In the wake of unimaginable loss, a local couples’ benevolence makes significant waves…
Local Couple Credited for Starting National Movement
by: Kiki Pepper, Staff Writer (aka Bob Gielow)
Tuesday March 11, 2025
STROUDSBURG — The first time Timothy and Jen Sullivan appeared on a television news broadcast, pleading in June of 2018 for the public’s help finding their missing son, the local affiliate (Blue Ridge Cable News) was the only station to cover their comments. At the time, Stroudsburg Police Sgt. Larry Holmgren was the only law enforcement or public official who stood with them.
Almost six years later, Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan’s story has now been broadcast many times on all the major national news stations. During these appearances, the Sullivans have periodically been joined by city mayors, state governors, members of Congress, state police heads from Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and New York, and even the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The increased attention Mr. Sullivan and Mrs. Sullivan have received since 2018, and the increase in support from public officials, has not been due to an increase in concern for the whereabouts of Brandon, their son. Brandon, now 12, is still considered missing and Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan report they are “continually hopeful” they will soon be reunited with their “little angel.”
Instead, most of the attention garnered by the Sullivans has been generated during the bi-monthly “Looking Out” meetings they began hosting since February of 2019 on the front lawn of their Franklin Road house in East Stroudsburg. Aware that Brandon’s disappearance quickly began receiving significant attention from the media and public, as Mr. Sullivan articulated at that first event, they became concerned the story of their white, blonde, and blue-eyed son from the suburbs was overshadowing the stories of missing boys and girls who didn’t look like him. On that first Lookin Out meeting, six years ago, Mrs. Sullivan introduced Jasmine and Tyrone Harding, from Easton, and asked that members of both the press and law enforcement “pay equal attention” to the story of Aisha Harding, who went missing in March of 2018.
Since that first Franklin Road meeting in 2019, Timothy and Jen Sullivan have urged the media and the public to share in their concern over the location and well-being of thirty-one different missing children, all of whom are African American or Hispanic. Distraught mothers and fathers have traveled to East Stroudsburg to stand next to the Sullivans from as far away as Pittsburgh, Newark, Syracuse and Philadelphia. The Sullivans’ efforts to raise the profile of these children/families, and the subsequent appeals that have gone out to the public, have been credited, at least in part, for the twenty-two children from among this group who have been reunited with their families. (Eight of these children are still considered missing and one, tragically, was found deceased.)
The support the Sullivans have received in the media was bolstered when the Pennsylvania State Police Department declared, in December 2020, that they were “no longer considered suspects in the disappearance of their son.” Although many commentators on social media continue to hypothesize that Mr. and/or Mrs. Sullivan were somehow involved in Brandon’s disappearance, the State Police have confirmed they “are now looking only outside the family for information that will lead to Brandon’s whereabouts.”
The Sullivans’ efforts to broaden the public’s awareness of their missing child has been reinforced in the past eight months with eight different sets of parents, all of whom are white and have missing children, who have credited the Sullivans for their decision to invite one or more non-white “partner families” to join them when speaking with the press. As described by anchor Lester Holt, on NBC News late last week, all sixteen of these families (eight in California, four in Illinois, two in New York, and two in New Jersey), have since been reunited with their children and have, in one way or another, credited Timothy and Jen for focusing on the benefits of combining forces to share their stories and requests for assistance.
Lester Holt went on to describe Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan’s actions as having “the potential to start a national movement to view missing children not simply as a loss for one family at a time, but to view all missing children as a shared concern for the larger community.”
In a conversation with Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan on Tuesday, sitting in their comfortable living room, Mr. Sullivan spoke about the next Looking Out gathering they would be hosting there today. They will be introducing to the media a single mom from Harrisburg who lost her daughter just four weeks ago, but for whom attention from the local press “suddenly dropped after the tenth day.”
Holding hands with her husband, Mrs. Sullivan expressed her admiration for the strength and resolve being demonstrated by the parents they’d met. “Timothy and I are aware of what these parents are going through. We’re living it. And now at least, we can find some meaning in sharing our grief with them and talking about the different things we could be doing to find our children.”
Mrs. Sullivan also commented on how they wish they could respond to more requests from “frantic parents.” During these past two months, for example, Jen indicated they had been contacted by five families who asked for help finding their missing children.
Mrs. Sullivan took pains to explain how emotionally draining it has been for them to meet these parents at a time filled with such fear and anxiety, but that she and her husband are “convinced in the righteousness of the task.” She described feeling it is their duty to share in their burdens as fellow citizens in this society, and to not care only for their own.
But, as Mr. Sullivan explained, “A lot of people in our extended family are angry with us. They think we’re turning our backs on Brandon.”
Hank Sullivan, Tim’s father, indicates that he is ambivalent about their monthly Looking Out gatherings. “It’s a good gesture, but I think it’s distracting Tim and Jen from finding Brandon. Instead of inviting complete strangers to their home, Brandon should be the only one getting everyone’s attention.”
Mrs. Sullivan described how Brandon’s disappearance and the resulting “media and family hullabaloo” impacted their youngest son, Bradley (10). Bradley is very upset that Brandon is missing. He remembers sharing an ice cream cone with Brandon the day before he disappeared and has mentioned multiple times how Brandon was “good at sharing.” But, when she and her husband spend so much time on the phone talking about Brandon, Bradley can get upset, understandably, they are not paying enough attention to him.
Mr. and Mrs. Sullivan also confirmed that the multi-state search for Brandon, according to Monroe County and Pennsylvania state law enforcement authorities, is ongoing, but that, unfortunately, no new leads have come to light. If anyone reading this article has information leading to Brandon’s return to the Sullivan family, please contact Stroudsburg Police at (570) 421-6800, and ask for Sgt. Holmgren. Timothy and Jen will be forever grateful for any information you might offer.
Local reporter Kiki Pepper can be reached at 570-338-2521, by email at [email protected], or on Twitter/X at @SNKikiPepper.
A college administrator by day, Bob Gielow (he/him) spins tales in formats we all use when communicating with each other: text messages, emails, fictional Wikipedia posts, and diary entries all allow him to be clinical and thorough in describing his characters, their thinking and actions — without diminishing his ability to explore the resulting human emotions. Bob utilizes these epistolary styles, and others, to tell tales that frequently explore the most common of human experiences, death.
