GUILTY CA - Gavin Smith, 57, Oak Park, 1 May 2012

[2rose]

This links expains why that quote couldn't be found anywhere else. As the mods posted, Examiner.com is not considered reliable due to just this sort of thing

Since we are on this topic right now, can I ask what the feeling is about "The Hollywood Reporter" (THR) newspaper. There have been some links referring back to that and I just read something that questions their integrity ... implying that THR is more concerned about revenue from selling papers, rather than article accuracy ...

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowl...dan-abrams-mediaite-styleite-kate-moss_b66185

 

[Seek&Find]

Since we are on this topic right now, can I ask what the feeling is about "The Hollywood Reporter" (THR) newspaper. There have been some links referring back to that and I just read something that questions their integrity ... implying that THR is more concerned about revenue from selling papers, rather than article accuracy ...

http://www.mediabistro.com/fishbowl...dan-abrams-mediaite-styleite-kate-moss_b66185

IDK. :waitasec: You can ask a mod. I just knew about the examiner & HuffPo problems while following other cases. There are a lot more entertainment type entities following this case than typical, IMO.

If you find anything in any article that appears to not be factual, please point it out! Last thing we need is to follow false rabbit trails!

 

[Seek&Find]

"We're miserable, every day feels like 72 hours," said Lisa Smith, Gavin Smith's wife. "My husband would never abandon his children or me."

Acting on information from L.A. County sheriff's investigators, a group of Smith's family and volunteers from their church handed out fliers with his picture and a picture of his car in the area of Encinitas Avenue and Roxford Street. It's an area where Smith was believed to have last used his cellphone.

link

BBM. God bless them for that.

New area to look at on Google search!

 

[2rose]

New area to look at on Google search!

This Denny's Restaurant is just east of the Golden Gate Freeway #5 (NW/SE direction),
and not too far north of a connection to the SanDiego Freeway #405 (N/S).
All the communities we have previously mentioned in relation to this story -
Oak Park, West Hills, Chatsworth, Canoga Park - are all west of #405.

Remember LE confiscated the only CREECH family automobile ...
wonder if IT had a GPS system and did that show a Sylmer presence ?

 

[JodyMT]

By some descriptions of the area, I was picturing Sylmar as a place like Compton or Watts and couldn't understand why Gavin would be there. Glad to hear it is just a working class neighborhood and not some place infested with drugs and gangs.

There are just so many questions. I would like to know when he left that friend's house and why. If it was around 10 pm, and his last cell phone ping was around the 2 am time period, that is a very long time to be driving around. I can't come up with many reasons to do something like that in the middle of the night except that he was meeting someone.

It's just so strange. A car can be chopped up and sold for parts if he was carjacked, but most carjackers wouldn't bother hiding a body. They would just leave the person out in the street alive or dead.

If the cops know he last cell phone pings were in the Sylmar area, can't they check video footage off the red light cameras to see if his car can be spotted?

 

[Seek&Find]

Anyone seen the flier they're distributing? It might provide more info. Any locals need to go for a drive?

ETA: We do have a missing poster for him here, but I was wondering, if they're canvassing Sylmar due to specific info, if those flyers have more detail about what brings them to Sylmar.

 

[Seek&Find]

One question is whether he was the one with the phone, or was the driving around done after something happened to him, and done to make it harder to figure out where he could've been accosted?

 

[JodyMT]

Anyone seen the flier they're distributing? It might provide more info. Any locals need to go for a drive?

No, but I do wonder why they chose to doing this now instead of before? The info about Gavin's cell phone ping has been out there for some time now.

 

[Seek&Find]

No, but I do wonder why they chose to doing this now instead of before? The info about Gavin's cell phone ping has been out there for some time now.

It had been questioned before. I wonder if LE was able to narrow down the area more by cross referencing the Creech phone records? They say they're working closely with LE, so I'm sure there's a reason for the timing.

“I’m not sure which tower it was. There are several here but the police have led us specifically to this area. We’re going to canvass this area really hard this morning,” she [Gavin's sister] said.

When asked about the allegations [of an affair with Chandrika] Gavin’s wife told Kaple, “I have no comment. I want to find my husband. They’re looking for their dad and everything else is not important,” she said. “We’re on a mission here. We want to find him. Find his car. Find out what happened.”

link

Glad she's staying focused on finding Gavin. Some women would bow out if they heard of an affair, and some would allow the media speculation to rile them. Every time I see her on video, she seems determined and focused on finding Gavin. Good for her.

Family members of a missing Fox executive are expected to canvass a large area of Sylmar on Sunday after reportedly receiving new information from investigators. Bobby Kaple reports.

BBM. Link

 

[Seek&Find]

This is an older article I found that I hadn't seen here.

“Life’s not the same without you, and I don’t know what I’m going to do without you in my life,” DS said.

“He has a family waiting for him and it’s not going to be the same world without him,” AS said. “We love him so much.”

“I just know that if any of us were missing, my dad would not stop looking for us,” he told “Inside Edition.” “So we’re not going to stop until we find him.”

link

 

[2rose]

Here is an easy link to a map of the Sylmar area ...
http://www.zipareacode.net/sylmar-ca.htm
If you zoom in one level, you will see the community names previously mentioned (southwest of Sylmar). You can zoom in more ... even to a satellite view where you can see the streets. I can see a McDonald's hamburger joint on the northeast block of Encinitas and Roxford.
(McDonald's 12860 Encinitas Ave, Sylmar, CA 91342)
which is right across the street from the where the volunteers met for the canvas
(Denny's 12861 Encinitas Avenue at Roxford Street)

Here is a link to cell phone towers for the various carriers ...
AT&T, NEXTEL, SPRINT, T-MOBILE, VERIZON
... although we don't know which one Gavin used. There are a lot of towers, so the area where his phone stopped working should be precise ...
http://www.cellreception.com/towers/towers.php?city=sylmar&state_abr=ca

By now his family should have received his phone bill which would detail
all the phone calls he had on the night he went missing.

If someone took Gavin's car to a chop shop, then they may have had an accomplice for transportation home ???

Recently on the Headline News channel, I saw how LE caught the murderer of a young woman who went missing while bicycling home. He was traced because LE collected local surveillance footage of the vehicle (and license plate) that followed her. So I hope they are using that strategy for Gavin.

 

[Seek&Find]

Uh oh. I just looked at that area on Google. There's a large reservoir right there. Wonder if they've done searches there. Retaining ponds, some industrial and/or construction area. SAR should have a look around there. A grassy, treed area...

It's also near the LAPD training facility. Restaurants, hotels, a gas station, residential areas.

 

[JodyMT]

Here is an easy link to a map of the Sylmar area ...
http://www.zipareacode.net/sylmar-ca.htm
If you zoom in one level, you will see the community names previously mentioned (southwest of Sylmar). You can zoom in more ... even to a satellite view where you can see the streets. I can see a McDonald's hamburger joint on the northeast block of Encinitas and Roxford.
(McDonald's 12860 Encinitas Ave, Sylmar, CA 91342)
which is right across the street from the where the volunteers met for the canvas
(Denny's 12861 Encinitas Avenue at Roxford Street)

Here is a link to cell phone towers for the various carriers ...
AT&T, NEXTEL, SPRINT, T-MOBILE, VERIZON
... although we don't know which one Gavin used. There are a lot of towers, so the area where his phone stopped working should be precise ...
http://www.cellreception.com/towers/towers.php?city=sylmar&state_abr=ca

By now his family should have received his phone bill which would detail
all the phone calls he had on the night he went missing.

If someone took Gavin's car to a chop shop, then they may have had an accomplice for transportation home ???

Recently on the Headline News channel, I saw how LE caught the murderer of a young woman who went missing while bicycling home. He was traced because LE collected local surveillance footage of the vehicle (and license plate) that followed her. So I hope they are using that strategy for Gavin.

The family can look over the bill and see if they recognize any of the numbers, but they likely didn't have to wait on the bill. Police can just get a warrant and get the list of calls from the carrier. I have a feeling Chandrika's number will be found on it if they had started up their relationship. I just wonder if he talked to her on May 1?

 

[deca]

By some descriptions of the area, I was picturing Sylmar as a place like Compton or Watts and couldn't understand why Gavin would be there. Glad to hear it is just a working class neighborhood and not some place infested with drugs and gangs.

...Sylmar area, can't they check video footage off the red light cameras to see if his car can be spotted?

snipped, respectively by me.

Sadly, even the nice areas in the Valley have drugs and gangs. I am sure Sylmar does as well, and probably quite a few gangs call that area home.

Red light cameras only take a picture if a car is running the red and I think that it really only gets one car clearly in a shot. So probably no info there.

 

[Seek&Find]

"We hit businesses that allowed us to put up signs," Smith said. "We hope we can get some tips. We want tips to be called into the Sheriff's Department."

"You know, this is just an out-of-body experience for me and my boys," she said. "It's been such a myriad of emotions because we haven't found him yet."

"I'm waiting on the Lord. I'm waiting on the Sheriff's Department. I'm waiting on the public," Lisa Smith said.

. Link

Hope this generates tips.

Saw national MSM/ABC picked this up this evening and restated the Morro sighting LE has already eliminated as not credible, then Daily Mail jumped in quoting them with the same bad/old info. I think they both just added a couple bits to an old story and tossed it out there with no fact checking. It's great this story's getting attention, but the shoddy reporting we keep seeing is shameful. And detrimental for Gavin & his family.

Even the article posted above had errors. That's why I only pulled quotes out. It calls Creech a "reputed" drug dealer. No reputed about it. He's been convicted twice for it. It cites The LA Times as saying Chandrika & Gavin met in "rehab" therapy. The LA Times never said it was rehab therapy. They didn't identify what kind of therapy. It says Creech "remains jailed on other charges." No, he's being held pending his new sentencing court date.

 

[JodyMT]

I wonder what Lisa meant by "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."

Why can't they search for him?

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lan...avin-smiths-family-canvasses-sylmar-area.html

 

[Seek&Find]

snipped, respectively by me.

Sadly, even the nice areas in the Valley have drugs and gangs. I am sure Sylmar does as well, and probably quite a few gangs call that area home.

Red light cameras only take a picture if a car is running the red and I think that it really only gets one car clearly in a shot. So probably no info there.

Some traffic cams do scan plates, so it'd be helpful if those are in that area. Perhaps there are cams on the freeway?

They can use existing closed-circuit television or road-rule enforcement cameras, or ones specifically designed for the task. They are used by various police forces and as a method of electronic toll collection on pay-per-use roads and cataloging the movements of traffic or individuals.

Automatic number plate recognition - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Police Department’s growing web of license-plate-reading cameras has been transforming investigative work. Though the imaging technology was conceived primarily as a counterterrorism tool, the cameras’ presence has aided in all sorts of traditional criminal investigations.

Link


Looks like CA does have some of these.

California Highway Patrol hopes the privacy issue doesn't take away a very valuable and effective tool.

"There's billions and billions of dollars that are lost in a yearly basis as far as number of vehicles stolen and the cost associated with those vehicles being stolen as far as the insurance. So that affects a lot of us," said CHP Officer Adrian Quintero.

link

Recognizing that new technologies available to law enforcement today can have a dramatic impact on crime, Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca directed the piloting of a concept that may revolutionize law enforcement practices. Known as Advanced Surveillance and Protection (ASAP), this program features a combination of technologies such as high-resolution video surveillance, acoustic gunshot detection, automated license plate recognition, and other advanced components integrated into a station command center. These technologies, used together or individually, will deter and reduce crime.

link

 

[2rose]

Why can't they search for him?

My take is that she is referring to a "legal search" meaning that they cannot go into a business and request unhampered access to all areas.

The sister's reference to Sylmar was made on her Facebook page.
I looked up the first time that it was mentioned in THIS forum and found that it was in message #18 way back on 7 May 2012. I can't help but think that the memory of Sylmar residents would have been better 2 months ago rather than now. We have wasted a lot of time on the cliff theory which seems to have been discounted & proved erroneous by LE more than 2 months ago. Now everyone is chasing cold leads in Sylmar.

The only reason I can figure LE wanted to keep the info from the public is that they were waiting for Creech's court date so they could lock him up in jail

 

[JodyMT]

My take is that she is referring to a "legal search" meaning that they cannot go into a business and request unhampered access to all areas.

The sister's reference to Sylmar was made on her Facebook page.
I looked up the first time that it was mentioned in THIS forum and found that it was in message #18 way back on 7 May 2012. I can't help but think that the memory of Sylmar residents would have been better 2 months ago rather than now. We have wasted a lot of time on the cliff theory which seems to have been discounted & proved erroneous by LE more than 2 months ago. Now everyone is chasing cold leads in Sylmar.

The only reason I can figure LE wanted to keep the info from the public is that they were waiting for Creech's court date so they could lock him up in jail

I agree. I don't know that they would have gained any knowledge from this community 2 months ago, but there could have been that one person who recognized the car or Gavin then, but has forgotten about it now.

 

[Seajay]

Here is a link to the news report about handing out flyers today for Gavin Smith on ABCTV Channel 7, Los Angeles.

http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/los_angeles&id=8728814