DEVELOPING: Convicted drug dealer John Creech charged with murdering Fox exec Gavin Smith, who went missing more than 2 yrs ago.
#BREAKING: Suspect charged in death of Fox exec Gavin Smith, DA’s office confirms.
— NBC Los Angeles (@NBCLA) January 29, 2015
Gavin Smith (born December 10, 1954; disappeared May 1, 2012; declared legally dead May 1, 2014; body recovered October 26, 2014) was an American film studio executive formerly a regional manager of distribution for 20th Century Fox.
Prior to his 18 years in that position he played basketball at UCLA, where he was part of the 1975 team that won that year’s NCAA championship, the last for legendary coach John Wooden.
He later played at Hawaii, where he set the school’s still-standing single-season scoring record of 23.4 points per game.
He had a small role as a bartender in Cobb, the 1994 biopic of baseball legend Ty Cobb.
On the night of May 1, 2012, Smith left a friend’s house in Oak Park, California, where he had been staying due to reported marital difficulties. It does not appear as if he had planned to be away for an extended period. When he failed to pick up one of his sons for school the next morning, his family reported him missing.
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department has been investigating.[4]Two years later, with Smith still missing and no evidence of his presence anywhere past the night of his disappearance, he was retroactively declared legally dead.
On October 26, 2014, over two years after his disappearance, hikers found the remains of Gavin Smith near Palmdale in the Antelope Valley; the cause of death has not yet been determined although police continued to say it was homicide.
