As we head into a rare, rainy weekend in LA, the mysterious disappearance of 20th Century Fox distribution executive Gavin Smith is set to cross the seven-month mark. With no signs that his baffling May 1 drive-to-nowhere will be solved any time soon.

FishbowlLA reached out to America’s Most Wanted to find out whether an October 12 segment about the case elicited any solid leads. We’ve also tried, without success at press time, to get comment from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detective overseeing the investigation. If we hear back from either party, this item will be updated below.

The circumstances of Smith’s vanishing into thin air are as confounding as the deaths of Ronni Chasen and Natalie Wood (and, beyond LA, that of Natalee Holloway). With the big difference of course that there is no certainty at present that Smith, a one-time UCLA basketball star, has in fact perished.

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It’s been over four months since Fox executive Gavin Smith mysteriously disappeared. America’s Most Wanted will do their part to help find the 57-year-old by airing a feature on the Lifetime crime show, according to 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.

Smith, a former UCLA basketball player, was last seen at his friend’s house on May 1 in Oak Park.

According to Daniel Miller’s Hollywood Reporter interview piece with the wife and sister of missing Fox executive Gavin Smith, who mysteriously disappeared May 1, no helpful case info came out of a related June LASD search of a drug dealer’s home in West Hills.

In lieu of new developments, Smith’s 57-year-old wife Lisa says her sons can barely function while she has been unable to complete a recent and equally daunting task:

In late August, Gavin Smith’s remaining personal effects were quietly removed from his Calabasas office and delivered by the studio to his home. But Lisa says the boxes, which contain such items as framed family photos and golf trophies remain on her porch… “It’s been tough to bring them into the house,” says Smith.

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Media coverage of the the mysterious May 1 disappearance of Fox distribution executive Gavin Smith has all but ceased. For those tracking the case, the first place to turn these days is usually son Evan’s Twitter account:

The website findgavinsmith.com is not currently being updated and features a frustrating reader comments system that omits time-stamping, thus making it difficult to figure out which are the most recent contributions. NBCLA’s Patrick Healey filed a report last week about the case of a man whose home was searched in connection with the Smith disappearance, touching only peripherally on the matter.

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After two months of inactivity on the grassroots front, family members and several friends will fan out this morning door-to-door in Sylmar, hoping to generate new clues in the ongoing search for missing 20th Century Fox film distribution executive Gavin Smith.

From a Northridge Patch/City News Service report:

Acting on information from Los Angeles County Sheriff’s investigators, the family of the missing Fox executive will canvass a large area of Sylmar Sunday, according to Smith’s wife Lisa…

“This is an area where he probably last was and we’re going to hit it hard,” Smith said. “We’ll knock on doors and talk to people in Spanish and English, showing them pictures of his car and face, looking for help.”

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In March, Melanie Bromley moved over from the position of west coast editor with Us Weekly to the ranks of E! News. One of the stories this senior news correspondent has been concentrating on is the baffling disappearance of Fox executive Gavin Smith. Yesterday, with help from colleague Baker Machado, she shared the case’s latest journalistic bombshell.

Exactly two weeks ago, LAPD detectives searched a Canoga Park home belonging to John and Chandrika Creech, carting away various items. According to Bromley and Machado’s sources, John is a previously convicted drug dealer back in jail as of yesterday while Chandrika is someone who has pursued an on, off, on extra-marital relationship with Smith:

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.

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Alongside a $20,000 reward recently announced by the family of Gavin Smith, the Fox distribution executive who went missing May 1, there is now a separate, larger amount for information that could help authorities solve the brutal murder on May 31 in west LA of chiropractor Dr. Robert Rainey.

At a press conference this morning, the victim’s brother, LA Times media columnist James Rainey, spoke fondly of his sibling and suggested that because the crime occurred in such a densely popular portion of the city, that there are surely people who saw something:

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Another week, another stretch of mystery with regards to the May 1 disappearance of Fox theatrical distribution executive Gavin Smith.

The only bit of speculative news was published Wednesday by The Daily. Based on some quotes from unnamed sources, the report extrapolated that Smith may have met with the angry actions of a jealous boyfriend-husband:

“He had several affairs,” said a source close to the investigation. “The guy was a player. He was a big flirt. He was a ladies’ man…”

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It was 31 days ago that Fox executive Gavin Smith drove away in his 2000 Mercedes 420E from the Oak Park neighborhood of Simi Hills, not to be heard from or seen since. While NBC Southern California’s Robert Kovacik reported last week that Smith might have been sighted at a Morro Bay restaurant on May 7, the information has yet to be corroborated by law enforcement authorities.

Excepting a piece on Forbes yesterday by Roger Friedman, one-month anniversary coverage has been scant. Which leaves the 70+ comments posted on findgavinsmith.com by a group of people that generally agrees with the theory that Smith drove off a canyon road. There’s info about grassroots searches that have been conducted, as well as this forceful declaration from search-and-rescue helicopter pilot and licensed P.I. Robert Tur:

The reason I have had such great success in finding missing aircraft and lost hikers missing in ‘somewhere’ in thousands of square miles of difficult terrain, is that I don’t waste time conducting Air Force style grid searches, but instead, spend the necessary time putting myself in the ‘shoes’ of the missing person… Assuming Mr. Smith left the Oak Park location sometime after 10 p.m., the night before his disappearance was noticed, where would he go? Home to pick up more personal belongings or did he take a ride to his Calabasas? If so, what routes would he normally use? Are any of those routes in secluded areas? Poorly lit? Have steep drop offs? These are the areas you should search first.

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Like the tragic shooting of publicist Ronnie Chasen in Beverly Hills, the May 1 disappearance of Fox film executive Gavin Smith has transfixed members of the film and TV industry. Today, the formidable Daily Beast reporting tandem of Maria Elena Fernandez and Christine Pelisek takes a look at the latest circumstantial evidence and tries their best to uncover something new.

Contrary to the family’s initial statements, Smith was staying with a female friend in Ventura County far longer than just the night before his disappearance. According to the reporters, he had been there basically since returning to LA from CinemaCon in Las Vegas around April 20:

“They were kind of friends and he was hanging out there for a few days,” Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Dept. homicide division’s Sgt. John O’Brien said. “There was no romance in that at all. Just hanging out with a friend for a couple of days.”

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