Search to Extend to Oil Fields

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said Thursday it will search oil fields in Signal Hill today for Jana Carpenter-Koklich, daughter of former state Sen. Paul Carpenter (D-Cypress).

Carpenter-Koklich, a 41-year-old real estate agent, has been missing since at least Aug. 20.

A sheriff’s spokesman, meanwhile, said Carpenter-Koklich’s husband, Bruce Koklich, failed to show up for a polygraph test.

“We are not ruling him out as a suspect,” said Deputy David Cervantes.

Cervantes said Koklich unsuccessfully sought to get the Sheriff’s Department to provide him a list of the questions he would be asked. That is against department policy, he said.

Koklich could not be reached for comment. A woman at his real estate office said he was out, and a woman at his Lakewood home said he wasn’t there either.

Koklich has offered a $100,000 reward for information about the whereabouts of his wife, and it was he who reported her missing.

Koklich told investigators he last saw his wife on Aug. 20. The last reported sighting by others came Aug. 17.

Carpenter-Koklich’s Nissan Pathfinder was found Monday in a garage in Signal Hill.

Sheriff’s officials said the search of oil fields would be conducted by homicide detectives, assisted by Lakewood Sheriff’s Station reserves and volunteers. They declined to say how they chose the search locations.

Carpenter-Koklich’s father, the former senator, came to California last week and expressed pessimism about his daughter’s safe return. He has returned to his home in Texas.

He was the head of the Senate Democratic Caucus and chairman of the state Board of Equalization.

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Times staff writer Hector Becerra contributed to this story.