Crews find missing elderly man’s body in Goleta creek

February 21, 2024

By JOSH FRIEDMAN

The dead body of a missing elderly man was found in a creek in Goleta on Tuesday. 

Shortly before 8 p.m. on Monday, the family of 86-year-old Peter Knudsen Miller reported him missing. The family did so after discovering the pickup truck Miller was driving stuck in the Maria Ygnacia creek crossing in the 5000 block of Via Alba in Goleta.

Miller had mobility issues, and he was not inside the truck, according to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office. Deputies, a sheriff’s K-9 unit and a Santa Barbara County Fire Search and Rescue crew searched for Miller, but did not located him.

Rescue teams returned to the area on Tuesday morning to find Miller’s body in the Maria Ygnacia Creek south of Cathedral Oaks between Ribera Drive and Poinsettia Way.

Authorities are investigating Miller’s death. It could take up to eight weeks for an official ruling on the cause and manner of death. 

Separately, emergency personnel found a woman’s dead body in a Santa Barbara creek on Monday.

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