Search organizers looking for new command center
Search teams focused their hunt for a missing Santa Monica woman in rural and urban areas of Los Angeles over the weekend, but turned up nothing.
Police are searching for 22-year-old Kristi Johnson, who disappeared Feb. 15 after she told her roommates she was going to audition for a film with a man who claimed to be a photographer and whom she had previously met at the Century City Mall.
Santa Monica Police didn’t release any new information in the investigation over the weekend, but said last week that they have a name of a man who may know where Johnson is.
Search volunteers who came from as far as Sacramento, spread out in teams and combed through areas in Topgana Canyon and the woods of Hollywood Hills on Saturday. The search was expanded on Sunday to other outlying areas in Los Angeles.
A temporary command center was established over the weekend at the Ramada Inn in Culver City where search teams assembled and volunteers answered phone lines with potential tips.
But that facility is no longer available and search organizers are scrambling to find a semi-permanent place in Santa Cops begin enforcing downtown sleeping ban Monica. They are asking anyone with conference room space to donate it so they can continue looking for Johnson. Anyone wishing to donate or help in the search effort is asked to call (323) 899-2583.
The search center, which is called the “Kristine Johnson Recovery Center,” was organized by some of Johnson’s co-workers and her mother, Terry Wark.
People who helped in the search of 7-year-old Danielle van Dam in San Diego last year and are affiliated with the Laura Recovery Center Foundation, a Texas-based missing person’s organization, were recruited to set up the command center and train volunteers. The effort is entirely separate from the SMPD’s investigation and any information received by the center will be turned over to the police.
Fiona Oberrick, who was heavily involved in the search for van Dam, volunteered her time over the weekend to train Johnson’s co-workers on how to head up the continued search. Oberrick gave Johnson’s co-workers guidance on how to proceed after she returns home to San Diego. Other volunteers from the Laura Recover Center Foundation plan to return to Santa Monica next weekend to organize more search teams.
A few dozen people showed up to the command center to help post missing person flyers throughout Los Angeles and search for Johnson. Organizers stress that more people are needed and they are looking for any donation — from office supplies to food — to keep the search center operating. Johnson’s co-workers say they need more people to physically search and post flyers.
There has been an outpouring of support from the community — Dr. Robert Weinstein, a Santa Monica resident offered his home to Oberrick and search organizers for the weekend, businesses offered food and supplies, and the Ramada Inn donated the conference space for the temporary command center.
Company representatives from Saturn/Ion, who were in Los Angeles from Orlando to cover the LA Marathon, created a search group and used the company blimp to survey areas from the sky to look for Johnson on Saturday.
Johnson’s mother, Wark, who flew to Santa Monica this past Wednesday from Los Gatos, Calif., has worked tirelessly in the search for her daughter. She has done dozens of interviews with local, state and national media to get the necessary information about Johnson out to the public. She was at the command center over the weekend, talking to volunteers and studying search maps.
She returned home on Sunday but is still working with local volunteers and the media to keep the search’s momentum going strong.
A composite sketch of the purported photographer was released last week. While police aren’t calling him a suspect, Wark and authorities believe Johnson has been abducted.
Police found her car last 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.
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.
Police served 10 search warrants at undisclosed locations throughout Los Angeles County last week and detectives are investigating the evidence recovered from the raids.
Johnson is 5’9”, 130 lbs., has blonde hair and blue eyes. She was last seen wearing a light blue corduroy outfit, blue jeans and a matching shirt.
The man police are looking for is described as a white male in his early-to mid-30s with a slender to medium build, 6 feet tall and has a clean-shaven face. He was last seen wearing a dark blue suit.
Anyone with information about Johnson’s disappearance is encouraged to call the SMPD’s tip line at (310) 458-8449.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on March 3, 2003. Read the original PDF.