KEY POINTS:
John Dormer opens the door of his New Plymouth home bleary-eyed, and obviously distressed. For the past five days, he's hardly slept. On Thursday, he rose at 4am and drove the 355km to Wellington to collect his son, Cameron.
The drive there and back, plus the court and media frenzy, has taken its toll, says Dormer.
Now, the Herald on Sunday has woken him, and he really "can't handle any more". His son, the centre of attention after his hoax disappearing act which led to police mounting a huge four-day manhunt, is asleep, and no, we can't talk to him.
Dormer was arrested on Wednesday night after being found with another man at a motel in central Wellington. He had left his Hastings home mid-afternoon on Saturday to buy fish and chips.
A text to his partner that afternoon sparked a police investigation across four districts when his burned out Honda Accord was found dumped in Katikati in the Bay of Plenty, hundreds of kilometres from his home.
He was charged with wasting police time, having cannabis and a pipe for smoking cannabis, and released on bail into his father's care.
Speaking to the Herald on Sunday on Friday morning, John Dormer said while he was still at a loss to explain his son's actions, he was glad to have him home. "The whole thing has been a huge shock. I truly believed foul play was involved, that something bad had happened."
The pair had stayed up late into the previous night talking, but had "not got in to the details" or the reasons for Cameron's "disappearance".
"He's a very private person. He keeps things pretty much to himself, so I didn't push him. I just don't think it's right at this stage. Sooner or later we'll find out, but right now I honestly don't know why he did it."
He said his son suffered from depression and had a form of leukemia. He had lost his mother to cancer a year ago.
"And yes, it did affect him. It affected us all. Cameron was very close to her, so obviously that probably hasn't helped things."
Cameron was the youngest of three boys. He grew up in New Plymouth, and attended Welbourn Primary, Highlands Intermediate and New Plymouth Boys' High School. His father described him as a computer nut - he had an internet-based phone company.
He left home before he was 20, and lived in Hastings with partner Clinton Hughes for the past four years.
"You know, there's been lots of hugs, and there's a lot of things that we need to go through, but he has apologised, and time is on our side," Dormer said. "We'll know eventually."
He apologises for his dishevelled appearance, and closes the door. The sign on the outside of the modest brick-and-tile house says "Kaos Kastle".
Dormer, whose bail conditions include that he does not drink alcohol or consume non-prescription drugs, and does not associate with two people, entered no plea on Thursday. He was remanded to live with his father in New Plymouth until his next court appearance on October 19.
