Search for ‘SNL’ writer’s missing sister leads police to Joshua Tree Airbnb

Los Angeles police detectives searched the Joshua Tree area Friday for evidence in the disappearance of Christina Downer, the sister of “Saturday Night Live” writer Jimmy Fowlie, nearly a year after her family last heard from her.

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Downer’s disappearance prompted public appeals from Fowlie in December. In April, he said police told the family his sister was “no longer alive.”

The search led LAPD investigators with K-9 units to an Airbnb property, KNBC-TV first reported. In an email to SFGATE on Monday, LAPD spokesperson Officer Norma Eisenman confirmed that the division is investigating Downer’s disappearance and identified Oct. 9 as the date of a search involving the Los Angeles Fire Department.

“The case is being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) Robbery-Homicide Division due to the suspicious circumstances of her disappearance,” Eisenman wrote.

Police did not disclose the precise location of the search, what prompted investigators to look there or whether any evidence was recovered. LAPD’s response Monday did not say whether investigators believe Downer is dead or whether the case has been reclassified as a homicide investigation. “There is no additional information available at this time,” Eisenman wrote.

In an April 29 Instagram post, Fowlie said police had informed his family that the case had become a homicide investigation. “Our prayers for her to be found safely have transformed into prayers for the truth to be revealed and for those responsible to be held accountable,” he wrote.

LAPD told SFGATE at the time that Downer had not been located and that her case had not been reclassified as a homicide. Fowlie also alleged that his sister’s phone and social media accounts had been compromised in the weeks before her disappearance.

“The individual(s) in possession of her phone used it to hide the fact she was gone, to ask for money, and to create a false narrative that she was going ‘off the grid,’” he wrote. 

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Fowlie urged anyone with information to come forward, saying he wanted to remember his sister as “a beautiful person who matters in this world, especially to me.”

“My sister can no longer advocate for herself, but I can and I hope you will too,” he wrote.

In its original missing person notice, issued Dec. 23, LAPD said Downer, then 38, was last contacted by a friend via text message on Dec. 10. Her last known location was in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood. Fowlie previously said his own last contact with her was Nov. 26.

Her family told police she had no known medical conditions and had never gone missing before. Fowlie said she might also use the name Christina Fowlie and was deeply attached to her miniature pinscher, Rex.

Fowlie, an actor and comedian who joined the “SNL” writing staff in 2022, initially appealed for help on social media, drawing support from cast members and other entertainers.

Anyone with information about Downer’s disappearance is asked to contact LAPD’s Robbery-Homicide Division at 213-486-6850.