The body of missing 18-year old Johnathan Croom was discovered yesterday in rural Oregon, Croom's tragic death eerily paralleling the events of the film "Into the Wild," a movie that he had increasingly become obsessed with, CNN reports.
Croom's body was found 1,000 feet from his abandoned car, the vehicle discovered last week by authorities who are currently investigating his death as a possible suicide, as no foul play is suspected, Dwes Hutson, public information officer for the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, told CNN.
"Into the Wild," a 2007 film based off of Jon Krakauer's 1996 non-fiction book, follows the story of a young man who leaves society to live off the land. Croom's father, David, recalled to CNN that his son had shown a "growing interest" in the story and possibly wanted to emulate the actions of main character, Chris McCandless.
Before his son's body was found, David Croom said that his son had been "watching the movie a lot."
"Maybe he said, 'I want to do it.' That's our theory, because he kept talking about the movie," said David Croom. "John made us feel like he was OK, but he was really hurting inside. It's really important that we pay real close attention to what our kids are saying and that we remind them that we love them, because there are influences in the world that tell them otherwise."
Johnathan's car was found in the small town of Riddle, two days after he was supposed to begin classes at Mesa Community College. Last seen at a friend's house in Seattle, Croom's father had assumed his son had been driving back to Arizona through Washington and Oregon around the time he went missing.
"[His car was found] 2½ miles from the major interstate; it's right in town in Riddle," said Hutson. "There are houses and people, and it's well-populated, so if he wanted to do an 'Into the Wild,' it wasn't the appropriate place."
In the book "Into the Wild," McCandless cut off all communication from his parents before (SPOILER AHEAD) being found dead in the school bus he had lived in.
Click here to see a video report on the tragic death of Johnathan Croom, a young man whose death eerily echos the events of the film "Into the Wild" that he had shown a growing interest in before his death.
