20th Century Fox studio executive Gavin Smith reported missing

[Northern Rose]

L.A. Home Searched for Missing Studio Exec Gavin Smith
June 8 2012

(LOS ANGELES) -- The search for missing Hollywood executive Gavin Smith took a twist Friday as detectives searched the home of a family in the San Fernando Valley in connection to his disappearance.

Smith, a 57-year-old father and husband who worked in film distribution in Hollywood, went missing on May 2 from the house of a female friend at around 10 p.m.

Friday’s search of a house in the San Fernando Valley began around 7:30 a.m. as authorities served a search warrant on the home.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the home belonged to a family of four on a quiet cul-de-sac. When SWAT cars arrived Friday morning, a woman and two children emerged from the home to allow the search to be completed. The family was not identified.

 ::snipping2::

http://www.kgoam810.com/rssItem.asp?feedid=118&itemid=29860888

[Toler]

Man Puzzled Why Police Looking For Missing Fox Exec Served Search Warrant At His Home
June 8, 2012 11:59 PM

CANOGA PARK (CBS) — A man said it was “highly unusual” that police served a search warrant at what is believed to be his home Friday — with guns drawn — in connection with the investigation into the disappearance of 20th Century Fox executive Gavin Smith.
 
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies served the warrant the 8600 block of of Santa Susana Place in Canoga Park at 7:30 a.m., according to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore.
 
The unidentified man told CBS2 and KCAL9 reporter Suraya Fadel that he had no idea why his home was targeted. “Your guess is as good as mine,” he said.
 
Gavin Smith has been missing since Tuesday. (credit: The Smith Family)
 
Whitmore said, “We still do not have any indication of any wrongdoing. This was just a location where our investigators believe there may be some information that could lead us to the whereabouts of Mr. Smith.”
 
Whitmore would not specify what items if any were recovered in the search.
 
The possible homeowner said “We have great officers. And I hope the situation resolves.”
 
Fadel asked him if he was shocked, and he said “Naturally.”
 
He would not comment on what police told him or what items may have been seized.
 
LAPD Lt. Dave Dolson said, “We’re following up on leads.”
 
No one at the home was arrested.  ::snipping2:: 

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/06/08/man-puzzled-why-police-looking-for-missing-fox-exec-served-search-warrant-at-his-home/

[Toler]

Missing Fox Movie Executive: Homicide Detectives Search Valley House Twice – LAT
 Sunday June 10, 2012 @ 4:37am PDT

Missing Twentieth Century Fox film distribution executive Gavin Smith’s family recently offered a $20,000 reward for information to find him. But his whereabouts since May 1st remain a mystery. Still authorities keep on searching. Now the Los Angeles Times reports that homicide detectives and a SWAT team at 7:30 AM on Friday morning descended on a West Hills house in the San Fernando Valley as part of the probe. ”Investigators remained at the home for more than five hours before leaving the cul-de-sac with boxes and a computer. They also towed away a black Audi SUV.” The paper quoted a lawyer as saying this was the second time in a month that LA County Sheriff’s deputies had searched this same residence.  ::snipping2:: 

http://www.deadline.com/2012/06/missing-fox-movie-executive-homicide-detectives-search-valley-house-twice-la-times/

[melisb]

Just runnin' at the mouth....bad business between the two men, if married maybe his wife was seeing Mr. Smith?  Maybe Mr. Smith's estranged wife hired this man to do away with him or maybe this man was seeing Mrs. Smith?  So many possibilities but I do feel so bad for his children.  I would go nuts if one of my parents disappeared under any circumstance!  My first thought was he committed suicide but I don't feel now that is what happened.

[Toler]

'The guy was a player, he was a big flirt': Was missing married Hollywood executive murdered by jealous boyfriend of one of his paramours?
June 13 '12

Los Angeles homicide detectives believe that the 20th Century Fox executive who went missing six weeks ago may have been murdered by a jealous boyfriend of one of his many lovers.
Gavin Smith, the muscular, 57-year-old former basketball player for UCLA, had recently separated from his wife, Lisa, the mother of his three children.
‘He had several affairs,’ a source close to the investigation told The Daily. ‘The guy was a player. He was a big flirt. He was a ladies’ man.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2158848/Gavin-Smith-Was-Hollywood-executive-murdered-jealous-boyfriend-paramours.html#ixzz1xi7xbWwe

[Toler]

Drug dealer lives in home searched in missing Fox executive case
June 21, 2012

A man who lives at the West Hills home searched in connection with the disappearance of Gavin Smith said Thursday he had never met the missing 20th Century Fox executive.
 
John Creech lives at the home along with his wife, Chandrika Creech, who is listed in public records as the property owner. Chandrika Creech met Smith in therapy, according to a source familiar with the case who did not want to be named because the investigation is ongoing.
 
Detectives have long emphasized that their probe of Smith's disappearance is a missing person investigation and that there are few clues in the case.
 
But the tone of the investigation appeared, at least from the outside, to change June 8 when a SWAT team searched the West Hills home belonging to the Creeches.
 
The cover pages of a sealed search warrant affidavit that referenced the address of the home, signed by a Los Angeles Superior Court judge on May 21, said detectives had probable cause that an unspecified felony had been committed at the residence.
 
Investigators left the home, located in the 8600 block of Santa Susana Place, with boxes, a computer and a black Audi SUV, but no arrests were made.
 
When asked Thursday why his home was searched earlier this month, John Creech said: "I would love to tell you but I can't. I am told I cannot make any comments."
 
He added that he has "never met" Smith.
 
John Creech made the statements to Times reporters at Los Angeles County Superior Court, where he was scheduled to be sentenced on a single count of selling and transporting drugs. Instead, Judge Clifford Klein ordered that Creech remain in custody without bail pending a new sentencing date of July 26.

 Creech faces up to 10 years in state prison.
Authorities have not divulged how the Creeches relate to the Smith case.
 
When the search of the home was conducted, Lt. Dave Dolson of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department homicide division said the warrant was one of several that have been served in the hunt for Smith.
 
Daniel Teola, an attorney for the Creeches, said this was the second time in a month that deputies had searched the house, but refused to discuss the case.
 
Smith, a former UCLA basketball player who works in Fox's movie distribution department, left a friend's home in Ventura County's Oak Park neighborhood the night of May 1. Wearing purple athletic pants belonging to one of his sons, Smith drove away in his Mercedes, leaving behind his cellphone charger, shaving kit and other items.
 
"It doesn't sound like he was going anywhere," his eldest son, Evan, told "Good Morning America."
 
Search teams have combed the areas where Smith was last seen, and his family spread word of his disappearance online and on local movie screens. He was reportedly spotted at a Morro Bay restaurant in May, but Dolson later said it proved “not to be a credible sighting.”  ::snipping2::

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/06/gavin-smith-missing-fox-executive-1.html

[Toler]

Sources: Missing Fox Exec Gavin Smith Had Affair With Woman Whose House Was Searched by Police
June 21 '12

The Gavin Smith disappearance plot thickens.
 
Two weeks ago, homicide investigators and crime-lab analysts from the L.A. Sheriff's Department searched the home of John and Chandrika Creech in connection with the case of the Fox executive, whose family reported him missing early last month.
 
And now we know more about Smith's connection to the Creeches.
 
Sources tell E! News that Smith, who has been missing since May 1 and is married with three children, had been having an affair with Chandrika.
 
"Chandrika and Gavin first met in 2008 in therapy," a source tells E! News. "They had a relationship and in 2008, when Mr. Creech found out about it, he told his wife to stop it." However, the source says Gavin and Chandrika started their relationship up again.
 
Sources said that Gavin's wife, Lisa, and her sons knew about Gavin's relationship with Chandrika, who, according to to public records, is listed as the owner of the Canoga Park home she shares with her husband.
 
A source adds, "Mr. Creech has never met Gavin Smith and has never seen Gavin Smith, but they did have an email exchange in 2008."  ::snipping2:: 
.

Read more: http://www.eonline.com/news/sources_missing_fox_exec_gavin_smith/325213#ixzz1yTe0n47S

[Toler]

Gavin Smith's Relationship With Chandrika Creech Explored (VIDEO)
June 22 '12

A convicted drug dealer named John Creech was back in jail Thursday evening, arrested on a warrant issued in 2010. But it's his wife that investigators may be more interested in.

Chandrika Creech was reportedly having an affair with 20th Century Fox Executive Gavin Smith before he went missing May 1, according to E! News sources.

The pair met in 2008 while they were in therapy, the source said to E! News, and when Creech's husband found out about the affair, he asked her to put an end to it. But the affair soon heated up again.  ::snipping2::

In the video below, CBS2/KCAL9 questions Smith's sister about her knowledge of his alleged affair:  ::snipping2::

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/22/gavin-smiths-relationship_n_1619094.html

[Toler]

'No new information' in Gavin Smith disappearance, official says
July 9, 2012 |  9:16am

Investigators have "no new information" to report on the disappearance of 20th Century Fox executive Gavin Smith, a sheriff's official said on the day of the family's latest push to find the 57-year-old.
 
Smith's wife, Lisa, told CBS-2 on Sunday that volunteers were posting fliers showing Smith and his missing Mercedes based on information from detectives.
 
"We wanted to find out what we could do hands-on," she said. "Obviously we can't search for Gavin but they told us that we could put posters up. They directed us to a good area and this is it."
 
Smith's sister, Tara Addeo, told the television station that investigators said the last ping from her brother's cellphone came from the Sylmar area.
 
"The police have led us specifically to this area," she said.
 
Sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said detectives have kept in contact with Smith's family — giving "general directions, advice, information, things like that" — but said the area canvassed had "no significance" to the investigation.
 
"There is no new information," he said of the case.
 
Instead, he said, detectives advised the family on high-visibility areas to post fliers and recommended they start in the north end of the San Fernando Valley before working their way south.
 
"They certainly are active and we appreciate that," he said of the family's efforts to find Smith.  ::snipping2:: 

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2012/07/no-new-information-in-gavin-smith-disappearance-official-says.html

[Northern Rose]

Something 'Just Not Right' in the Investigation of Missing Gavin Smith
Authorities tell FoxNews.com that certain elements in the missing person's case "are just not right."

August 17, 2012

Authorities investigating the disappearance of a 20th Century Fox executive and former UCLA basketball player say foul play is being "strongly" considered, with a detective telling FoxNews.com that elements in the case "are just not right."

Gavin Smith, 57, who worked out of a Calabasas office, hasn't been seen since the evening hours of May 1, when he left a friend's Oak Park home in a black Mercedes. Certain circumstances surrounding his disappearance "are just not right," a law enforcement source told FoxNews.com on August 2. His family agrees.

"I know that he would never leave his boys," Smith's sister, Tara Addeo, told the website. "There’s no way my brother would kill himself."

Smith and his car have not been found, the law enforcement source said, and there has been no activity on his bank accounts, according to the report

 ::snipping2::

http://agourahills.patch.com/articles/something-just-not-right-in-the-investigation-of-missing-gavin-smith

[Northern Rose]

Sentencing Delayed for Drug Dealer Whose Home Was Searched in Gavin Smith Case
John Creech faces up to 10 years in jail for drug case unrelated to disappearance of Fox film executive
Wednesday, Aug 29, 2012

The sentencing of an admitted drug dealer caught up in the investigation of a missing Fox film executive has been delayed again.

John Creech's new sentencing date is Sept. 25

The 39-year-old pleaded guilty in a two-year-old drug case and faces up to 10 years in jail.

The West Hills man was arrested by Glendale Police, who observed Creech make a drug drop in Chatsworth during a 2010 surveillance operation.

On June 8, authorities investigating the disappearance of Gavin Smith executed a search warrant at the house where Creech was living. Creech has not been charged with any crime in connection with Smith.

Creech has said he's never met Smith. However, his wife Chandrika met Smith in therapy, according to an unnamed source cited by the Los Angeles Times.

 ::snipping2::

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Missing-Gavin-Smith-John-Creech-Sentencing-167862075.html

[Northern Rose]

Sister of Missing Fox Exec Wonders if 'Foul Play' Was Involved in Disappearance

Tara Addeo—sister of Gavin Smith, who vanished without a trace in May—and Lisa Smith, Smith's wife, talk with 'The Hollywood Reporter' about the case.
 
12 Sep 2012

As the personal belongings of West Hill's Gavin Smith, the Fox executive who went missing from an Oak Park home on May 1, were removed from his Calabasas office and delivered by the studio to his West Hills home, Smith's wife, Lisa Smith, and sister, Tara Addeo, spoke with the The Hollywood Reporter about the ongoing investigation.

"It's been tough to bring them into the house," Lisa Smith told the magazine.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department still considers the Smith investigation a missing person's case and not a homicide probe, according to department spokesman Steve Whitmore, said the report. But Addeo told THR that while she has hope, her optimism is waning.

 ::snipping2::

http://woodlandhills.patch.com/articles/sister-of-missing-fox-exec-wonders-if-foul-play-was-involved-in-disappearance

[MuffyBee]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/americas-most-wanted-gavin-smith-missing-371740?google_editors_picks=true
'America's Most Wanted' to Air Feature on Missing Fox Exec Gavin Smith
September 19, 2012

America’s Most Wanted will air a feature on missing 20th Century Fox executive Gavin Smith, a producer for the show tells The Hollywood Reporter.

The episode of Lifetime's venerable crime news program will air in early- to mid-October, according to Angeline Hartmann, who is producing the segment for AMW. Hartmann says that the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which has revealed little about its investigation, is participating in the making of the feature.

“The sheriff's office has not really spoken out in detail publicly about this case, but the good news is we are dealing directly with the investigators assigned to the case — they are ready to talk a little bit more about it,” says Hartmann, adding that AMW is still conducting interviews and researching the disappearance of the studio exec.
 ::snipping2::
Hartmann says it has not been determined what format the AMW feature will use. She said the show could present the case with a re-enactment or by using "all interviews."

"There are several avenues we could go," she says. "Do we make a mini Hollywood movie?"
 ::snipping2::

[Toler]

Real-life Hollywood whodunit: Wife of movie executive who vanished five months ago reveals his sordid double life of affairs and drugs . . . and how she fears he's been murdered
10/05/'12

It is a story that has all the ingredients of a Hollywood whodunit. A movie executive, devoted to his three sons, vanishes without a trace. Detectives uncover affairs, money woes and links to a drug dealer.
 
For Lisa Smith, the agony of the double life of her husband Gavin slowly unravelling adds to her heartbreak. As she lies alone and sleepless in the middle of the night, she tries to remember the happy times they shared. But in the darkness, all she can do is cry.
 
Gavin, a muscular 6ft 6 ins tall sports fanatic who worked for 20th Century Fox, was last seen on May 1. Lisa reported him missing the following day when he failed to pick up their eldest son Evan. She says she knew instinctively that something bad had happened to him.

“I think he was murdered,” she says, in an exclusive interview with Mail Online. “And I am terrified that whoever did it is going to come after me and our boys.”
 
Lisa is not allowed to name the person she believes could be involved in her husband’s disappearance. But law enforcement sources believe Gavin unwittingly got out of his depth as he juggled affairs with married women, financial problems and a prescription pill addiction.
 
In June detectives searched the home of one of Gavin’s mistresses, Chandrika Creech. They took away an Audi SUV, several cardboard boxes and a computer.
 
Her husband John was taken into custody on an unrelated drug matter. He faces 10 years jail after admitting he was the middleman in a ring that provided drugs to Hollywood producers.
 
Speaking for the first time about the problems in their once perfect marriage, Lisa struggles through tears to explain her 57-year-old husband’s midlife crisis.
 
Gavin earned $180,000 a year at Fox, distributing hit movies including the Star Wars and Terminator series, Avatar and Titanic.  But they were struggling to pay the mortgage on their three-bedroom home in the Los Angeles suburb of West Hills.

 As Lisa, an accountant who supported her husband during the early years of their marriage while he struggled as a bit-part actor, went through their tax papers she discovered Gavin had taken money from his pension fund and squandered his year-end Fox bonus.
 
“He’d gone through $30,000,” she says. “He was hopeless with money at the best of times but he’d been talking about buying our sons cars. I’d talked him out of that but the money had gone anyway.
 
“That’s when I discovered a new mistress called Melanie. He seemed to be setting her and her kids up in a new home. We had furious rows.  ::snipping2:: 


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/article-2213359/Real-life-Hollywood-whodunit-Wife-movie-executive-vanished-months-ago-reveals-sordid-double-life-affairs-drugs----fears-hes-murdered.html#ixzz28RzFPAhT
 Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

[Nut44x4]

Interesting---Thanks Toler

[KittyMom]

Wow.  Can you imagine how it feels to find out that someone you've been with for so long has this whole other life without you or your children?  How does a person ever trust again?

[Sister]

Wow.  Can you imagine how it feels to find out that someone you've been with for so long has this whole other life without you or your children?  How does a person ever trust again?

Good question!

[MuffyBee]

http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/gavin-smiths-wife-talks-affairs-378384
Wife of Missing Fox Exec Gavin Smith Acknowledges Extramarital Affairs, Suspects Foul Play
October 11, 2012

The mystery of missing 20th Century Fox executive Gavin Smith continues, with his wife finally speaking out on the gritty, “not so pretty details” of their relationship.
“I know him well. There’s nothing on earth that would keep him from coming back to take care of his family,” says Lisa. “I just don’t picture him walking in and saying, ‘I’m sorry; I just needed a breather.’ I’m prepared for the worst.”

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter last month, Gavin’s sister also said that she suspects foul play. “Where could he possibly be?” Tara Addeo wondered. “I know that Gavin would not hurt himself, and I have a hard time believing that Gavin would ever walk away from his sons. The only other alternative is that there would have been foul play.”
The case appeared to take on a hopeful direction in June, when authorities searched the home of Chandrika Creech, a woman with whom Gavin was alleged to have had an affair, and her husband John Creech, an admitted middleman in L.A.’s illicit drug world.
More...

[MuffyBee]

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-la-hummer-missing-fox-executive-gavin-smith-drug-house-20130124,0,5011926.story?obref=obinsite
Hummer found at drug house may be tied to missing Fox executive
January 24, 2013

Los Angeles County sheriff's homicide detectives have found a Hummer they sought in the disappearance of missing 20th Century Fox executive Gavin Smith outside a marijuana grow house in Granada Hills.

Detectives took the vehicle Wednesday after federal drug agents investigating the grow house notified them of the vehicle's presence.

The vehicle is registered to John Creech, a convicted drug dealer whose wife had ties to Smith and whose West Hills home was searched in June 2012 as part of the investigation, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore confirmed. Investigators were expected to use a search warrant to examine the vehicle's interior for evidence.

Whitmore said authorities have been looking for the Hummer since the search of Creech's home and believe it may be tied to Smith's disappearance.
More...

[MuffyBee]

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2013/03/gavin-smith-car-found-homicide-case.html
Missing Fox executive Gavin Smith's car found; homicide suspected
March 14, 2013

os Angeles County sheriff's investigators now believe missing Fox executive Gavin Smith was killed after finding his vehicle in a Simi Valley storage facility connected to a convicted drug dealer last month, officials said.

After finding the Mercedes Benz on Feb. 21 in a facility linked to John Creech, who remains jailed for his drug conviction, investigators served "several search warrants" in the San Fernando Valley as part of their investigation, sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said.

"Based on the vehicle’s condition and information developed from persons cooperating in the investigation," Smith's disappearance is now being investigated as a homicide, a sheriff's statement said. It had been publicly characterized as a missing persons case.

No body has been recovered, Whitmore said.
More...