Drug Dealer Charged With Murder Of Fox Exec Gavin Smith

A drug dealer has finally been charged with the murder of Gavin Smith, a Fox executive who went missing in 2012 and whose body was discovered by hikers in 2014. John Lenzie Creech, 42, will be arraigned on Monday for the murder of Gavin Smith, a release from the L.A. County District Attorney's Office states. He did not actually have to be arrested, as Creech was already in jail, serving an eight-year sentence for drug dealing in September 2012. If Creech is convicted of Smith's murder, he will face an additional 25 years.

Gavin Smith, 57, disappeared on May 1, 2012. He worked in Calabasas as a regional branch manager for Fox Theaters in Dallas and Oklahoma City. He was last seen leaving the home of a colleague in Oak Park at about 10 p.m. in his Mercedes-Benz wearing pajamas. He left behind most of his personal belongings. Smith was crashing with the colleague because he and his wife, Lisa, were fighting about Smith's alleged infidelity. Smith was reported missing the following morning when he did not show up to pick his children up for school.

In 2012, a SWAT team searched Creech's home in Canoga Park where he lived with his wife, Chandrika Creech. Rumors circulated that Chandrika and Smith had met in therapy and had an affair. Lisa later said that Smith was not only having an affair with Chandrika Creech, but also another younger woman, and that's why she had kicked him out of their home.

In 2013, authorities confiscated a Hummer H2 in a grow house drug bust. At this point in time, Creech was already in jail. However, the Hummer, which belonged to Creech, led them to Smith's car stashed in a storage facility in Simi Valley. Evidence found in the car led authorities to officially declare Smith dead.

In November of 2014, hikers found Smith's remains, including a skull and some clothing, in a shallow grave in the Angeles National Forest. Anonymous investigators said at the time that they believed someone had put a hit out for Smith.