Mystery shrouds LV visit

Monday, Feb. 7, 2005 | 9:27 a.m.

John William Albertson has not been seen since leaving Las Vegas a week ago Saturday for Northern California.

The 56-year-old Albertson, who speaks with a British accent and has gray hair, brown eyes, a mustache and a beard, was last seen when he ate breakfast with a friend in Las Vegas on Jan. 29, San Rafael, Calif., Police spokeswoman Margo Roerbacher said.

"There's nothing really new in the investigation," Roerbacher said Sunday night. "Something happened to Mr. Albertson between Las Vegas and Bakersfield."

Bakersfield, Calif., Police found Albertson's 1993 red Nissan Sentra parked near some shops on Jan. 31. A shop owner in the area told police that five men were seen walking away from Albertson's car.

The witness gave Bakersfield Police a description of a driver and two other passengers who got out of Albertson's car.

The driver was described as a white man, 20 years old and 6-foot, 3-inches tall, weighing 160 pounds with a very thick build and a pale complexion with dyed jet black shoulder length hair, police said. He was wearing a buttoned-up short sleeve shirt and tight fitting blue jeans.

The front passenger was also described as a white man, about 25 years old, 5-foot, 8-inches to 5-foot, 10-inches tall and weighing 250 pounds with a heavy build, brown medium length hair, wearing a black T-shirt and shorts. He had a tattoo on his left calf that looked similar to a fishing hook.

The third passenger was described as a white man with shoulder length, orange-blonde hair, wearing a short sleeve shirt. No further descriptions were available for the two other men.

Martha Gardgill of Las Vegas, who went to Bakersfield Friday to help police find her friend, said Albertson had been camping in Death Valley in January's rainstorms and he came to Las Vegas to visit her before returning to San Rafael, a city about 20 miles north of San Francisco.

"They really have a special bond," Gardgill said of Albertson and his son, who lives with Albertson's ex-wife in Santa Cruz and visits the 7-year-old boy on weekends.

"If he's going to be 15 minutes late, he calls his ex-wife. That behavior is totally not John."