WRIGHTSVILLE, Pa. — It's been nine months since anyone has seen or heard from Kadin Black.
The Wrightsville teen was last seen on Dec. 17, 2022. He was living at a friend's house at the time when it's believed he disappeared late Saturday or early Sunday morning, Dec. 18.
The 19-year-old has struggled with mental health issues, according to his mom, Kara Patterson. She told FOX43 that he had been diagnosed as bipolar. Kadin also has Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and is on the autism spectrum.
"The autism spectrum diagnosis was fairly recent, within the year before he went missing," Kara told FOX43. "[He's] high functioning, but still on the spectrum. We found these things out because Kadin was struggling with school, a lot."
She explained that Kadin was attending Paradise School in Adams County, which is designed to provide individual academic support for students struggling with social, emotional or behavioral issues.
While on the way home from school in March of 2022, Kadin was reportedly involved in a physical altercation with a bus driver, which ended with the 19-year-old's arrest.
"If my son disappeared on his own, I know this is why," Kara said firmly.
She added that her son had a court date scheduled for the end of January 2023. "He just felt so like, 'Why does this happen to me?'" she recalled. "I didn't think this was relevant [to his case] in the beginning because his court date was six or seven weeks out, but maybe it was, because of the way that Kadin processes and thinks."
Kara said that she had a lot of reservations about addressing Kadin's mental health during the early days of his disappearance because of the negative stigma associated with it.
However, now, she believes that everyone has dealt with some form of mental health issue in their lives and that it shouldn't make anyone look at Kadin differently.
"He did tell me, 'I never want to go back to jail,'" she continued. "I don't know what happened to him in there, but you have to think that an 18-year-old is a kid and he [was] in a prison with grown men."
As the seasons change and questions surrounding Kadin's disappearance remain unanswered, it only grows more difficult for Kara to process where her son could be.
"I thought, in the beginning, someone killed him," she told FOX43. "I now am left with two choices: that's either what happened, someone did something to him, or he disappeared on his own."
FOX43 spoke with Lower Windsor Township Police Chief Jim Thomas in August about Kadin's case. He said that the case is still being investigated as a missing person case and there is still no evidence at this time that suggests foul play.
There have been a few tips and alleged sightings, but none of them materialized into anything, Thomas told FOX43.
Kara is trying to get the charges against Kadin dismissed, with the hope that he will return home.
"That's where I'm shifting my focus, because for the past eight months, I have focused on finding Kadin. I did an interview with PEOPLE Magazine, Dateline, I've done podcasts but none of these things have [found] him."
Since his disappearance, Kadin has missed his younger brother's graduation, birthdays and holidays. "Kadin missing is in every situation of our lives, every single one," Kara said through tears. "Christmas was huge [in our family], I don't even want to [do it] this year."
"[Last year], I just kept thinking [Kadin] would come through that door, like, 'Surprise!' But he never did," she recalled.
Some questions have been raised about why Kadin was living with a friend instead of one of his parents. Kara says that she had moved to Maryland with Kadin, who would then travel to school in Pennsylvania.
"It just wasn't the same [for him]," Kara said. "He missed his friends."
The family decided that Kadin would live in Pennsylvania with his dad until school ended. However, Kadin was reportedly experiencing issues living with his dad, according to Kara. Following his arrest and after he had been bailed out of jail, Kadin didn't want to live with his father anymore, but couldn't live with his mom because of the distance and his bail agreement.
So, Kadin moved in with the family of one of his friends. Chris Foust is the father of Kadin's friend, whom he lived with before his disappearance. He told FOX43 that Kadin has been friends with his son since they were little and the pair would often play together with other neighborhood kids.
Nothing seemed off with Kadin to the Fousts leading up to his disappearance. Chris said Kadin asked if they could travel to Cumberland County for Go Karting, which Chris said couldn't happen that night.
"We go to bed pretty early [and] we woke up the next morning. [Kadin] and my son would normally wake up at 9 at night and go to bed at five in the morning, playing video games or whatever. So we didn't think anything about [Kadin not around]," Chris recalled.
Kadin's cell phone last pinged near Old Common Road in Lower Windsor Township on Sunday the 18th. That same day, Kadin's father called the family and asked if they knew where his son was, they told him they didn't but didn't think much of the conversation.
On Monday, Kadin was scheduled to work a shift at nearby Delauter's A1 Moving, but never showed up.
There has been no recovered footage of Kadin leaving the Fousts' home.
Foust told FOX43 they didn't have a security camera at the time, but have installed one since Kadin went missing.
Kara believes that someone close to Kadin knows something about his disappearance and isn't telling the police.
"Kadin knew so many people, he played football for a long time," Kara said. "We [used to] live in the West York School District, so he had friends in one area, friends in another and friends from all over the place at the alternative school. So, it would have to be."
Kadin turned 19 on Dec. 10, just before his unexplained disappearance. Because he's a legal adult, immediately getting resources and eyes on Kadin's case wasn't easy.
“Not a trace... nobody’s come forward with any information... not even seeing him," said Chris.
"I think that they have done a lot and I think there was a time when I wouldn't have said that," Kara said of Lower Windsor Township police and the York County District Attorney's Office. "But I was also very angry and just losing my mind [at that time]."
Kara recounted to FOX43 how Kadin's father spoke with a psychic, who told him Kadin's body was in a nearby river. The chief of police contacted a local dive school to search the portion of the river the psychic mentioned.
"So he's even gone out on a limb on something that a psychic has said, just to make sure Kadin's not there," Kara said.
Nine months later, there have been very few tips on Kadin's location. In March of 2023, the Lower Windsor Township Police Department said in a statement that they were "desperately looking for new information including tips on [Black's] disappearance."
Kara had the following message for her son, "Call me. If you're afraid or scared, block the number. Just find a way to let me know that you're alive, because that is my biggest struggle."
Kara said she still has a sliver of hope left for Kadin's safe return and that's what pushes her forward every day.
She believes her recent conversation with the District Attorney was productive and hopes that Kadin's charges will be dropped.
"He said he didn't want to give me false hope, [but] I said I live on false hope at this point," she said sadly. "But he said they're going to look into it."
FOX43 reached out to the York County District Attorney regarding the school van incident. The office could not discuss the case with us, as it is a pending criminal investigation.
A spokesperson with the DA's office said they continue to actively investigate the disappearance of Kadin, along with Lower Windsor Township police.
"I feel what keeps me going is when I get in my car and there's an older song, 2000s or 2010s [playing]," Kara reflected. "And I can just picture him in the passenger seat singing with [a] smile on his face and that's what keeps me going. I'm actually finally at the point where I can have a smile on my face when I think of him, it doesn't destroy me the way that it used to."
Kadin has brown hair, brown eyes, is 5'10" and weighs 160 pounds. To follow updates on his story, Kara runs the Find Kadin Black Facebook page to help bring her son home. Anyone with information regarding Kadin's disappearance or current location has been asked to contact Lower Windsor Township Police at 717-244-8055.
"If anybody has any information, please come forward with it," Chris begged. "I pray for the best, pray for anybody to come forward."
"I think when someone loses a child, they go through that once and I'm sure it's long and hard but the going back and forth and not knowing... it's hell," Kara said.