Where is Beau Mann?

Beau Mann is a 38 year old man who was last seen in Los Angeles on November 30, 2021.

You can view Beau’s instagram here and view his Facebook here.

If you google Beau, there is a lot of information about him online in regards to his company ‘Sober Grid’.  

Sober Grid is a social media platform that helps people in recovery to connect with each other.  I actually downloaded the Sober Grid app to have a look at it – you can look for people near you to connect with him and assist in each other’s recovery.  I saw people posting about their sobriety achievements and having other people congratulate them. 

Sober Grid has a newsfeed feature, where people in recovery can talk and share their stories; a “Burning Desire” button, which you can hit when you need help; and a “Need a Ride” button, which lets other users know that you don’t have transportation and, say, need to get to a meeting.

Beau spoke to Forbes about creating Sober Grid.  “I immediately recognized how beneficial such an app would be for people in recovery, or people still trying to get sober,” he said. “I started Sober Grid because I saw an important, but at that time unmet, need for people in recovery from alcohol and drug addiction to find and connect with their peers. I entered recovery at the age of 23, and I have relied on the support I received from sober peers to achieve and maintain my sobriety.”

Beau spoke of his hopes for Sober Grid during the Forbes interview:

He hoped Sober Grid would become “a household name in the recovery community … I believe Sober Grid will change the face of addiction recovery by allowing all those in need, no matter where they are, to access life saving support that will help them recover.” 

I don’t know too much about Beau’s life apart from Sober Grid.  

Online comments say that he is an entrepreneur and after owning a successful art gallery in Houston, he spent time in NYC and Boston before moving to LA. 

He enjoyed drinking coffee and Dr Pepper. 

He has siblings in Massachusetts and they all met together in Texas to spend Thanksgiving together, right before Beau vanished.

Beau’s mother is Amy Mann and she seems to have been the family member who has been most vocal about his disappearance.

Beau is a gay man and he recently came out of a long term relationship.  

Beau flew back to LA from Texas after Thanksgiving on November 29.  His assistant picked him up at the airport.  I have seen some differing reports that say Beau was dropped either at his office or at his apartment.  In an article from the Telegram and Gazette, Beau’s mother says he was dropped off at his apartment so I think that is the most likely.

He ventured out later that day to get some take out food and he had a visit from a friend that evening.  All of that was captured on CCTV and verified to be Beau.

The next day was Tuesday, November 30.  Beau was seen on CCTV leaving his apartment to goto a coffee shop. This was normal behavior according to his mother, Amy.

At about 2 p.m that day, CCTV at a 7-Eleven captured him as he hefted a large backpack off and the contents, including laptop computers, spilled out. He repacked his bag and left the store at 2:06 p.m. with a large icy fountain drink in one hand, a bulky plastic store bag in the other and a bandanna covering the lower part of his face as a mask.

It is believed that after he left 7-11, he got into an Uber or Lyft.  Less than 10 minutes later, a text from his cellphone was sent to 911.

The message said he was in an Uber but gave no other information about why he would need help.

Police attempted to reach out to Beau twice following the 911 message and got no response.  

The Uber driver has been spoken to and insists that he dropped off Beau at his apartment.  Amy has watched hours of footage and has not seen Beau being dropped off or entering his apartment after the time the 911 text was sent. 

I am not entirely sure when his family determined that he was missing, but when they could not get in touch with him, they filed a missing person report.

The first posts I can see online about Beau being missing were around December 8.  

When Amy made the missing person report, she was disturbed when police insinuated that Beau may have left of his own accord.

They suggested that he might be enjoying a “digital detox” for a period.

“They told me I wouldn’t believe how often that happens,” she said. 

Amy has said that there is no way Beau would give up his cellphone as a ‘digital detox’.  She has said he  was always on it and when he wasn’t, he was talking about his “baby, Sober Grid.”

Beau had told Amy that he would go home from Christmas, and he never showed up.  He would also never have not spoken to his nieces and nephews for this long, according to family.   

“He told me he would come (home) this Christmas,” Amy said. “He never forgets their birthdays or Christmas.”

Amy has said that she is not naive and realizes that Beau could have relapsed or suffered a mental health crisis.  His family have been out to Los Angeles to search for him.

They checked Beau’s apartment, traipsed around looking for him, put up posters and pushed for police to do more. Beau’s mother wants to go back but in Los Angeles there are areas one shouldn’t visit alone.

“My husband has to work and he won’t let me go back alone,” Amy said.

Beau had told Amy before he disappeared that he was planning to meet up with a man named Blake Brown.  Blake spoke to the Telegram and Gazette and said he had done some work for Beau and stayed in his apartment sometime around August. He said the two were not dating but were “friends … with benefits,” which he described as Beau allowing him to stay at his apartment with him for a time.

Beau and Blake had met online.  Blake said that Beau was texting him, wanting to hang out but Blake was out of town.  

Blake has not heard from Beau since he disappeared.  

‘I’m hoping that he’s just walking around crazy,” he said, adding that the situation is “seriously strange,” it frightens him and he wonders if Mann had a secret that no one knew about.

The LAPD allegedly know that Beau and Blake had been in contact, but they have never questioned or been in touch with Blake.

Amy has spoken about what she thinks happened to Beau.  She said she believes someone may have harmed her son, though she can’t imagine why. She said he only just started taking a salary from the company and if someone harmed him for money, they’d likely not get much.

Maybe, she thought, someone saw the computers fall from his bag and wanted them. She runs through theories, some plausible, like maybe he was hurt by one of the drivers in the rideshare vehicle. He could have been dating someone she didn’t know or perhaps there was a problem at work.

She believes Beau had recently ended a long-term relationship and noted that he had been working hard at being less easy to take advantage of, even saying “no” on a few occasions during a trip she took with him to Aruba, which left her surprised.

Beau, she said, has a good reputation and has helped many people. She’s hoping that is enough to encourage others to help him now; to find him and get him home safely.

Beau is described as a white man weighing about 220 pounds with brown hair, blue eyes and is about 5-foot-10.

There is a page on Facebook called Find Beau Mann and it only has 100 followers at the time of recording the podcast episode for Beau.

One silver lining to this story is that Sober Grid still seems to be going strong, despite Beau’s disappearance. 

This article is from January 17, 2022:

 Sober Grid and CredibleMind announced a commercial partnership designed to bring comprehensive resources to both parties’ clients and members in need. Hosting the world’s oldest social media community for those in recovery, Sober Grid has advanced into communities, labor unions, mental health systems and more to provide peer recovery coaching and substance disorder relief.

“We are pleased to partner with Credible Mind as this collaboration creates a comprehensive experience for our clients.” said Sober Grid, COO, Wendy Warrington. “Leveraging our highly complementary platforms will provide best in class resources, anonymity, and flexibility to individuals when seeking drug and alcohol support and mental health resources – anywhere and anytime they need it. This also aligns with our strategy to continue to help more individuals, organizations and communities.”