A Fox film executive who is believed to have met with foul play was officially ruled dead today on the two-year anniversary of his disappearance, a Sheriff’s official confirmed.
Gavin Smith, a 57-year-old former UCLA basketball player, has not been seen since leaving a female friend’s home off Kanan Road in eastern Ventura County between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. on May 1, 2012, in his black, 2000-model Mercedes-
Benz 420 E.
Smith’s Mercedes was recovered on Feb. 21, 2013, at a storage facility in Simi Valley.
The storage facility was linked to John Creech, who was in custody at the Men’s Central Jail on an unrelated narcotics conviction when the search took place, Sheriff’s Lt. Dave Dolson said at the time. Creech is now serving an eight-year sentence.
In June 2012, a SWAT team and detectives raided a West Hills home owned by Creech. The Los Angeles Times reported afterward that it had obtained documents that indicated Sheriff’s deputies felt an unspecified felony related to Smith’s disappearance might have occurred there.
Smith reportedly met Creech’s wife, Chandrika Creech, in some sort of rehab therapy, according to the newspaper, which reported that Creech has denied knowing Smith, despite his wife saying otherwise.
A judge signed the death certificate on May 1, said Nicole Nishida of the Sheriff’s Headquarters Bureau. The investigation into Smith’s death is ongoing, she said.
Bill McSweeney, chief of the Sheriff’s Detective Bureau, told The Times today that investigators “have physical evidence of his (Smith’s) death.”
Dolson said last year that after detectives found Smith’s car, they served several search warrants in the San Fernando Valley and began investigating the death as a homicide “based on the vehicle’s condition and information developed from persons cooperating in the investigation….”
Detectives last year asked for the public’s help in identifying whoever was involved in moving Smith’s car from the Porter Ranch area to the storage facility on or about May 8 or 9, 2012.
Anyone with information on the case was urged to call the Sheriff’s Homicide Bureau, (323) 890-5500.
Smith was a member of the 1974-75 UCLA Bruins basketball team who won the 1975 national title.
