ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 27, 1996 TAG: 9608270114
SECTION: WELCOME STUDENTS PAGE: 75 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG
SOURCE: LISA K. GARCIA STAFF WRITER
Brad "Mugsy" Wagner left his apartment on a regular schedule, supposedly to attend classes. He took his father to Virginia Tech football and basketball games. He even talked to his roommates about tests he said he had taken.
None of it was true - at least for the past three years.
Wagner quit being a college student in 1993 after his first year at Tech, but his roommates, friends and family thought he was going to graduate last spring.
That was until May 11 - the day Wagner would have graduated with a chemical engineering degree had he stayed on his college career path.
Wagner, 21, has never said why he left school. The curriculum may have been too difficult. The stress of a mother ill with cancer could have played a part.
Few students grab the public's attention as Wagner did with his disappearance and his father's subsequent plea in The Roanoke Times and The Washington Post for his son to return home. His dilemma, however, is one that other students also confront. Often graduation is the time they face the fact they have not met their own or their parents' expectations. For some, it is easier to disappear than face reality.
For Wagner, the truth was impossible to hide on graduation day. He told his parents to come for the ceremony, but when they arrived, he had rented a car and left town. No one knew where Wagner was until a week later when he turned himself at the Williamson, W.Va., police station.
At the time, Wagner's father said his son had spent the week driving around "to clear his head out." No further explanation was ever offered.
The young man said he does not want to talk about his charade, including his weeklong disappearance.
He told a reporter in a telephone interview from his parents' Bristol home soon after his return "no thanks" when asked if he would talk about what he had done the previous three years.
What may have upset parents around the country as they watched Brad Wagner's lie unravel was how it ever could have gotten as far as it did. How could his family have continued to send money for tuition and living expenses and never asked to see a grade report?
Mike Dunn, director of the Office of New Student Programs at Radford University, said Wagner's situation can happen anywhere.
"Parents believe their child is in school in good faith, because a relationship was established," he said.
A psychologist at Virginia Tech said often students believe their parents' expectations are higher than they really are. Therefore they put off telling parents about problems they may be having.
Lt. Bruce Bradbery with the Blacksburg Police said Brad Wagner was not the only student missing from Tech's class of '96.
Two other students failed to meet their parents; both were males. One young man, who happened to be diabetic, was tracked down in a Grundy hospital, and the other eventually returned on his own to make the dreaded announcement that he was not among the cap and gown honorees.
"It's not uncommon," Bradbery said of the disappearances. "Every year we're aware that it's a possibility."
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: 1. (headshots) Wagner. 2. ALAN KIM Staff. Every yearby CNBthere are likely to be a few missing faces in this scene.
Authorities say it happens everywhere.