SPANISH FORK — The boy who disappeared earlier this week went to Salt Lake City to play his violin for money and to spend the night in a homeless shelter, his father said.

Porter Bowcut, 17, was going through a stressful time so he hopped on a UTA bus Wednesday and traveled up to Salt Lake City with his backpack and violin case in tow, his father Carl Bowcut said. Porter played his violin at The Gateway mall to make a little extra cash.

"Enough to go to the movies," Carl said Friday afternoon. "And to buy some church pants to go to church the next day."

At nighttime, Porter slept at one of the overflow homeless shelters — something he'd always wanted to do, his father said.

"He always wanted to see what it would be like to be in a homeless shelter," Carl said.

Back in Spanish Fork, worry spread when people noticed Porter had not been seen since Wednesday morning at Spanish Fork High School. The Bowcut family was inundated with hundreds of phone calls from concerned friends, family and community members, Carl said, and the Spanish Fork Police Department also fielded a flurry of calls.

Friday morning, Carl said he felt like he should take a drive up north.

"I just felt the impression that I should go look for him in Salt Lake," he said. "So I went there and found him."

Carl found his son as he was making his way from the homeless shelter to the mall. Porter told him he was going to e-mail his family later that day to let them know he was OK.

"He had no idea it would create this kind of stir," Carl said.

Porter is the more adventurous one in the family, he added.

"None of my other children would have done this," Carl laughed.

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