FBI Agent Stephen Ivens has been missing for just over one month. Wednesday his wife and uncle held a press conference in front of the Stough Canyon Nature Center, asking for the public’s help in finding him.
Ivens was reported missing by his wife on May 11. A massive search in the days after the agent went missing, by several law enforcement agencies, including the Burbank Police Department, Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, failed to find the 35 year-old Burbank resident.
On June 12, Ivens’ wife, Thea, accompanied by her husband’s uncle, James Ryan, held a press conference in front of the Nature Center. Several television station, radio stations, and the print media were in attendance. According to Thea Ivens, the trailhead at the Nature Center is where dogs used early on in the effort to find the agent, tracked his scent. However, the scent trail the dogs were tracking ended at the parking lot of the Nature Center.
“My husband and I haven’t been up here (at the fire road/trail that starts at the Nature Center) in about two years,” said Mrs. Ivens. She acknowledged that there wasn’t really any other evidence that her husband had vanished into the Verdugo Mountains.
According to the uncle, Ivens was more of a runner than a hiker, as previously reported to the media. “I talked to Stephen four days before he went missing,” said Ryan, “and he told me he had done a 3-mile run that day.” Ryan speculated that perhaps his nephew had run up to the Nature Center that day, which might explain why the dogs tracked his scent there.
Mrs. Ivens did shed some new light on her husband’s mental state. Previosly, the FBI had stated that the agent was depressed and possibly suicidal, but would not divulge why.
“My husband was depressed about something at work,” said Thea Ivens, “but it was not about his actual job as an FBI agent,” adding, “He loved his job.” She declined to elaborate further.
Ivens did leave a note for his family, but the contents have not been made public.
The FBI has been fairly circumspect about this case. Two days after Ivens disappeared, Steven Gomez, the Special Agent in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Office stated that Ivens was not involved in any criminal activity. Ivens has been an FBI agent for three years. Prior to that he was a police officer with the Los Angeles Police Department for eight years. He and his wife were married in 2004, and have a 2 year-old son.
There is a web site www.LetsBringStevenHome.com, as well as a Facebook page “Lets Bring Steve Home,” that have been set up by the family to facilitate the search for the missing agent.
Although Burbank police officers are no longer combing the hills above Burbank, the search for Ivens is still an on-going investigation. Sgt.Darin Ryburn noted that the investigation is now “lead-driven.” “We are starting to look elsewhere,” said Sgt. Ryburn.
Neither the FBI or Burbank Police Department were in attendance at the family’s press conference.
