station to report gavin missing and waited and waited. days later, gavin s family went on nbc 4 in los angeles to plead for help. i m not going as to stop until i find him. so please help me find him. you guys want to pick one of these streets. now i m in panic mode. we got to do something. reporter: what did it feel like to be in that spot? oh, it was surreal. reporter: the smith family put together a $20,000 reward for any information leading to gavin s whereabouts. nothing turned up. i would think that every hour that went by, it would be more dire and darker for you, right? it s very dark. it s very, very dark. reporter: it wasn t just the family having dark thoughts. they don t normally call a couple seasoned homicide detectives to look into a missing person. ea they do when there is some suspicious circumstances. reporter: and in this case, they called in sheriffs detectives ty labay and his partner john o brien. his phone was missing.
Kill-gavin-smith
Family
Help
Guys
One
Streets
Los-angeles
Panic-mode
Nbc-4
4
Reporter
Something