 26, 1994, last seen walking to a barn on the campus to check on the animals. (of note, he was disabled from a near-drowning accident as a toddler, he requires medication, has poor motor skills in his right arm and hand, suffers from seizures, and walks with a limp)
Daniel Ted Yuen- February 8, 2004, last seen leaving the campus to purchase cigarettes. (of note, he suffered from depression and emotional problems)

CEDU Therapeutic Boarding School
CEDU (see-doo) is a unaccredited therapeutic boarding school founded in 1967 by Mel Wasserman, who with his own involvement in the synanon cult, used cult beliefs as the philosophical base at the school. Wasserman had no credentials, licenses, or qualifications to run the school, nor did the employees, which is controversial since the school was aimed toward troubled, at risk minors.

These weren't just "throw-away" children since the school was about $5,700 a month, and even celebrities such as Roseanne Barr and Barbara Walters have trusted the school enough to send their kids there.

CEDU shut down in 2005, the school closed due to bankruptcy from several lawsuits of abuse claims from parents that sent their kids there.

A Brocure from the 80's- https://survivingcedu.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/cedu-brochure-circa-late-1980s.pdf
A website called Surviving CEDU with personal entries from the schools alumni- https://survivingcedu.wordpress.com/
CEDU Articles- http://www.strugglingteens.com/news/cedu-index.html

The Schools Connection to a Convicted Murder and Child Molester
The school had employed a psychiatrist named Dr. Burnell Forgey, who was later convicted of child molestation. His roommate, and often his "assistant" was a convicted child murderer named James Lee Crummel. He had a lengthy criminal record that dated back to the 1960's and was on death row for the 1979 molestation and murder of a 13 year old boy. He committed suicide on death row in 2012.
http://articles.latimes.com/1998/may/06/local/me-46840
http://www.heal-online.org/cedu111209.pdf

For many years people believed that they just ran away, but then the police started to investigate a certain James Lee Crummel. He had unrestricted access to the CEDU campus for decades. Based on evidence in another case he is now locked up, but will we ever learn whether the children made it off campus or their lives were cut short in the boarding school?​

http://secret-prisons-for-teens.blogspot.com/2010/05/checking-staff.html

Reddit's thread on the missing boys has some comments from past students at the school which are worth reading, some list the bizzare punishments that went on in the school like sleep deprivation, and another was even an acquaintance of Daniel Yuen and recalls the last time they saw him, which is much different than what his case file says.
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/3v1oah/cedus_missing_kids/

With a school that lacked in qualifications, and also hired two child molesters, did the boys meet with foul play within the school? Or was the school just so miserable they all made a run for it?

My personal theories:

John Inman and Blake Pursley were "accidentally" killed while at the school. They both had seizure disorders controlled by medication, and Blake was far more disabled due to his near-drowning accident as a child. Possibly they were killed by some of the treatments or punishments there. Since no one employed there had any qualifications to teach, I also assume they didn't have any medical professional at the school. John or Blake could have had a seizure and no one knew what to do and it ended up being fatal. Their deaths were covered up in fear that they would be exposed as unqualified and would have to close the school. Remember tuition was over $5,000 a month, they were making a killing for how under licensed the school actually was.

If seizures can't be stopped or repeated seizures occur one right after another, permanent injury or death can occur.
www.epilepsy.com/learn/epilepsy-101/how-serious-are-seizure

They could have also been another one of James Lee Crummel's victims. I'm going to look further into the abuse lawsuits that eventually closed the school.

As for Daniel Yuen, I think he actually did run away, although, I think with the time that has pasted, he is likely deceased. I belief that after hearing about the closing of the school, he would have contacted his family. I believe why he didn't contact them immediately after he ran away was in fear that he would be sent back.
What I find interesting is that it lists he left the school to go buy cigarettes when he ran away. Anyone else find it weird? For one, I doubt the students are allowed to leave the school without permission, and another, I highly doubt an employee just allowed him to go buy cigarettes. Where did they get the cigarette story from?

I found a comment from an acquaintance of Daniel's from CEDU, and their accounts of his disappearance completely differs from his case file. I do know this isn't the most efficient evidence since it could possibly not be true, but it's worth looking into.

Hi I went to CEDU High school in Running Springs and was actually friends/acquaintances with Daniel Yuen (I wouldnt say we were friends, but I reached out to him the most when he first got there, he wasn't there for more than a month I believe). I helped his father look for him, but we've never had any luck. It's a very sad situation. He attempted to run off that morning fully supplied with food, water, clothes etc. They caught him and took everything from him and put a kid who was half his size in charge of him. Of course the kid couldn't do anything when he ran again, this time without supplies. It seems very likely he is probably dead as we think he would have contacted his father by now, its been over 10 years. EDIT: I'm willing to answer any questions about the school. I think more people need to be aware of it and maybe we can at least provide some closure to the families of these missing children.
https://www.reddit.com/r/UnresolvedMysteries/comments/3v1oah/cedus_missing_kids/

If what they say is true, they used the cigarette story to cover up the fact they didn't handle a potential run-away situation professionally, and ultimately endangered the person in their care. They put another student in charge of him instead of an employee. In my opinion, the cigarette story was just to make him seem like a delinquent, especially having a 3rd runaway from the school, they wanted to paint the picture that he was the type of kid that would run away anyway. I do believe he actually did run away, but I don't think they released the real story.

He wasn't the only one that ran away from the school, several others ran away into the wooded areas around the school. One even camped out there for 3 days. I'm going to try to find more information on other the other run aways.

Still missing after 13 years.

google "the white house boys". it was a reform school in Florida for poor children who were sent there by the courts for truancy or stealing. The school recorded a few deaths, the former students claimed much more. They requested people to go out to the school. The University did scans of the grounds of that school and has found many more bodies that were not recorded. The school said they had "ran away" or "died of flu complications" to cover up these deaths. Former school mates said kids died from being beat and molested. Horrible story!
http://www.officialwhitehouseboys.org/

maybe he is still on the grounds.

Missing 14 years ago yesterday. http://charleyproject.org/case/daniel-ted-yuen is his updated Charley link.

ABC 10 News 1/16/2019. Retired detective received a message that Daniel is alive, living in the same area and he just doesn't want to be found.


Age progressed photo of Daniel from NCMC



Have you seen this child? DANIEL YUEN

Daniel Yuen was 16-years-old when he ran away from a controversial boarding school in the San Bernardino mountains. The school has since shut down.

In the months after Yuen first disappeared, Keith Raymond (a retired police officer) and Yuen’s family tracked him to Hilltop Park in Rancho Penasquitos. Search dogs found Yuen’s scent and witnesses reported seeing him.

For 14 years, there were no further tips. That changed last month. Raymond received a message on an old business phone line.

"I listen to this entire message. And it's eerie. 'Hey, Daniel Yuen is alive, he's living in the same area,'" Raymond said. "'Daniel does not want contact; he does not want to be found.'"

Raymond returned to the park and spoke with a witness who said Yuen had been there 45 minutes earlier.

With the help of an age-progressed photo, Raymond is trying to find others who might recognize Yuen at age 31.

Family pleads for word of missing son in San Diego

Hoping for a "Found Safe" in the thread title very soon.

Wow! Living under the radar for 14 years and started as a teenager. I wonder how he's been making a living and if he's been working under alias's. I was curious about this detail of the above article, so that tracked Daniel to this park in the months after he went missing by dog's scent tracking and witnesses, and then 14 years later the detective returns to the park and a witness said Daniel was just there. What are the odds!?

Also featured is Daniel Yuen, who was lost in the wilderness in San Bernardino County, California

Missing Tacoma girl featured in People Magazine. Do you know where Teekah Lewis is?

A few photos of Daniel courtesy of The Charley Project:

Current exclusions for MP6839 per NamUs:
UP14360 08/14/2015 Bland VA
UP8729 12/13/2011 Alexandria VA
UP13405 04/29/2013 San Diego CA
UP14895 03/03/2016 Marin CA

Super strange. Hoping for a positive outcome.

Suggested on this thread by poster linablaze..
NY - NY - Male, UP77862 teen/early 20s, 2005 calendar, Mariners Marsh Park, Staten Island, 18 Jan 2021

Reading the thread, I would like to add here one additional another suggestion, according that one I did in NY - NY - Male, UP77862 teen/early 20s, 2005 calendar, Mariners Marsh Park, Staten Island, 18 Jan 2021.
I see the detail several posts up:

aThousandYearsWide said:

Daniel Ted Yuen- February 8, 2004, last seen leaving the campus to purchase cigarettes. (of note, he suffered from depression and emotional problems)

Click to expand...

According to NamUs, together with unidentified person, except calendar in wallet, also was found lighter. So thats supposing person was smoking. It is very small suggestion, but feel it is also need to be mentioned just in the case if it may somehow related.

I find additional photos of Daniel in network from different news website. They are already very old, but maybe it will be helpful in some ways to identify person....

The 2004 disappearance of a New Jersey teenager sent to a notorious San Bernardino County group home for depression treatment—and his alleged reappearance in San Diego—made national headlines. But was it all a web of lies?

On a late Sunday morning in February 2004, the Twin Peaks Station of the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department received a call about a male juvenile who had fled from a location intimately known to law enforcement. Soon afterward, a Twin Peaks Station deputy drove out to speak with the reporting party.

Daniel Yuen arrived at CEDU, a sprawling but thinly populated private, for-profit residential treatment facility, on January 26, 2004. Daniel’s parents, Lisa and Wayne Yuen, had sent their 16-year-old son across the country from their New Jersey home believing he would undergo basic treatment for adolescent depression. It was Daniel’s first journey to the San Bernardino Mountains. 13 days later, he disappeared.

Emerging in the mid-1960s deeply connected to the self-help cult, Synanon, CEDU marketed itself by Daniel Yuen’s era as “the nation’s first emotional growth boarding school.” However, this “high school” was, in fact, licensed as a group home. And throughout four unsinkable decades, CEDU remained a law-flouting, scandal-plagued institution accused of rampant child abuse, misconduct, false marketing, and cultic behavior. The company that eventually bought CEDU Educational Services, Inc. declared bankruptcy in 2005.

According to a partial call history covering 1997-2005 previously obtained by LAMag, the Twin Peaks Station received nearly 1,000 calls for service—all involving dark doings inside the program. Unsurprisingly, fleeing CEDU’s grounds was the most commonly reported incident. CEDU’s secret lingo even had a word for it: “split.”

In eight years’ time, the Twin Peaks Station received 341 reports of runaways, 67 AWOLs, four missing juveniles, and three missing persons. These are all reports about the same incident—splitting—and should be counted together.


*Many more details available at link