Update 12:05 p.m. The Sheriff's Department has released an update addressing how missing man John R. Ecker, 35, of San Jacinto, turned up Tuesday morning in the Indio area.
Here's the full statement from San Jacinto police:
On January 7, 2014, at approximately 5:45 AM, a male matching John Ecker's description walked into a convenience store located on the 45000 block of Dillon Road, in Coachella. The store clerk recognized the man as matching the description of John Ecker from a flyer he received from the Ecker Family. The clerk called Riverside County Sheriff's Dispatch and a deputy responded to the scene. The deputy contacted the man and identified him as John Ecker. John Ecker has been reunited with his family and foul play is no longer suspected.
Reunited with her husband Tuesday morning, Mira Ecker told Patch she still believes he was abducted.
Update 10:45 a.m. A man whose family members believed he was kidnapped and carjacked early Monday in San Jacinto was located alive Tuesday morning in the Indio area, where he reunited with his wife and she tearfully said "I am blessed."
John R. Ecker, 35, of San Jacinto, was dazed and exhausted when he walked into a gas station around 5:30 a.m. Jan. 7, saw a flier with his own picture on it, and said "I have tattoos like that," his wife and father told Banning-Beaumont Patch.
Ecker, who was considered missing by family for about 24 hours, went to JFK Memorial Hospital at one point, and he was with his wife and father at 10 a.m. outside De Lara Brothers Towing on Harrison Street.
"My mom, my sister-in-law, my brother, my uncle, his girlfriend and our neighbor, we were all passing out fliers in Indio," Mira Ecker, 34, said by phone.
"We went to casinos, restaurants, gas stations, anywhere that was open," she said. "From about 11 or midnight to 5 this morning, 530. We were driving back home through Whitewater when we got the call. That was Christmas to get that phone call."
The missing man's father, John T. Ecker, 59, of Glendora, said his son walked into a gas station store near one of the casinos off Interstate 10.
"A girl at the Chevron station near the casino out here, 29 Casino, she had the poster and showed it to J, we call him J," he said. "J looked at the poster and he said 'I have tattoos like that.' He was disillusioned, delirious. . . .
"The girl recognized him and called Mira, Mira told her call the police," Ecker's father said. "We came out and picked him up.
"He's been roughed up, beaten up. He went to the hospital last night but they wouldn't call anyone for him so he got up and left. It was JFK. I got him right here at the tow yard trying to get his truck back right now."
As of Tuesday morning, Ecker was unable to recount exactly what happened to him in the previous 24 hours since he went missing, his family members said.
The few details he can recall lead his relatives to believe that Ecker was abducted by people in multiple vehicles, his wife said. They intend to spend time with investigators and hope whoever allegedly kidnapped Ecker is caught.
In the meantime a wife who wept in Monday interviews with Patch and televised news broadcasts was overwhelmed and grateful to have her husband back in one piece.
"I am blessed," Mira Ecker said. "This man means everything to me and my kids. How do you find words when somebody means this means this much to you. He is my heart and soul. We weren't going to rest until we found him. . . .
"He remembers little parts of what happened," she said. "He's in a blur, in shock about it. Right now he needs rest. He walked through the desert. He survived. He said he wasn't going to stop until he got there. . . .
"He's so dehydrated and wiped out. He is not a weak man mentally or physically but he's drained and he needs to recover."
Mira Ecker said she had "no clue why anyone would do that to my husband. Whoever did this, they are P-O-S's. I hope they get caught and I hope karma bites them in the ass as hard as they can."
Update 8:35 p.m. The Sheriff's Department released a statement Monday evening about the search for John R. Ecker, 35, whose wife said she last saw him at their home early Monday in San Jacinto.
The statement was written at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 6 and it does not include the latest info reported by Banning-Beaumont Patch:
The California Highway Patrol has located a white flatbed work truck with a toolbox near Interstate 10 east of Indio, and the vehicle is associated with Ecker.
Here's the statement from Sgt. Wallace Clear of the San Jacinto Police Department:
On January 6, 2014, officers from the San Jacinto Police Department responded to a suspicious circumstance at a residence on the 600 block of East Old Second Street, San Jacinto. The resident reported she was unable to contact her husband who left for work earlier in the morning.
Numerous attempts to contact and locate 35-year-old, John Ecker have been unsuccessful. At this point, investigators believe foul play may be a factor.
John Ecker is a white male adult, 5 feet, 9 inches tall. He has short blond hair and blue eyes. John Ecker also has visible tattoos on both sides of his neck. His 2013, white GMC utility truck is also missing. The vehicle's license plate is CA, 73016F1. The utility truck has a "Ecker Concrete" logo and business information on both the driver and passenger side doors.
Anyone with information regarding the whereabouts of John Ecker is encouraged to call the San Jacinto Police Department at (951) 654-2702 or Riverside County Sheriff's Dispatch at (951) 776-1099.
Update 8 p.m. The California Highway Patrol has located a white flatbed work truck with a toolbox near Interstate 10, and the vehicle is associated with a missing person named Ecker, a CHP dispatcher in Indio said in a phone interview Monday night.
The vehicle was located by the CHP about 5:50 p.m. Jan. 6 in a ravine near the Cactus City Rest Area east of Indio, the dispatcher told Banning-Beaumont Patch.
A CHP officer was on scene with the vehicle just before 8 p.m., the dispatcher said. There was no sign of John R. Ecker, 35, whose wife said she last saw him at their home early Monday in San Jacinto.
An abandoned vehicle on the 10 was reported by the CHP to Indio police around 10:45 a.m. Jan. 6, a police watch commander told Indio PD spokesman Ben Guitron.
Update 5:47 p.m. The father of a San Jacinto man who was reported missing Monday contacted Patch to share more information he hopes will help locate John R. Ecker, 35, who was last seen by his wife early Jan. 6.
"It looks like there was a struggle in the driveway," John T. Ecker, 59, of Glendora, said in a phone interview Monday afternoon. "There was a couple flashlights, a pair of sunglasses and a portable GPS, on the ground outside where his truck was. . . .
"And their car in the driveway, it got rammed into," he said. "Like whoever took his truck rammed it. . . .
"Someone on this street has surveillance video and it showed a black pickup come down here twice, about 4:45" in the morning Jan. 6, he said.
John T. Ecker described his son's work truck as a white single-cab 2012 GMC 3500 with a contractor's bed and black toolboxes. He said his son's two-door truck was also seen leaving on the surveillance footage.
"To my knowledge no one in the neighborhood has a black pickup," he said. "My nephew looked at the surveillance and the detectives did too."
John T. Ecker said he was calling Patch from outside the home where his son and daughter-in-law live in San Jacinto.
Posted 3:47 a.m. A San Jacinto woman believes her husband has been kidnapped, she's distributed photos and info on social media in her efforts to find him, and deputies were investigating.
John R. Ecker, 35, was last seen early Monday Jan. 6 at his home in San Jacinto, his wife Mira Ecker, 34, told Patch in a phone interview.
"We do have a report of a missing person from Ms. Ecker at 9:06 a.m.," Deputy Albert Martinez of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said Monday afternoon.
Mira tearfully recounted when she last saw her husband.
"He gets up real early to drive to work, he's a contractor in L.A. and Orange counties," she said. "I woke up and I saw him in the bedroom, he was smiling.
"I said 'You playing on your phone?' and he said 'Yeah' and I went back to sleep," Mira said. "I woke up around 7, 7:30 and realized he hadn't kissed me and I was that like 'That's weird.' He gives me a kiss every time he goes to work. . . .
"I went out to the living room and noticed the front door open, he wasn't there and I sent him a text, nothing came back," she said. "Then my father-in-law, John Ecker Sr. in Glendora, he called me around 8, 'Have you heard from John?'"
Mira said she was speaking Monday afternoon outside the San Jacinto Police Department at 6th and Pico.
Here's the info she and worried friends have posted on social media with photos:
John has been kidnaped along with our work truck has been stolen . They came and stole my purse, wrecked our car. Last known transaction on my debit card was at the Shell in Cabazon at 0645 and it was denied. It was used at the Shell for $30.00 and went through . The police tracked the GPS and it came off at the 215 fwy and Perris Blvd., but it is now off. The reason I know he was taken, he was going to work in Glendora this morning. There were things on the grass: his GPS, his glasses, etc. His work boots are still by the door-John never leaves without his boots .
If you have any information, please contact Mira Ecker at (951) 378-1695, San Jacinto Police or dial 911.
Please help get John home !
Mira told Patch she reported John missing Monday morning and she'd spoken to detectives at her home and she was meeting with them again Monday afternoon at the station.
A little girl in the photos she shared was not missing, she said.
"My husband would not let anyone come into my home and take my purse, or come into the house at all," Mira said, weeping. "We will catch whoever did this."
She said John R. Ecker has worked recently in Pasadena, Glendora and Dana Point.
Anyone with more info was urged to call San Jacinto police at (951) 654-2702.
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