Vista

Sheriff’s homicide investigators said a missing Vista businessman has phoned his family to tell them he left town last week because of mounting personal problems.

The family of John Rustan Nielsen told Sheriff’s Department homicide detectives that he had called them about 9 a.m. Sunday from Phoenix to tell them he was OK, a San Diego County Sheriff’s spokesman said.

Nielsen, 52, told his family that he left the area because of personal difficulties and said that he would return to San Diego, the spokesman said.

Nielsen had been the subject of a homicide investigation since he failed to show up at his Vista yogurt shop Wednesday. An employee, who arrived at work at 9 a.m., found evidence of a possible struggle in the shop, some bloodstains and money scattered within the store, homicide detectives said.