Joshua Tree Airbnb Search Linked To 'SNL' Writer's Missing Sister: Reports

LOS ANGELES, CA — Nearly a year after the sister of a "Saturday Night Live" writer disappeared from Los Angeles, police have conducted a new search in the Joshua Tree area as part of the investigation into her disappearance, according to reports.

Los Angeles Police Department detectives and K-9 units searched an Airbnb property in the high desert Friday, NBC Los Angeles reported.

"The case is being investigated by the Los Angeles Police Department's (LAPD) Robbery-Homicide Division due to the suspicious circumstances of her disappearance," Officer Norma Eisenman told SFGATE.

Police have not disclosed what led investigators to the property or whether any evidence was recovered, according to the publication.

Christina Lynn Downer, 38, was last heard from Dec. 10, 2025, when she exchanged text messages with a friend. Her last known location was in Koreatown, police said at the time.

Her brother, actor and "SNL" writer Jimmy Fowlie, made a public appeal for help finding her in December. Several "SNL" cast members, including Chloe Fineman, Bowen Yang and Sarah Sherman, shared Fowlie's post.

In April, Fowlie said his family had been informed by police that his sister was dead and that her disappearance was being investigated as a homicide.

However, LAPD officials disputed that account, telling KTLA that Downer had not been found and that the case had not been reclassified as a homicide investigation.

Fowlie also claimed that someone had gained access to his sister's phone and social media accounts before her disappearance and used them to solicit money and create the impression that she had voluntarily gone missing.

"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,'" Fowlie wrote on Instagram.

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A post shared by Jimmy Fowlie (@jimmyfowlie)

It remains unclear whether investigators have determined what happened to Downer. Police have not publicly confirmed her death or announced that the case is being investigated as a homicide.

Anyone with information about Downer's disappearance is urged to contact the LAPD's Robbery-Homicide Division at 213-486-6850.