> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Command center set up for missing woman search - URL: https://www.smdp.com/command-center-set-up-for-missing-woman-search/ - Published: 2003-03-01T16:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-23T01:41:22.000Z - Author: Carolyn Sackariason - Tags: local, Santa Monica, #archive-import *Mother of missing woman asks for help in search* As the investigation for a missing Santa Monica woman continues, a search center has been established in Culver City at the Ramada Inn. Terry Wark, the mother of 22-year-old Kristine Johnson who has been missing since Feb. 15, has enlisted the help of a missing person’s organization that aided in the search of Danielle van Dam, the missing San Diego girl whose body was found last year. Wark made a plea on Friday for someone to donate a facility to serve as the nerve center in the search for Johnson. The Ramada Inn, located at 6333 Bristol Pkwy., offered a room where volunteers and search organizers will work out of. Phone lines have been established so people can call in with tips. Anyone interested in volunteering in the search should call (310) 484-7000 and ask for the Kristine Johnson flyer distribution center, or show up at the hotel today after 11 a.m. The hours of operation for the weekend will be today from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. Johnson, who turned 22 years old on Thursday, disappeared two weeks ago after she reportedly went to meet a man claiming to be a photographer for a film audition at the Century City Mall. Wark is working with the Texas-based Laura Recovery Center Foundation, a missing person’s organization that helps form community-based search efforts. The organization offers support, guidance and trains volunteers in missing person searches. People are asked to help post flyers throughout the westside and answer phones with potential tips. To help find Kristi Johnson: To volunteer in the search, contact the command center at the Ramada Inn in Culver City at (310) 484-7000, or contact the Laura Recover Center Foundation via its Web site, www.lrcf.org., or call (281) 482-LRCF (5723) To get the word out about Johnson’s disappearance, log onto www.lrcf.org, go to the missing person’s flyer link and click on Kristi’s image. Send the information in mass e-mails and blast faxes. Anyone with information about Johnson’s disappearance is encouraged to call the SMPD’s tip line at (310) 458-8449. Johnson is 5’9”, 140 lbs., has blonde hair and blue eyes. The man who may know her whereabouts is described as a white male in his early-to mid-30s with a slender to medium build and a clean-shaven face. “This is a volunteer, civilian search and any information that is generated at the search center is given to the police department,” said Bob Smither, a co-founder of the Laura Recovery Center Foundation. “We will help train local volunteers for the search.” Wark wanted the command center established this weekend in an effort to keep the search’s momentum going strong. “The immediacy of it has to be stressed,” she said on Friday. “We’ve made such headway at this point and we have to continue to escalate the efforts. I don’t want to miss a tip that could lead to us finding Kristi.” Police know the name of the man who may know where Johnson is but aren’t releasing it because it could compromise the investigation. Police served 10 search warrants in Los Angeles County on Thursday and detectives are investigating the evidence recovered from the raids. “We are waiting for the analysis from the crime lab,” said SMPD Lt. P.J. Guido. “We hope to have evidence that links the person to her disappearance.” A composite sketch of the purported photographer was released earlier this week and the man is wanted for questioning. While police aren’t calling him a suspect, Wark and authorities believe Johnson has been abducted. Police found her car this past Monday in the valet parking garage of the St. Regis Hotel in Century City, which had been parked there since Sunday, Feb. 16, the day after she disappeared. Police aren’t releasing any information about the vehicle or its contents. A significant lead in the case came from a concerned woman who told local police on Feb. 20 that she had been approached in late January in the Century City Mall by a man claiming to be a photographer. He was reportedly auditioning women for the same film that Johnson told her roommates she was going to audition for, according to police. But the woman said when she and her boyfriend went to meet the man at a prearranged location in West Hollywood, he tried to forcibly move her to another location, police said. The woman’s boyfriend interceded and searched the man to find his identification, but the supposed photographer was able to free himself and run away, police said. Neither the woman nor her boyfriend said the man ever carried a camera, and he didn’t bring a camera to the West Hollywood meeting, police said. Wark said she feels more anxious now that police are zeroing on a suspect. She said she is relying on her family, friends and her faith to get through each day her daughter is missing. “Of course nothing is moving fast enough for me,” she said. “I see every moment as being critical. Every moment that passes is a moment that’s too long. Every time the phone rings I hope it’s Kristi... I’m confident they will find her and who ever has abducted her.” The supposed photographer is described as a white male in his early-to mid-30s with a slender to medium build and a clean-shaven face. He was last seen wearing a dark blue suit, according to police. A valet parking attendant at the St. Regis Hotel confirmed that the man who dropped off Johnson’s car strongly resembled the purported photographer’s description, according to police. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/030103-01_01.jpg) of Terry Wark Kristine Johnson, pictured above and below, with her mother, Terry Wark, has been missing since Feb. (Photo: Photo courtesy) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/030103-01_02.jpg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/55/9f/559f9abc-8372-4a2e-8c2d-27386da4e363/content/images/2026/10/030103-01_03.jpg) *Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 1, 2003.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/030103.pdf?ref=smdp.com)