Missing Man Feared Victim of Foul Play

An 18-year-old Sherman Oaks man who apparently lost most of a $60,000 inheritance in a suspicious business deal and then disappeared is believed to have met with foul play, Los Angeles police said Wednesday.

Sam Tavakol, a Pierce College student, has been missing since May 18, said Detective Ken McCourt of the LAPD’s Missing-Persons Section. Tavakol had dinner at his mother’s Northridge home and left after saying he was going to meet some friends.

McCourt said the teen-ager, who was due to start a job as a bank teller three days later, may have gone to meet with a man he gave money to. Tavakol’s 1987 Nissan Sentra was later found at a Ralphs’ supermarket parking lot at 14049 Ventura Blvd.

Although there was no sign of violence in Tavakol’s apartment or car, police say they believe that he did not voluntarily disappear.

“It is strongly suspected that foul play is involved,” McCourt said. “He had just come into a $60,000 life insurance policy. He was investing it in something that did not seem to be on the up-and-up. I don’t mean in the stock market.

“When the money was all gone, so was he.”

The teen-ager’s mother, Masi Tavakol, said her son inherited the money in March after his father’s death. She believes that her son thought he was investing the money in a legitimate real estate deal, but the man that he gave tens of thousand of dollars to did not return it or any promised profits.

She said she bases that belief on telephone conversations between her son and the man. She said she listened in on their talks when she became suspicious of her son’s use of the money.

“I believe it was a real estate scam and he didn’t know what was going on,” she said. “He was worried about getting his money back. But there was no reason for him to disappear. He was very happy about starting his new job.”

She said she provided police with the identity of the man, but investigators have not been able to find him. In the meantime, she said she anxiously waits for word about her son.

“I am in a stage of getting crazy,” she said. “It has been almost two months and nothing, no clue.

“I don’t want to accept that my son is dead. I think he is alive.”