David Eugene Brewer was on his way to Hawaii to rebuild his life when he disappeared on Halloween in plain sight at Mineta San Jose International Airport.

At the airport, Brewer encountered two polite strangers who let him use their cell phones to call his mother in Kauai, according to San Jose police. He also talked to her on an airport courtesy phone.

And then he vanished.

His luggage was found at the curb of Terminal A. Inside the bags were his laptop, wallet and clothes. Airport surveillance cameras failed to catch any images of him leaving the airport. Brewer, who was close to his relatives, has not contacted them since that October day.

Police and his worried family can only guess what happened to the 31-year-old San Jose man.

``Somebody picked him up, but we don't know who picked him up. God knows where he's at,'' said Tony Vera, a detective with San Jose police's missing persons unit.

Brewer's mother, Rosie Carrillo, hopes her son simply had a change of heart and decided not to go to Hawaii. But with anxiety filling her voice, she said, ``I don't understand why he'd leave his things, and I don't understand why he didn't call us . . . It's not David's pattern to not call me or his grandmother or aunt or his friends.''

When Brewer disappeared, he was seeking a new start in life after coming to grips with a drug and alcohol abuse problem in the summer. He had gone through a rehab program and graduated to an outpatient residential treatment program. In the fall, he moved into his aunt and grandmother's San Jose home, Carrillo said.