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| 1997 Howells, Gregory 06/97; Carmel Valley | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Jul 9 2006, 01:34 PM (391 Views) | |
| PorchlightUSA | Jul 9 2006, 01:34 PM Post #1 |
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http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/h/howells_gregory.html![]() MENDOCINO MAN VANISHES Published on June 21, 1997 © 1997- The Press Democrat BYLINE: Staff and wire reports PAGE: B3 Mendocino playwright and director Gregory Howells left his golf clubs on the 13th tee, his car parked in the lot, his wallet in the car -- and then vanished into thin air, police said Friday. Since Wednesday, rescue workers, dog teams and helicopters have unsuccessfully searched the area around the Rancho Canada Golf Course for Howells, 42, who is married to actress Sherry Glazer. The two have been living in Carmel Valley while Glaser performs a one-woman satire called ``Oh My Goddess,'' at a local theater. Howells co-wrote the work with Glaser and has been directing it. The family has a permanent residence in Mendocino County where they live a Spartan life among the redwoods with their daughter, Dana. They weren't involved in the local dramatic scene, however. Mendocino theater followers including Sandra Hawthorne, a community theater activist since 1965, said Friday they were unaware Howells and his wife had a home in the county. ``That's not all that unusual, really,'' said Hawthorne. ``There are a surprising number of talented, interesting people who maintain homes here but stick to themselves and do not become involved,'' said Hawthorne. Glaser said she last saw Howells at 4 p.m. Tuesday as he left for the golf course. |
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| PorchlightUSA | Jul 9 2006, 01:35 PM Post #2 |
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WIFE'S FEARS, ANGUISH PLAYWRIGHT GONE SINCE GOLF OUTING Published on June 26, 1997 © 1997- The Press Democrat BYLINE: Mike Geniella Staff Writer PAGE: A1 In anguish over her playwright husband's mysterious disappearance from a Carmel Valley golf course, actress Sherry Glaser said Wednesday she plans to retreat to her isolated Mendocino County home while a police investigation continues. ``I can't settle down here. It's too painful. I keep waiting for the telephone to ring to learn something, but there's nothing,'' Glaser said. Gregory Howells, her 42-yearold husband, hasn't been seen since June 17, when he bid Glaser and their two young daughters goodbye at her parents' home in Carmel Valley and headed off to play a late afternoon round of golf at the Rancho Canada Golf Course, a five-minute drive away. Howells was last seen wearing a T-shirt from Dick's Place, an old-time bar on Mendocino's Main Street where he liked to have a few beers on occasion. When not on the road for theater engagements, Howells, Glaser and their two daughters have lived a reclusive life for the past three years, writing plays together and planning new theater projects in a remote, spartan home nestled among wooded coastal hills several miles inland of Mendocino. There Howells and Glaser finetuned ``Family Secrets,'' an offBroadway play that in 1995 became a big success. Glaser's biting performance won her national acclaim from critics who described the actress as everything from a female Holden Caulfield to a young Lily Tomlin. Howells, however, felt he never got the national recognition he deserved as a playwright, according to his wife. Glaser said Wednesday that the media attention lavished on her in the wake of ``Family Secrets'' has been rough on Howells. ``I know he's been unsettled and frustrated by the lack of recognition for his work, which he rightly deserves,'' Glaser said. As a result, Glaser said she's spent a hellish week flitting from wondering whether her husband decided to give up 10 years of marriage, and the birth a year ago of a new daughter, or whether he's the victim of foul play. While Howells complained about his lack of recognition as a playwright, Glaser said there were never any clues that he wanted to end their relationship or abandon his daughters. ``He even told me a few days before his disappearance that an agent had looked at a newly written play and liked it,'' said Glaser. A copy of that play later was found on the front seat of Howells' car. Glaser said she since has found out that her husband never talked to the agent. ``I don't know why he told me that. Maybe he was just trying to make me feel good about his situation. I don't know. It's just one of the many mysteries that I find myself dealing with,'' she said. Glaser said no significant amount of the family's money has been discovered missing. ``If he has money troubles, I don't know about them yet,'' she said. Howells owned a couple of guns, including a .22-caliber pistol that he promised her recently he would discard. ``It can't be found at our house in Mendocino, so I hope it means he, in fact, got rid of it,'' Glaser said. Glaser acknowledged, however, that she sometimes fears Howells might have gone somewhere and killed himself ``because he talked about that possibility a few times since we've been together.'' On the other hand, Glaser said she's tormented by thoughts of foul play, perhaps an ugly encounter with someone in the golf course parking lot. But Glaser said Howells is a big man, 5-foot-11 and weighing around 190 pounds. With a big bushy beard, ``he doesn't look like the kind of person you'd want to mess with,'' Glaser said. The family has been staying in Carmel Valley while Glaser stars in the one-woman play, ``Oh My Goddess'' at a local theater. It's the couple's latest play. After Howells failed to return to the Carmel Valley house, his unlocked car was found the next morning in the golf course's parking lot. His wallet and credit cards were scattered under the front seat, and while his golf bag was in the car, four of his clubs had been left lying on the last green. ``There was no trace of him. Nothing but a half-empty beer can,'' Glaser said. Monterey County authorities launched a massive search that included ground crews and dogs. A helicopter with heat-sensing capability also was used, but the search was called off earlier this week after no sign of Howells was found. Sheriff's investigators are pursuing reports of sightings and a few ``vague leads,'' Glaser said. ``But that's it. I've even resorted to consulting psychics, who tell me he's alive. But if he is, why hasn't he or whomever he's with tried to call us?'' she asked. Glaser said she became edgy about her husband's fate when she awoke in the middle of the night and discovered he had not returned. ``At 2:30 a.m., I was calling local hospitals and the jail to make sure he wasn't there,'' she said. After a fitful night, she said, she called police. Shortly before 9 a.m. the next day, Glaser accompanied detectives to the golf course parking lot. ``When I looked into his car, things got very eerie. I knew instinctually something was terribly wrong. I'm still chilled by that feeling,'' she said. Glaser said she prays her husband is somewhere where he can learn of family and friends' deep distress since his disappearance. ``He really doesn't know that so many people besides myself and his daughters deeply care about him. I've been overwhelmed by calls of support from old friends and acquaintences.'' Glaser said her emotions run the gamut, from despair to anger. ``No matter what this is about, I really love this guy,'' she said. ``I'm coming home in hopes I can find some peace. I hope he can find it too.'' 1: Actress Sherry Glaser with her daughters Lucy, 1, and Dana, 9, at her mother's home Wednesday in Carmel Valley. 2: Gregory Howells shown on a roller coaster earlier this year. Infobox: MENDOCINO MAN DISAPPEARS This article also appeared on The Press Democrat Home page (http://www.pressdemo.com). |
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| PorchlightUSA | Jul 9 2006, 01:36 PM Post #3 |
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Business: Sunday, June 29, 1997 Did Playwright Stage His Own Disappearance? David Kligman AP CARMEL VALLEY, Calif. - Gregory Howells drove his golf cart to the 13th hole and vanished, leaving an iron and putter near the tee and a growing mystery about what happened to the struggling playwright. Most of his clubs were still in his cart. His tan Honda was in the parking lot, and inside were his wallet and a manuscript of his latest play, "Lazarus," a comedic version of the Bible story about the man who rises from the dead. Those are the kinds of theatrical touches that have actress Sherry Glaser wondering whether her 42-year-old husband directed his own disappearance. "It seems pretty set up to me, like he staged a dramatic final curtain," she said Wednesday. Investigators have been unable to find a trace of Howells or any indication he was kidnapped or killed when he vanished June 17. And his wife is beginning to suspect that frustration over his lack of success - and resentment over hers - led him to abandon her and their two young daughters. Howells and Glaser arrived last month from their rural home in Mendocino County to stage a production of her one-woman show "Oh My Goddess." The comedy - about a Hispanic man who channels the quintessential Jewish mother - has been selling out the 50-seat Carl Cherry Center for the Arts in nearby Carmel, a wealthy oceanside hamlet 120 miles south of San Francisco. Stage manager James Bailey said authorities failed to thoroughly search the mountain wilderness just off the greens. "If you walk off the 13th tee, it's the end of the world," Bailey said. "I don't care how many dogs or how many helicopters they use. That summer foliage is grown to the max." Monterey County sheriff's Sgt. Jim Meckel, who headed the search, said dog teams and a helicopter scoured the area three times last week. A river nearby was searched for a mile in both directions. Taxis and buses were checked. Howell's credit card records were traced. Still, nothing was found. Glaser met Howells in San Diego in 1985, and they married two years later. She said she was won over by a joke he told her when they first met: "What's a dentist's favorite song? Fillings. Nothing more than fillings." They eventually moved to Northern California, and it was there that he persuaded her to try one-woman shows. They wrote the plays together. She starred, he directed. But Glaser said her husband increasingly became frustrated, believing he was not getting his due from the critics while his wife's fame grew. Reviews of her shows, including their off-Broadway hit "Family Secrets" two years ago, were glowing, often referring to her as an up-and-coming Lily Tomlin. The critics seldom mentioned Howells. "He couldn't make peace that it was our work," Glaser said. "He needed his ego fed for the brilliant work that he did. He wasn't getting the recognition that he wanted so badly." Glaser also said that while her husband loved their daughters, he was tired of taking care of 9-year-old Dana and 1-year-old Lucy while his wife spent her days sitting at a computer writing plays. "He told me a hundred times, `I can't do this domestic thing anymore,"' she said. "He was frustrated being house dad." Over the past two years the dissatisfaction began to take its toll physically, his wife said. A once-athletic person who enjoyed racquetball and tennis, he began regularly drinking beer and smoking marijuana, gained weight and grew a bushy, unkept beard, Glaser said. Many who have seen his missing-person's picture told investigators the photo resembles Jerry Garcia. Last weekend's shows were canceled, but Glaser said she plans to resume the productions this weekend because she needs the money and wants her life to return to normal. Meanwhile, the only reported sighting of Howells was of a disoriented man looking at magazines at a Carmel bookstore last weekend. Authorities concluded that the man probably was a transient. At Glaser's mother's home in Carmel Valley, the actress jumps every time the phone rings, thinking it may be Howells. "I know it's him every time," she said. "It's got to be. And then I think no, there's no way he could possibly be alive and stay away from me and the children. But then again, he may just think we're better off without him." Copyright © 1997 Seattle Times Company, All Rights Reserved. |
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| oldies4mari2004 | Mar 12 2007, 09:17 PM Post #4 |
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http://z10.invisionfree.com/usedtobedoe/in...?showtopic=3902 |
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| PorchlightUSA | Mar 15 2010, 12:48 AM Post #5 |
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Gregory Downes Howells Above Images: Howells, circa 1997 Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance Missing Since: June 17, 1997 from Carmel Valley, California Classification: Endangered Missing Age: 42 years old Height and Weight: 5'11, 190 pounds Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian male. Brown hair, blue eyes. Howells may have a moustache, beard or a goatee. Clothing/Jewelry Description: A Dick's Place t-shirt. Medical Conditions: Howells may have been depressed at the time of his 1997 disappearance. His wife has said he had an alcohol problem. Details of Disappearance Howells was a playwright and director in 1997. He was last seen on the Rancho Canada Golf Course in Carmel Valley, California on June 17, 1997. He has never been heard from again. Howells's tan Honda was found parked in the course's lot during the morning following his disappearance. His wallet, credit cards, identification and golf bag were inside the vehicle, as was the manuscript of his latest play, Lazurus. Howells's golf cart and clubs were discovered on the 13th tee of the course. A search of the area yielded no clues as to his whereabouts. Howells was married to actress/playwright Sherry Glaser in 1997. A photo of Glaser is posted below this case summary. (Note: Several media outlets spell Glaser's last name "Glazer"). Glaser told the media that she believed her husband may have staged his disappearance. She stated that Howells may have been envious of her success in the entertainment industry and sought an escape for himself, possibly by suicide. Howells and Glaser often wrote plays together; Glaser acted in the productions while Howells occasionally directed. The reviews of the couple's work usually focused on Glaser's contributions while ignoring Howells's accomplishments. Glaser also said that her husband was often the caregiver for their two young daughters while she worked in the theater, and he was unhappy with this arrangement. Prior to his disappearance, Howells stated he showed Lazarus to an agent who liked it, but Glaser subsequently discovered he had not actually talked to the agent. Howells and Glaser were residing in Carmel Valley in 1997 while she performed her one-woman show, Oh My Goddess. They moved to the area from Mendocino County, California. Several of Howells's friends said that they believed other factors were at work in Howells's disappearance. It is not known if Howells left of his own accord or if he was the victim of foul play. Glaser said that Howells had been depressed prior to his disappearance. Howells's condition may have been connected to the death of Glaser's father, who died of cancer shortly before he vanished. Glaser said that Howells gained weight and seemed to "indulge" himself prior to disappearing, drinking beer and smoking marijuana. She stated that she visited psychics for help regarding her husband's case and that she was told he was alive. Glaser continues to believe that suicide is also a possibility in his disappearance. There is little evidence available in his case, which remains unsolved. Above: Glaser, circa 1997 Investigating Agency If you have any information concerning this case, please contact: Monterey County Sheriff's Department 831-755-3700 Source Information Monterey County Sheriff's Department The San Jose Mercury News The Contra Costa Times The Sonoma County Independent The Jewish Bulletin Of Northern California Online The Associated Press Updated 1 time since October 12, 2004. Last updated June 16, 2006; Clothing/Jewelry Description added, details of disappearance updated. Charley Project Home |
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| PorchlightUSA | Mar 15 2010, 12:48 AM Post #6 |
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Monterey County Sheriff's Department 831-755-3700 Agency Case Number: 07-57497 NCIC Number: M-035174106 |
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