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Ryder Goggin was celebrating his fifth birthday on New Year’s Eve when he made the discovery.
"A message in a bottle," Goggin told Fox40.
His mother, Heather Baird, read the letter her son found on the Mendocino, California, beach.
“It says, 'Hi, my name is Chris. I am 10 years old and in the fifth grade,” Baird read. “‘I live in Sacramento. Call me when you find this to let me know where it washed ashore. Sept. 5, 1988’.”
When Baird called the number, she got a message, saying it was disconnected.
Fox40 did some digging. First, they went to the Sacramento library and looked at public records.
There was no information from 1988, but the number belonged to a Chris Farnsworth in 1981.
Searches were made over Facebook and various phone calls, but no information was found.
Baird’s aunt, who works at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., found out the number belonged to another person in 1988.
It was then discovered that the person died, and the search still fell through when the person’s surviving family was reached.
Now, Baird is continuing her search for the messenger.
"I think it would be great to find Chris and find out where he put the bottle in the water,” Baird said. “I hope we find out really good things about how his life went.”
Baird and her son traveled to meet the writer of the message Thursday.
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