Los Angeles police homicide investigators searched the Joshua Tree region of California on Friday as they pursued leads in the disappearance of Christina Lynn Downer, the sister of a “Saturday Night Live” writer whose family said months ago that she had been killed.
An LAPD spokesperson confirmed to News Media that detectives from the Robbery-Homicide Division began the operation Friday morning. Officials did not identify the specific search site or explain what investigators expected to recover.
Downer, 38, was last known to be in Los Angeles’ Koreatown neighborhood in late November 2025. Her disappearance was formally reported to police the following month.
In an Instagram message posted in late April, her brother, “Saturday Night Live” writer Jimmy Fowlie, said police had told the family that Downer was dead.
Christina Lynn Downer, whose disappearance remains under investigation, was last seen in Los Angeles’ Koreatown area in November 2025. She is the sister of “Saturday Night Live” writer Jimmy Fowlie. (LAPD)
“The LAPD has informed our family that Christina is no longer alive, and the case has officially transitioned from a missing person to a homicide investigation,” Fowlie wrote. “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.”
The Los Angeles Police Department later challenged that description, saying Downer had not been found and that the investigation was still classified as a missing-person case, according to FOX 11 Los Angeles.
Joshua trees and dramatic rock formations surround Joshua Tree National Park near Twentynine Palms, California, where authorities are investigating the reported discovery of a human skull. (Shutterstock)
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“Although the circumstances of her disappearance are suspicious, Ms. Downer has not been located,” the department said previously, adding that detectives would keep working the case until it was resolved.
Los Angeles homicide detectives searched the Joshua Tree area on Friday, Oct. 9, 2026, seeking evidence related to the disappearance of Christina Lynn Downer, the sister of “Saturday Night Live” writer Jimmy Fowlie. (Josh Brasted/Getty Images)
Fowlie has also questioned activity involving his sister’s cellphone and social media profiles. He alleged that someone may have used the accounts to obscure her disappearance and suggest that she had chosen to leave.
“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.
The LAPD has not publicly verified those claims.
An LAPD media relations officer told News Media that investigators could not say whether Friday’s search was focused on human remains, a potential suspect or another form of evidence. Officials also declined to confirm whether search dogs were being used.
Authorities have not explained why detectives were led to Joshua Tree, and it is not clear whether Downer’s official case classification has changed since the department’s earlier statement.
News Media has contacted Fowlie seeking comment.