Cierzan case: Seven months in
Family of missing man hopes someone recalls seeing ‘unique’ SUV
Today marks seven months since Will Cierzan has been missing from his Saugus home after an afternoon of watching golf with his nephew and cooking dinner for his wife.
Cierzan was last seen Jan. 26 and help is still needed to find him.
Detectives with the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Homicide Bureau found blood - later confirmed as Cierzan’s blood - inside the missing man’s home but have remained tight-lipped about the discovery.
The other piece of the puzzle - pretty much the only piece of evidence outside of the found blood - was recorded video surveillance of a white SUV seen pulling into the home’s driveway and leaving six minutes later. What was the visiting vehicle? Who was driving it? Where did it go? The answers to these questions could very well answer the bigger question dogging Homicide Detective Ralph Hernandez for the past half year: What happened to Will Cierzan?
“We are still working to complete our evidence and add information to this case,” Hernandez told The Signal Friday.
“We are still interested in having people come forward,” he said.
“Someone, we hope, may have seen this particular vehicle on the day Cierzan went missing,” Hernandez said. “It’s somewhat unique because it has very large tires and, apparently, a shallow hood scoop.”
William Cierzan, who works at Six Flags Magic Mountain, went missing on Jan. 26 from his home on Cuatro Milpas Street, near the intersection of Seco Canyon Road and Bouquet Canyon Road
On the day he vanished, he had talked to his wife on the phone, about 4:30 p.m. and told her he was cooking dinner.
At 7 p.m., when she arrived home, Linda Cierzan was nowhere to be found. Left behind in the house were his wallet, keys and jacket.
The vehicle
The “unique” vehicle, captured by a video surveillance camera fixed to a neighbor’s house across the street from the Cierzan home, appears to be
a white Toyota 4Runner custom-fitted with large tires. The video is date stamped and time stamped. It shows the Toyota backing into the Cierzan driveway at 5:06 p.m. on Jan. 26, 2017. It also shows the vehicle pulling out of the driveway at 5:12 p.m. What it fails to show, however, is the driver. Somebody saw something If Will Cierzan was put into the vehicle then knowing where it went would tell detectives where to look for the missing man.
“I’ve become a broken record on this point but I’ll say it again,” Cierzan’s sister Andrea Peck told The Signal Friday. “But, somebody saw something,” she said. “Maybe seeing the vehicle will trigger someone’s memory and encourage them to come forward,” she said.
“I’m hoping someone comes forward, perhaps some unsuspecting person we’ve never thought of before,” she said.
The only thing street detectives know with certainty is that the 4Runner traveled was along on Cuatro Milpas Street.
Cuatro Milpas leads to only two streets - even if it had turned down Lugar De Oro Drive - Garzota Drive at the north end of the street or Festividad Drive at the south end.
From there, the vehicle could have gone anywhere - and it’s that place detectives want to get to.
Could larger tires have enabled the 4Runner to leave main streets and travel off road?
“It had unusual, big, expensive wheels,” Peck said about the vehicle one main unique characteristic.
Homicide detectives, Cierzan’s family and many concerned residents of the Santa Clarita Valley hope someone motivated by what is now a $20,000 reward will come forward with information.
Information about the vehicle seen leaving the Cierzan home could answer that hope.