Authorities are for 66-year-old Louis Robert Piatt, but the case of the man whose last known location was in a kayak off the Mailbu coast remains open. It was transferred on Tuesday from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to the Los Angeles Police Department because Piatt is a Pacific Palisades resident.
"We are not out searching for him, but his name will be included in a nationwide missing persons computer database and remain there until he is found," Detective Dianne Harris of the sheriff's department's Missing Persons Unit told Patch on Tuesday.
Only a court can declare a missing person dead in California.
, according to the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff's Station. A 911 call was made to the station Thursday afternoon from Piatt's phone. The male caller said he had chest pains.
A joint search of the area was conducted by the Coast Guard and the county sheriff's and fire departments on Thursday and Friday. A kayak rented at a local shop by Piatt was found overturned. His parked vehicle was also found in a nearby lot.
