Hikers may have found missing T.O. man

Jeffrey Howard A mysterious disappearance in 2006 may have been solved when a car was discovered in a canyon last weekend.

It will take about a week for a coroner's report to positively identify what are likely the remains of Jeffrey Scott Howard of Thousand Oaks. The skeletal remains were inside Howard's car, which was discovered by hikers on Sunday.

The burgundy 2003 Hyundai Elantra with California license plate 5KRP048 was found nosedown off an 800-foot cliff near the first tunnel of the winding Kanan-Dume Road that connects Agoura Hills with Malibu.

Stan Howard, a resident of Arizona, said identification found at the crash site belonged to his son, Jeffrey Howard.

For more than two years Howard's family and friends have been searching everywhere after the 40-year-old went missing at around 2:30 a.m. Dec. 21, 2006, after complaining of a headache. He and his wife had just welcomed their first child, a daughter, into their home.

Stan Howard said his son left home in the early morning with about $80 in his wallet and without the cellphone he usually carried. No one reported seeing or hearing from him since. Detectives consulted family members, neighbors, clergy and others who knew him. They checked his financial records and his computer. His family searched every possible avenue.

Then, on Sunday, hikers exploring Zuma Canyon saw something shimmering, just for a moment, off in the distance and decided to see what it was.

"It's a miracle the sunshine glittered off the car at just that moment and the hikers went over to investigate," Howard said.

At the time of Jeffrey Howard's disappearance, Stan Howard said, his son liked to go to parks to be alone, so the family searched all the parks and beaches they thought he might have gone to.

"We'd searched that road at least a dozen times and had planes fly over it searching for his car, but the car was under dense vegetation," Howard said.

Los Angles police officials said it takes about a week to get dental records and make an official identification.

"I'm 99.9 percent sure this is my son," Howard said.

He said he was hoping his son would be found alive but was grateful to have closure. He was also grateful for the hikers who were in the canyon looking for a waterfall and skipping rocks. He's thankful they saw the glimmer of light, followed it, found the car and called 911, Howard said.

"The odds of finding him were enormous. It was a miracle," he said.