Indiana State Police are searching for a 14-year-old "missing and endangered" boy whose parents backed out of a meeting with law enforcement earlier this week, authorities said.
A Silver Alert was issued Friday for Bryson Muir, who is described as being 6 feet 2 inches tall, 185 pounds and has black hair with brown eyes. He was last seen wearing an orange Under Armour shirt and blue jeans, according to police.
Bryson is the son of Daniel Muir, a former Indianapolis Colts player whose last season with the team was in 2011, and Daniel's wife, Kristen.
The 14-year-old was last seen on June 16 with his mother when they were leaving his grandmother's house in the Cleveland, Ohio, area. His grandmother called the police and provided a photo with Bryson having a black eye as evidence of potential abuse, according to WTHR, the NBC affiliate in Indianapolis. But when police pulled over the mother just a short time later in Garfield Heights, Ohio, Bryson was not in the vehicle.
"I just want to find Bryson. I want to make sure he's OK," his grandmother, Cheryl Wright, said.
State police investigators spoke with Muir's parents on June 27, authorities said, adding police and the Department of Child Services were able to make a site visit at their home, which is on the property of a religious group called the Servant Leader's Foundation.
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Daniel and Kristen Muir reportedly agreed to meet with state police investigators at the Indiana State Police Peru Post at noon on June 28. But one hour before before the scheduled meeting, the Muirs backed out of the agreement, "signaling to ISP an unwillingness to cooperate," authorities said.
Investigators from ISP ended up speaking to Bryson Muir's parents, Daniel and Kristen Muir, on June 27.
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Police believe Bryson may have been the victim of domestic abuse at his home on a large property, which is owned by a religious group in Kokomo, WTHR reported.
When Wright went to pick Bryson up in Toledo at her daughter's request about two weeks ago, she said he had a black eye, a fat lip, and swollen face.
"He just said that his dad did it, but he wasn't angry, but he wasn't angry at his father. He told me that he deserved it and it was OK," she said. "So I told him that it wasn't and that nobody should beat their children like that, not if they love them."
Wright said the day she went to pick Bryson up, there were three people in the car – his mom, dad, and a man she didn't know.
But only Bryson drove the nearly two hours back to her Cleveland-area home with her.
"She just told me I need to pick him up and because this is an ongoing case, I don't want to say everything that happened during our conversation, but she just told me that I needed to come get him," the grandmother stated.
After only a couple days, Wright said Bryson was picked up by his mother, his dad, and an adult male, but not before she called police.
State police said Bryson's case does not yet meet the threshold for a Silver or Amber Alert.
"There are certain criteria within the actual statute that we did research,” Indiana State Police Chief Public Information Officer Ron Galaviz said. “And even though we're considering him missing and endangered, the definition under Indiana law does not meet this situation."
Anyone with information about Bryson Muir's whereabouts, or his parents, is asked to contact the Indiana State Police Peru Post at 1-800-382-0689, call 911 or Crime Stoppers at 317-262-TIPS.
