Search for Police Officer Continues

Law enforcement officers continued their search in the hills north of Moorpark and Simi Valley Thursday for a Los Angeles police officer who has been missing for four days.

Using three helicopters, dozens of horses and off-road motorcycles, a 60-man search party converged on a remote area known as Alamos Canyon north of Simi Valley where Sgt. Christopher Vasquez is believed to have last been seen jogging.

Authorities said they had interviewed a rancher late Wednesday who claimed that he saw a man closely resembling Vasquez running along a dirt road in the canyon Monday afternoon, the day he was discovered missing from his Moorpark townhouse.

Los Angeles police began looking for Vasquez, who works as an assistant watch commander in North Hollywood, after he failed to show up for work at 3:30 p.m. Monday.

The Ventura County Sheriff’s Department launched an investigation Tuesday and is being assisted in its massive search operation by Los Angeles police officers.

Authorities said Vasquez had been having marital problems and recently separated from his wife, Pamela, who lives in Simi Valley with the couple’s 13-year-old daughter.

Lt. Bob Klamser of the Simi Valley Police Department said about two dozen officers had participated in a search near the couple’s Simi Valley home on Tuesday and Wednesday but did not find any traces of the missing man.

Pamela Vasquez, who works for the Simi Valley Police Department, declined to comment Thursday on her husband’s disappearance.

Los Angeles police said they had found two of Vasquez’s handguns, one at the North Hollywood station and one at his townhouse.

But Capt. Dan Watson, Vasquez’s commanding officer, said that not all of the weapons Vasquez had registered with the department had been accounted for.

He did not elaborate.

Ventura County Sheriff’s Lt. Tony Ditzhazy said law enforcement officials will discontinue the search today unless new leads are developed.