Moorpark Hunt for Officer Halts

The search for a missing Los Angeles police officer near Moorpark has been halted after four days because authorities were unable to turn up any leads.

Sgt. Christopher Vasquez, 41, has not been heard from since midnight Sunday when he left the North Hollywood police station after his shift. Police and Ventura County sheriff’s deputies began searching when he did not show up for work Monday.

Vasquez, a 20-year veteran known as being friendly and dependable, recently separated from his wife and had told his supervisors that he was having marital problems. Police have said it is “possible” he was suicidal. Officers also said Vasquez, an avid runner, could have become hurt or lost while running on the trails behind his home.

The search party, including officers on horseback and motorcycles and in helicopters, involved as many as 80 officers and covered about 60 square miles of mostly undeveloped land north of the town home where Vasquez lived on Marquette Street in Moorpark.

Although a rancher reported that he might have seen Vasquez running in an area four miles northeast of Moorpark, Ventura Sheriff’s Lt. Kelli McIlvaine said investigators determined Thursday that the man had mistaken another jogger for Vasquez.

The search was suspended at 9 p.m. Thursday and will not be reopened unless a sighting of Vasquez is made or evidence of his location is developed, authorities said.