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(NewsNation) — After a young man disappeared in Maryland, his car was found thousands of miles away. His family is still searching for an explanation of what caused Braonain McGinnis to leave home and where he went.

Braonain McGinnis disappears

McGinnis left home in Maryland a few days before Christmas.

“The week before he left we were making little miniature Christmas trees using pipe cleaners. He was all smiles and talking to us,” said his mother Patricia McGinnis. “He’s pretty quiet but everything seemed perfect and normal, like nothing was wrong. Then a week later, he doesn’t come home and he’s gone.”

McGinnis was supposed to show up for his shift at food distributor Sysco on the night of Dec. 21, 2023. But he never showed up. Instead, he ran errands, including one that caught his mother’s attention.

“He went to a grocery store to pick up a prescription, he went to Chick-Fil-A to grab something to eat,” Patricia McGinnis said. “And he went to the bank and withdrew cash out of his savings account. It wasn’t a lot. It was only $200 that he took out.”

Patricia McGinnis said Braonain McGinnis had dealt with depression for most of his young adult life, but said he had been at a maintenance level for the past several years. His friend Lucas Frasier, who he played video games with, said he didn’t notice anything unusual about Braonain before he left.

“Everything seemed normal. Every talk seemed basically like, hey how are you doing, do you want to play some games and it was just normal,” Frasier said. “He seemed like himself. He was happy. He was doing this basic stuff, playing music, playing games, chatting. Nothing was out of the ordinary.”

Was Braonain planning to leave for good?

Patricia McGinnis didn’t realize Braonain McGinnis was missing until the next day, because she thought he was at work. But when she looks back at the places he stopped before he left town, she now wonders if he ever planned on coming back.

“He went to a couple of locations in my town that, my personal opinion is, it holds good memories and nostalgia for him,” she said. “To me, when I look back on it, it just feels like having a last look.”

McGinnis’ phone was turned off or went dead the night he left. Since then, there has been no activity on his bank cards or credit cards.

From there, Braonain’s car, a red Hyundai Accent sedan, was tagged in several states, heading west.

His friends think he may have been at the Grand Canyon in late December.

McGinnis’ car found in Arizona

The car was found 2,000 miles from Braonain’s home on Jan. 3, 2024, abandoned on Scenic Route 89A in Page, Arizona. It had just 15 miles worth of gas left in the tank.

“The Arizona troopers said that when they located the vehicle, there was no license plate on the back so it appeared Braonain had removed the license plate. There was a note left in the car,” Patricia McGinnis said. “It’s not a suicide note or anything. The note essentially was gifting the car to whoever found it. The note was like, this car has gotten me safely here these last 3,000 miles. Whoever finds this car, take good care of it. It’s a good car, it’s reliable.”

Looking back on recent family trips to Disney World and Tennessee, Patricia McGinnis wonders how this could have happened.

“Being out there in the desert, did he just cut and run and hitchhike out? Did he just walk out into the desert?” She said. “I don’t even know. I can’t even begin to imagine what was going through his head at that point.”

Braonain McGinnis is 5’11 and weighs about 185 pounds and was last seen wearing a blue hoodie, jeans and black shoes. Anyone with information on him should call the Coconino County Sheriff’s Office at (928) 774-4523.