Boy finds 28-year-old message in a bottle, searches for writer

It's a mystery nearly 28 years in the making: A young boy put a message in a bottle in 1988 asking whoever found it to contact him. And now the family who found it is trying to use technology to do just that.

Five-year-old Ryder Goggin was walking along the beach at California's Fort Bragg on New Year's Eve when he stumbled across the bottle.

"I definitely thought of pirates, and I thought maybe it was a treasure map," the boy's mother, Heather Baird told WNEM of the moment when the bottle was discovered.

The letter reads:

"Hi my name is Chris. I am 10 years old and in the 5th grade. I live in Sacramento. Call me when you find this to let me know where it washed ashore. September 5th, 1988."

It included a phone number, complete with area code, but unfortunately the search for "Chris" was not as easy as picking up the phone.

"I gave the number a call, and of course it was disconnected," Baird explained.

Conclusive information about "Chris" couldn't be found in public records in the Sacramento library or by calling people who might match the description. Someone who once used the phone number passed away, but neither Baird nor the TV station could get in touch with that person's family.

So the search continues. Baird is asking people to share about the bottle using the hashtag #FindChris in hopes that it will be circulated widely enough for Chris to see it.

"I think it would be great to find Chris and to find out where he put the bottle in the water," Baird said. "I hope we find out some really good things about where his life went."