Ben Holmes and his son, 17-year-old Nathaniel, had a bond like no other. They even played in Ben’s band Celtic Legacy together.
Ben told Dateline that when Nathaniel expressed interest in playing the bagpipes with Ben and his band, he told Nathaniel he had to earn it.
“He expressed interest in wanting to, you know, join that group,” Ben told Dateline. “But I told him, you know, that these are professional musicians that are quite good, and that he would need to, you know, really work hard and become a musician at a certain level before I would, you know, consider him — even though he was my son.”
Ben says it didn’t take long for Nathaniel to meet that standard.
“And I’m not saying this just because he’s my son, but as an instructor. He made the largest advance in his musical knowledge in a short period of time that I have ever seen in my 40 years of teaching,” Ben said. “And he was able to meet the standard to play with the band. And he did perform with our group for, you know, a year at a, you know, nearly a professional level of instrumentalists.”
But now, Celtic Legacy has been missing a key member of the band for the last 7 years.
On December 19, 2017, Nathaniel Holmes was dropped off at Hidden Lake High School in Westminster, Colorado, by his mother, Wendy Keadle.
Dateline spoke to Nathaniel’s sister Hannah Holmes. She and Nathaniel are the middle of four siblings, whose parents separated when she was 9 and Nathaniel was 8. “We went through a lot with my parents’ divorce, but it never broke our bond as siblings,” Hannah shared.
In fact, even though Nathan was younger than most of his siblings, Hannah says he was always protective of them. “He always made sure that we were OK. He would definitely put all of us first,” she said. After the divorce, the Holmes children primarily lived with their father.
Hannah explained that Nathaniel had recently started at a new school, a different one than the rest of his siblings attended.
She also says she and Nathaniel had visited their mother the night before he disappeared. “It was right before winter break. We only had two more days left of school, so we went to my mom’s house that night,” Hannah said.
According to Hannah, Nathaniel and their mother had a discussion that night about some trouble Nathaniel had gotten which raised concern that her son was hanging out with the “wrong crowd.” The next morning, their mother dropped Nathaniel off at school. That was the last time anyone in the family saw him. When his mother went to pick up Nathaniel around 2:00 p.m. that day, Nathaniel was not at the school.
“I drop him off at school and then he’s just gone,” Wendy Keadle told Dateline. She does not believe her son had any reason to run away. “He didn’t run away from home,” Wendy said. “It’s not like a typical runaway thing.”
Dateline reached out to Hidden Lake High School for comment but, in a voicemail, Steve Saunders from Westminster Public Schools told Dateline they have referred all calls to the Westminster Police Department.
Ben says that when he was alerted to the situation by his ex-wife, he immediately called the school and found out that Nathaniel had not been in his afternoon classes that day and had, allegedly, walked out of the school. Ben says he filed a missing person’s report with the Westminster Police Department within hours of finding out his son had left the school.
Dateline spoke to Samantha Spitz, the Public Affairs Coordinator at the Westminster Police Department.
“We still don’t know why he left because he was last seen leaving his high school in Westminster without his cell phone,” Spitz told Dateline. Spitz did not work at the department at the time of Nathaniel’s disappearance, but she did speak with one of the detectives who shared some information.
“I talked to our detective, and he says we receive about half a dozen tips from people every year about sightings from people saying they’ve seen him throughout the country,” Spitz said. “We’ve followed up on all of those tips, but unfortunately, none of them have really panned out.”
Spitz confirmed the investigation is still open and active and the Westminster Police Department will continue to follow up on any tips that come in.
Ben Holmes says he has gone to great lengths to try to locate his son. Due to the trouble Nathaniel had gotten into before he went missing, Ben’s first thought was that Nathaniel might have run away and was hiding from the family. “My vehicle was very recognizable,” Ben said. “I purchased a different vehicle so I could drive around areas and look.”
“I spent weeks, you know, looking in homeless areas and walking places and — and just --. There was no clue, no information whatsoever,” Ben recalled. He also turned to social media. The family has a Facebook group called “Bring Nathaniel Home,” where they share updates and information on the case.
Wendy also spent her time searching for Nathaniel. “We passed out flyers. We were out all the time,” she said. “It’s like he disappeared off the face of the earth.”
Wendy is hopeful someone will see a photo of her son and recognize him.
“All that I care is that his story gets out there and maybe somebody will see him or recognize him,” she said. “I can’t imagine he’s in the state of Colorado anymore because you’d think somebody would see him.”
According to Ben, there was an unconfirmed sighting in California within the first two years of Nathaniel’s disappearance. “We had somebody from Oceanside, California, say that one time, somebody asked to borrow a phone and he looked up on Facebook– website, looked up the ‘Missing Nathaniel’ website that we have up there and looked at my personal [page],” Ben said. “But then, you know, said ‘Thank you’ and walked away.”
He added that the woman said she could not be sure that it was Nathaniel, but that it looked enough like him that she knew she should speak up.
“So I immediately, you know, within eight hours, I flew out to California, and I looked around,” Ben said. He was unable to locate Nathaniel.
The family misses Nathaniel dearly, and has not given up on hope that he is out there somewhere. “I know wherever he is, I know he’s taking care of people just like he took care of us,” Hannah said.
“We’re always hopeful, and it’s such a painful thing. I still grasp at any straw,” Ben said.
“I know in my heart, as a mom, that he’s still out there,” Wendy told Dateline. “I know before I die, I will see my son again.”
At the time of his disappearance, Nathaniel was 5’9” and 140 lbs., with blond hair and blue eyes. He was wearing a black hoodie with the words “Mirage Recovery” on it, blue jeans, and black tennis shoes with white bottoms.
Nathaniel would be 24 years old today.
Anyone with information is asked to call the Westminster Police Department tip line at 303-658-4360.
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Editor's Note: Updated to include an interview with Nathaniel’s mother, Wendy Keadle.