NEWHALL (CNS) - The vehicle of a Los Angeles County Fire Department captain missing since Monday from Newhall has been located in Santa Barbara County, authorities said today.
Wayne Stuart Habell, 43, was last seen leaving his home in Newhall at 7:30 a.m. Monday, according to Deputy Trina Schrader with the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department.
The fire department announced about 8:15 p.m. Friday that Habell's SUV had been found in Santa Barbara County and that an active search for him was continuing.
Habell is white, 6 feet tall and weighs 225 pounds. He has green eyes and short brown-and-blond hair, Schrader said.
Habell was last seen wearing a blue shirt and plaid shorts, Schrader said. He drives a 2008 black Chrysler Aspen SUV that has a county fire department sticker on the back window. Its California license plate number is 6KMB757.
“It's not his normal self (that) he would do this,” county fire Inspector Gustavo Medina told Fox11.
According to Fox11, Habell was headed to a fitness center when he was last heard from.
“We haven't had any communication with him since Monday,” Medina said. “So, that's why it's paramount that we find him as soon as possible. ... We want to make sure that he is safe. He has a family at home, a wife and three children.”
Habell is assigned to Fire Station 73 in Newhall.
Capt. Adam Clint of Los Angeles County Fire Station 108 in the Santa Clarita Valley, who previously worked with Habell, told the Santa Clarita Valley Signal that Habell's wife said her husband suffered from depression.
Anyone with information on his whereabouts was asked to call the sheriff's Missing Persons Unit at (323) 890-5500.