Items Believed to Be Missing Model’s Found

Hermosa Beach police detectives Tuesday located photographs and a page from a missing model’s appointment book--a page from last Thursday, the day she disappeared, that led them to a West Hollywood address.

A road crew worker in the Angeles National Forest found the page, along with photographs of missing model Linda Sobek and some of her family members.

The worker found the photos and appointment book page Saturday on Angeles CrestHighway above Altadena but did not contact authorities until Tuesday, when he saw news reports about Sobek’s disappearance. He had kept the personal items, which he found near a trash can, Hermosa Beach Police Sgt. Paul Wolcott said.

An unnamed source in the Police Department said the photographs appeared similar to the type Sobek carried with her for meetings with prospective employers.

Sobek, 27, was last heard from about 10:45 a.m. Thursday when she cut short a telephone call from her mother with news that she was late for a photo shoot that none of her friends or roommates knew about. The message Sobek left with her telephone paging service was that she would be on location, unreachable by telephone.

Police have zeroed in on the mysterious appointment as a possible lead to Sobek’s whereabouts because she has been described as a reliable person who kept friends and relatives regularly informed of her comings and goings. Officers would not reveal what the page from her appointment book said.

In a statement, Sobek’s parents said they were hoping the single page had been left by their daughter as a clue to her whereabouts.

Police are looking at the similarities between Sobek’s case and that of model Kimberly Pandelios of Northridge, who disappeared in 1992 after telling a baby-sitter that she was on her way to a modeling shoot in the Burbank-Glendale area, Wolcott said. The next day, Pandelios’ car was found in the Angeles National Forest north of Altadena, in the same general area where Sobek’s photographs were found. The 20-year-old’s skeletal remains were found buried there one year later.

Pandelios, like Sobek, was a blond, blue-eyed model.

Hermosa Beach police officials also announced Tuesday that they have asked the FBI for help on the case, specifically in locating witnesses outside Southern California.

Wolcott would not comment on whether investigators have leads on any such witnesses.

Meanwhile, three search crews, about 20 workers total, combed the Angeles forest Tuesday night for more evidence about Sobek, a former Los Angeles Raiders cheerleader.

Sobek is described as white; 5 feet, 4 inches tall, 105 pounds, with blue eyes and shoulder-length blond hair. Her car is also missing and has been described as a white Nissan 240 SX sport coupe with the license plate 2ZOL713.

Anyone with information about Sobek’s whereabouts is asked to call (310) 318-0360.