Loved Ones Have Unanswered Questions After Missing Minnesota Man Found Dead in Denver

Adam Gilbertson had just moved to the Denver area and was last seen on December 15th. Fox31 Denver's Vicente Arenas reports

DENVER, Colo. — A Minnesota man was relatively new to the Denver area before he disappeared.

He was last seen on December 15th and his body was found along a river on January 13th.

It’s not the outcome his family and friends were hoping for.

They have a lot of questions and as many as 150 people were out looking for 29-year-old Adam Gilbertson on Saturday.

Among them, was his best friend, Elyse Wachendorf.

It was the last place family and friends of Gilbertson thought they’d be on Sunday morning.

Gilbertson was found along the South Platte River and Wachendorf drove from Minnesota to search for the man she had come to love so much.

“It’s hard to say if I have thoughts right now,” Wachendorf told Fox31 Denver’s Vicente Arenas.  “I can’t believe I’m right here, right now, talking to you and what’s going on over there.”

Over there is were Gilbertson’s body was found Saturday after a month of searching for him.

“Closure really is important,” Shannon Saesan, Gilbertson’s cousin, said.  “This is not the way we wanted the story to end.  Adam’s story should not end this way.”

The place where Gilbertson was found is not far from where he lived on South Broadway, near Alameda.

He was working in Denver as a hospice nurse and on the evening of December 14th, was last seen on surveillance video leaving Syntax Physic Opera just before 1 a.m.

Gilbertson had been seen throughout the evening at several bars.

When he was discovered missing, people in the community, even though they may have never met Gilbertson, jumped into action.

Mark Wonder, one of those volunteer searchers, says he had to do something.

“Why not?” Wonder asked.  “You know you’re compelled.”

As many as 150 people helped look for Gilbertson, who had just moved to the area four months ago.

“The family doesn’t have contacts here,” Gabriela Reyes, another searcher, said.  “They were really pleading through Facebook for people to help them.  You want to show them that support.”

It was actually volunteers, who were looking for Gilbertson’s body, who found him at the spot his best friend had to come see one last time.

“It started to feel more peaceful and stuff when we put the cross up,” Wachendorf said.  “We all started to feel a little more at peace.”

That moment of silence is golden and Wachendorf wants everyone to know how much he’ll be missed.

“Yes, absolutely,” she said.  “Every single day.  I don’t know how I’ll live for the rest of my life without him.  He’s my second half.”

Gilbertson’s death is still under investigation.

What caused his death has not yet been released.