Will Cierzan led a simple life – work, home, church.
Throw in a passion for televised sports, gardening and caring for roses, a hobby collecting Coca Cola memorabilia and a motorcycle, Will Cierzan’s life still comes out, essentially, simple.
But, something happened between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday Jan. 26 that turned a simple life into a complex mystery that continues to perplex his wife, homicide detectives and the people he worked with.
It was in that two-hour time span, while the 58-year-old longtime employee of Six Flags Magic Mountain was cooking dinner that he vanished without a trace.
He had been watching golf in television with his nephew that afternoon and began cooking a chicken dinner around 4 p.m. He spoke to his wife about 5 p.m. When she arrived home about 7 p.m. the dinner was cooked, the oven turned off and her husband gone.
After two whole weeks with no phone call, no note, no email, no credit or debit card usage, detectives have no clue what they’re dealing with.
“We still don’t know what happened,” Det. Ralph Hernandez, of the Los Angeles County Sheriff Department’s Homicide Bureau told The Signal Friday.
“We are working on this non-stop. Even when I’m off, I’m not really off,” he said.
No clue
Hernandez and his homicide partner Det. John Carlin don’t even know if they’re dealing with a crime.
“If it ends up being foul play, we could theorize all and night about what might have happened,” Hernandez said. “But, in the end, we follow where the evidence leads us.”
The problem after two weeks is that no evidence leads them nowhere.
Despite flyers posted by family members around the intersection of Seco Canyon Road and Bouquet Canyon Road, no one has phoned to report sightings of the missing man.
At a press conference held Feb. 1 to elicit the public’s help, detectives revealed two promising pieces of information – blood samples found inside the Cierzan home and images of a white SUV seen backing into the Cierzan driveway during the time Cierzan disappeared.
Detectives said they hoped to learn more once they had the blood tested and studied the home video surveillance footage obtained from a neighbor enhanced.
Hernandez, however, said he could discuss no aspect of either the blood or the vehicle. In fact, detectives have shared no part of the scant information they have with anyone.
“They haven’t told me anything,” Cierzan’s wife, Linda, told The Signal Friday.
“I’m lucky that my work has allowed me to work at home so that I could be close by in case Will comes home,” she said. “That’s what’s most important to me.”
Hard worker
While Will Cierzan’s relatives remain baffled by the case at home, his coworkers at Six Flags Magic Mountain remain just as mystified.
“It’s unbelievable,” Roxan Padron who worked with Cierzan at Six Flag’s gift shop told The Signal Friday.
“I am still completely in shock,” she said. “We’re trying to put two and two together, but if the detectives can’t do it, how can we?”
Third week
William Cierzan, born in Oklahoma, fourth child in a family of six kids, grew up in a military family. He was an artist and a “homebody” who had no apparent enemies.
“He was so nice. I’ve never seen him mad,” Padron said. “If something was wrong, or if the store was busy, he always found a positive side.
“I would give him orders and he never once complained and was always willing to do more,” she said.
As the disappearance enters its third week, Cierzan’s scheduled work hours at the Six Flags gift shop have been turned over to other employees.
And, as homicide detectives continue to interview many people about the case, Cierzan’s wife, Linda, is asking all those who care about her husband to pray for his safety.
“We are asking for people to continue to pray for Will’s safe return very soon,” she told The Signal Friday.
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