In fierce August heat, Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies expanded their search Thursday for a missing Topanga man who, in a final mysterious phone call to a friend, had reported being chased along Topanga Creek.
Sheriff's investigators, however, downplayed one widely reported theory behind the disappearance of Christian Julian Irwin -- that he was the victim of a Nigerian Internet fraud scheme that had turned violent.
Irwin, 48, had been drawn into such a scam, they said, but investigators had little evidence to connect that with his fate.
They said another possibility is that confusion -- perhaps related to some unknown medical problem -- caused Irwin's sudden, baffling flight from his house in the dead of night, barefoot and in fear for his life, to hide in the rough creek gorge.
They said they are afraid he may have fallen or injured himself.
"We aren't going to disregard any possibility," said Capt. Ray Peavy of the sheriff's homicide unit. "Did foul play occur? It's very possible. And it's possible it didn't. He obviously felt threatened. Whether that was real or imagined is impossible for us to know."
More important now, Peavy said, is finding Irwin alive as soon as possible.
"We aren't focusing on any particular reason for why he ran away. He's gone, and we are trying to find him. Our main concern is that he is hurt and may be out there in the heat and heavy brush," Peavy said.
Teams of about 30 deputies raked through sweltering brush for hours Thursday without success, trying to follow Irwin's suspected path along the stream that coils through the Santa Monica Mountains to the Pacific. The searchers included divers who plunged into 6-foot-deep pools along the creek bed to see whether Irwin might have tumbled in and drowned. Wrapping up the day's search in the late afternoon, deputies promised to resume this morning.
Each day that passes, Peavy said, worsens Irwin's chances for survival in the dense chaparral.
Irwin's relatives, meanwhile, said they were dubious about the medical theory, adding that Irwin was scrupulously health conscious and had no history of mental illness, substance abuse, strokes or any other condition that might so drastically alter his judgment. Moreover, they said, he had behaved much as usual when seen by friends just before Sunday's incident.
