Missing Man’s Car Spotted by Citizen : Mystery: The 1989 Buick belonging to Rod Snowdon of Huntington Beach was being towed by a pickup outside Victorville. The aerospace executive disappeared Sept. 1.

The car belonging to a 48-year-old aerospace executive from Huntington Beach who vanished on Sept. 1 reportedly was sighted in San Bernardino County, being towed by two men and a woman in a pickup truck.

A 41-year-old law student was southbound on Interstate 15 outside Victorville on Monday when she saw a car that resembled one she had heard about in connection with the disappearance of Rowland (Rod) Snowdon. She jotted down the license plate and stopped to call the California Highway Patrol, police said.

The witness, who asked not to be identified, told authorities that the 1989 Buick Park Avenue was on a four-wheel trailer, towed by a beige pickup truck with a camper shell. Police confirmed that the car description and license plate number matched Snowdon’s.

Larry Montgomery, the Irvine Police investigator on the case, said he notified all law enforcement agencies along the interstate immediately after confirming the sighting Tuesday.

Snowdon, an executive at Parker Hannifin in Irvine, was last seen making a cash deposit the morning of Sept. 1 in a Union Bank branch at 2001 Michelson Drive in Irvine, authorities said. Neither the pickup truck nor the trailer had visible license plates, the witness told police after her 6 p.m. sighting. The front two wheels of the trailer rode off the ground as it was pulled behind the pickup, she said.

She told police that there were three people in the truck’s cab: a long-haired driver in his 40s, a blond woman about 25 years old and another man between them.

The woman first called the CHP, but information about Snowdon’s car had been purged from their computer system because it had not been updated as required after 30 days, Montgomery said. The woman then called the Los Angeles Police Department, who remembered the case and had one of the flyers that Snowdon’s wife and sons had posted to publicize his disappearance.

The LAPD put the witness in touch with Montgomery, who spoke to her Tuesday.

The sighting gives Snowdon’s wife, Cheryl, and her two sons a reason for hope.

“Maybe we’ve taken our first big step,” said Cheryl Snowdon, who with her sons has coordinated a search.

But the waiting “really does not get any easier,” she said. “Every day you get a little bit more strung out and exhausted and it doesn’t go away.”

The family is offering $10,000 for information leading to the discovery of the car.

Snowdon’s license plate number is 2MCU079. Irvine Police asked anyone with information to call (714) 724-7173.