The remains of a 20th Century Fox executive who mysteriously disappeared more than two years ago were found in a desert area and police said Thursday they believe they know what led to his killing.
Gavin Smith, 57, was last seen May 1, 2012, in Ventura County's Oak Park neighborhood after leaving the home of a female friend.
Hikers discovered the remains about 70 miles away, near Palmdale in the Antelope Valley, on Oct. 26, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said. Results of an autopsy have not been finalized.
Smith was with Fox's movie distribution department for nearly 18 years and was a branch manager for several theaters. He was also a former UCLA basketball player and had three children.
Authorities said earlier they had found Smith's Mercedes-Benz at a Simi Valley storage facility nine months after his disappearance. Its condition along with witness statements led them to believe Smith was killed.
A law enforcement official with knowledge of the investigation said Thursday the car contained Smith's blood and body tissue, including skin stuck to a seat.
The official was not authorized to speak publicly about the case and spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity.
Sheriff's Lt. Dave Dolson said investigators are optimistic they will solve the case.
"We believe we know what happened" and why, he said without elaboration.
Dolson said the remains were crucial to the case and were found in an area where investigators believed they would be located.
A previous search had been unsuccessful, and authorities discouraged Smith's family and friends from conducting a search for him for their own safety, Dolson said.
The storage facility where Smith's car was found was linked to John Creech, a man who is serving an eight-year prison sentence for sales or transport of narcotics, Dolson said previously. Creech was named a person of interest but has not been charged with Smith's killing.
Police have said Smith had "some kind of relationship" with Creech's wife, Chandrika, after meeting her in drug rehabilitation several years earlier. Dolson declined to provide details.
The official who spoke anonymously said the relationship was believed to be romantic.
Investigators served dozens of search warrants mainly in locations around the San Fernando Valley and involving Creech's home and Hummer.
Detectives believe Smith's car was in the Porter Ranch area of the San Fernando Valley about a week after his disappearance and it was eventually moved — possibly by multiple people — to the Simi Valley storage facility, Dolson said previously.
"We think we know an area in which he was at, or where the murder may have taken place," Dolson told the AP earlier this year. He declined to elaborate further.
Dolson said investigators were working with the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
"This case is complex," said sheriff's Chief of Detectives Bill McSweeney. "We've kind of known what happened for a long time … many, many months."
The body, he added, "gives us proof that he was killed."
Actor Kathryn Crosby, widow of Bing Crosby, dies at 90
Kathryn Crosby, who appeared in such movies as "The 7th Voyage of Sinbad", "Anatomy of a Murder," and "Operation Mad Ball" before marrying famed singer and Oscar-winning actor Bing Crosby, has died. She was 90.
She died of natural causes Friday night at her home in the Northern California city of Hillsborough, a family spokesperson said Saturday.
Appearing under her stage name of Kathryn Grant, she appeared opposite Tony Curtis in "Mister Cory" in 1957 and Victor Mature in "The Big Circus" in 1959. She made five movies with film noir director Phil Karlson, including "Tight Spot" and "The Phenix City Story," both in 1955.
Her other leading men included Jack Lemmon in "Operation Mad Ball," James Darren in "The Brothers Rico," and James Stewart in "Anatomy of a Murder," directed by Otto Preminger.
Born Olive Kathryn Grandstaff on Nov. 25, 1933, in West Columbia, Texas, she graduated from the University of Texas with a degree in fine arts. She came to Hollywood and began her movie career in 1953.
She met Bing Crosby while doing interviews for a column she wrote about Hollywood for her hometown newspaper. They were married in 1957, when she was 23 and he was 54.
She curtailed her acting career after the wedding, although she appeared often with Crosby and their three children on his Christmas television specials and in Minute Maid orange juice commercials. She became a registered nurse in 1963.
In the 1970s, she hosted a morning talk show on KPIX-TV in Northern California.
After Crosby's death at age 74 in 1977, from a heart attack after golfing in Spain, she appeared in stage productions of "Same Time, Next Year" and "Charley's Aunt." She co-starred with John Davidson and Andrea McArdle in the 1996 Broadway... Read More