Gavin Smith

LOS ANGELES » The remains of a 20th Century Fox executive and former University of Hawaii basketball player who disappeared more than two years ago were found in a desert area of Southern California, authorities said Thursday.

Gavin Smith, 57, was last seen May 1, 2012, in Ventura County's Oak Park neighborhood after leaving the home of a female friend.

Hikers discovered the remains about 70 miles away, near Palmdale in the Antelope Valley, on Oct. 26, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said. Results of an autopsy have not been finalized.

Smith transferred to UH from UCLA where he played on the 1975 NCAA championship basketball team. He played one season for the Rainbows in 1976-77 when he scored an average of 23.4 points a game for a team that went 9-18 under Larry Little. Smith's single-season scoring average was a program record that still stands today. He scored 30 or more points five times at UH.

Former UH coach Riley Wallace was the coach at Centenary when he came to play Larry Little's Rainbows twice in Honolulu on Feb. 18 and 19 of 1977. Smith and the 'Bows won 104-79 and 92-73.

"Big-time scorer. Scored a lot of points," Wallace remembered. "He was one heck of a good shooter. He had the long hair, and he wore a bandanna. ... He was a heck of an offensive player."

*** [1/30/15]  LOS ANGELES » A convicted drug dealer was charged Thursday with the murder of a 20th Century Fox executive and former University of Hawaii basketball player who mysteriously disappeared more than two years ago and whose remains were found in a northern Los Angeles County desert in October.