Pastor’s Disappearance Has Family, Friends Mystified

Pastor Ronald Dybvig has never missed a sermon in the 10 years since he founded Emmanuel Lutheran Church. But on Sunday morning, parishioners sat nervously in their pews waiting for the 55-year-old minister to take his place behind the pulpit and lead the weekly worship.

But he never arrived.

Family and friends are perplexed over the disappearance of the pastor, who was last heard from about 6:30 a.m. Sunday at his Ventura home as he prepared for church.

The Santa Paula congregation’s 100 members are sick with worry, said church leaders, adding that they are praying for a reasonable explanation--and a safe return. Member Claude LeMonde echoed the sentiments of many parishioners Tuesday, saying, “This is a man who is so predictable, who has such a routine . . . I’m starting to fear the worst.”

Still, authorities said there is no evidence to lead them to believe Dybvig, who has been a minister for 30 years, was forced from his home.

“There are no signs of foul play,” Ventura Police Sgt. George Morris said. “We have nothing to suggest that just yet.”

But on Tuesday morning, Dybvig’s white 1998 Mercury Tracer was found parked on a turnout along California 79, a mountainous two-lane roadway about 65 miles east of San Diego in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park. The car was in perfect condition, though blanketed under a thick coat of snow, indicating it had been there at least 24 hours, authorities said.

As of 8 p.m. Tuesday, San Diego County Sheriff’s Search and Rescue team was still scouring the ice-capped hills looking for signs of Dybvig. Their efforts were slowed because of continuous snowfall, San Diego Sheriff’s Lt. Ron VanRaaphorst said.

“The search will go on until they find him or the weather becomes too much,” San Diego sheriff’s supervising dispatcher Stephany Simpson said.

The search included several Sheriff’s Department volunteers, a K-9 unit and officers from the U.S. Border Patrol, Simpson said. Most searchers were on foot but mounted units and a helicopter could be called out today if necessary, she said.

Dybvig’s wife told authorities she heard her husband getting ready for church about 6:30 a.m. Sunday. But when she awoke later, she said, his suits hung in the closet untouched and his glasses and wallet were also left behind.

“This is someone who doesn’t leave the house without his wallet, he doesn’t leave without his glasses,” congregation member LeMonde said. “But he did this time. It’s all so out of character.”

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That was a theme repeated by authorities and those who know Dybvig--a man so dedicated to community service, they said, that after his Sunday morning sermons he sometimes traveled to Victorian Care Center in Ventura to preach to the elderly.

“That’s just an indication of the kind of man he was,” said Kari Brogdin, church council president. “This was his life, which is what makes this all the more unusual that he would leave. It’s very perplexing.”

It was not unusual for Dybvig to leave home early in the morning or late at night to counsel a congregation member, Brogdin said. He said Dybvig often left for church early on Sundays to fine-tune his sermons. Consequently, Dybvig’s wife thought nothing of it when she heard her husband bustling about before dawn Sunday, getting ready to leave their Ventura house, Brogdin said.

But by the time she had arrived at church with her two teenage daughters, no one had heard from her husband. A retired Lutheran pastor stepped in to deliver Sunday’s sermon while others in the church began phoning around in hopes of tracking down Dybvig.

At that point, parishioners say, they suspected something terrible had happened--only the worst would keep Dybvig from his Sunday service.

“There was a tremendous amount of concern there,” LeMonde said.

Before the worship service had concluded, the congregation bowed their heads in prayer for their pastor.

LeMonde and Brogdin set up a phone tree afterward in an attempt to contact every regular member and visitor of the church in the hope someone would say they had called the pastor to their home that morning and he just got delayed.

Since Sunday, Brogdin said her phone has continued to ring with church members offering encouragement, prayers or food for the family.

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The discovery of Dybvig’s car by a Cuyamaca Rancho State Park employee has further unnerved some, who say they do not believe Dybvig would have driven to such a distant and remote area alone and unannounced.

“For the car to show up down there, I just cannot believe Ron took it there or took it there on his own accord,” said Brogdin, a retired California Highway Patrol officer who worked in San Diego before transferring to Ventura County.

Those who know Dybvig, who worked at churches in Los Angeles before opening a church in Ventura, said he did not seem depressed or have any apparent reason to leave his family and the thriving church he worked so hard to build during the past decade.

Recently, the church had to move from its Ventura location after its rented building was sold. Those were stressful days, members said. But Trinity Lutheran Church in Santa Paula offered a solution, they said, allowing Emmanuel Lutheran to share its building on Harvard Avenue.

“He just seemed elated recently,” Brogdin said. “Everything was just coming up roses and he had been on such a high.”

Authorities describe Dybvig as 5 feet, 10 inches tall, 210 pounds with blond hair and blue eyes. He is believed to have been wearing a light brown Knightsbridge zippered jacket, a short-sleeve shirt with buttons and black Nike shoes. Anyone with information on his whereabouts is asked to call Morris or Ventura detectives Chris Hart or Bob MacInnes at 339-4474.