Retired Professor Vanishes in L.A. En Route to Texas

A retired college professor from Oregon has vanished in Van Nuys while driving her pickup truck behind her husband’s car on their trip to a new home in Texas, Los Angeles police said Friday.

Police appealed for the public’s help in finding Marie Avant, 69, a slight woman with gray hair who disappeared without a trace Wednesday after both she and her husband stopped for gas near the Ventura Freeway about 5 p.m.

“They made it to Los Angeles and everything went to hell,” said Police Detective Fred Sandoval.

Wendell Avant, who has been waiting alone in a motel for word of his wife, said she has not contacted their son since disappearing. “That’s the whole thing that really worries me,” he said.

Avant said he and his wife were separated when they headed toward Sepulveda Boulevard to reach the freeway after getting gas.

“After I made my turn, I watched to see if she was coming behind me as I always did and she didn’t turn up,” he said.

Assuming that his wife had missed the turn, Avant said he parked his car and waited, then walked back to the corner. “She was nowhere to be found,” he said.

Police have no clues on her disappearance, and gas station workers were unable to provide details on which direction Marie Avant headed, Sandoval said.

Avant, also 69 and retired, said his wife knows no one in Los Angeles and has no history of medical problems. He described his wife as a devout Christian who taught economics for many years at the University of Washington.

The Avants recently sold their home in Gold Beach, Ore., and were headed to a retirement home in Brownsville, Tex. Driving through California “seemed to be the shortest route,” he said. “I always kept her where I could see her in the rear-view mirror.”

Marie Avant was driving a 1967 two-tone blue Chevrolet pickup truck with Oregon license plate QNN 070. The truck has a blue-and-white camper, license K788859.

Police described the woman as white, 5-feet 5-inches tall, 115 pounds, with blue eyes.