MISSING: Man battling mental illness disappears after house fire

Police and family members need your help to find a missing man with a mental illness.

Kevin McGriff hasn't been seen since the family's house caught fire, days ago. 

"I feel helpless," said Kevin McGriff, Sr., the man's father. 

His 26-year-old Kevin Jr, may appear to be a grown man but, to his father he's still a child - his child - and he's missing.

"It's indescribable," said Kevin Sr.  "It's not a good feeling." 

Kevin McGriff senior says at about 5:30 a.m. Monday, he left his home on Detroit's Terry Street to go to work. His son, who he says suffers from schizophrenia, stayed inside. McGriff says he didn't have his phone on him but managed to grab it around lunch time.

"My neighbors called me, it was about 1 p.m. when I got my phone, my neighbors called saying my house was on fire," McGriff, Sr. said.

McGriff drove up to his home, burned, and his son was nowhere to be found. McGriff quickly called police.

FOX 2: "And they know your son was not in the house?"

"Yes," he said. "I went to the fire station, went all in the house. neighbors saw him right before the fire."

McGriff says that was around 6:30 or 7 a.m.  His son was last seen wearing a black wool coat with a hoodie and gray sweatpants. Since then the worried father has had no luck canvassing the area.

"I've been everywhere for the last 3 days," he said. "I've been putting fliers up; my family has been driving (looking for him.)"

McGriff says his son would stay with him or his brother in Ecorse, adding that he's a quiet, polite young man.

"He wouldn't hurt anyone, he would just get real quiet and just pace," said McGriff, Sr.

He can't help but wonder if his son ran away, saying he has never done anything like this before - wondering if it is because of the fire.

"I just think he's freaked out and thinks I'm mad," he said. "Scared that I'm mad or something. I'm not mad."

McGriff says his son stands about 6 feet 2 inches tall and weighs 140 to 150 pounds. He has long dreadlocks and yellow and orange tattoos on his neck and a Batman tattoo on his right arm.

"If anybody sees him just call the police," his father said. "Call somebody. Please.

"I don't care about the house. I can get that back. I just want my son back."