Crime & Safety

Gavin Smith Search in Sylmar had 'No Significance' in the Investigation

Los Angeles Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore told the Los Angeles Times that the recent family search in Sylmar does not indicate a new development.

Friends and family of missing Fox executive , Calif. Sunday, plastering posters of his face and the black Mercedes he was last seen driving on storefronts and restaurants around town, reports the Huffington Post.

The family was working on a tip from investigators who had said that a cellphone tower in the area had received the last ping from Smith's mobile phone, according to CBS2, said the website.

However, the canvass doesn't indicate a new development in the search for Smith, said Los Angeles Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore to the Los Angeles Times, said the Post. In the report, Whitmore told the Times that Sylmar had "no significance" and that "there is no new information," but he did praise the family's continued effort to search for Smith, reports Huffington Post.

Find out what's happening in Agoura Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

In all, about Sunday, reports City News Service.

Click here to read the full story with accompanying CBS video.

Find out what's happening in Agoura Hillswith free, real-time updates from Patch.

The 57-year-old former UCLA basketball player left a female friend's home off Kanan Road in eastern Ventura County between 9 and 10 p.m. on May 1, in his black, 2000 Mercedes 420 E. His phone last showed him to be in Sylmar.

Last month, a SWAT team and detectives raided a home owned by a reputed
drug dealer named John Creech in West Hills. Documents obtained by the Los
Angeles Times indicate that sheriff's deputies feel an unspecified felony related to Smith's disappearance may have occurred there.

Smith had reportedly met the drug dealer's wife, Chandrika Creech, in some sort of rehab therapy, The Times reported. John Creech remains jailed on other charges, and sheriff's deputies have said they have served numerous search warrants at other locations in connection with Smith's disappearance.

Smith is 6 feet-6 inches tall, with gray hair with blonde highlights, green eyes and a goatee.

His family is offering a $20,000 reward for information leading to his return.


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