Julian Sands’ family releases first statement since his disappearance

Actor disappeared while hiking in California in January

The family of Julian Sands has released its first statement since the British actor disappeared while hiking in California five months ago.

The statement comes a week after the search for Sands, 65,  in the Mount Baldy area of the San Gabriel mountains resumed on 17 June.

“We continue to hold Julian in our hearts with bright memories of him as a wonderful father, husband, explorer, lover of the natural world and the arts, and as an original and collaborative performer,” the family’s statement said.

Sands, best known for his breakout role in the 1985 film A Room With a View, has been married for more than three decades to journalist Evgenia Citkowitz, and has three adult children.

They said they were “deeply grateful to the search teams and coordinators who have worked tirelessly to find Julian.”

Efforts to find the actor slowed around mid-February, after rescue teams were repeatedly hampered by adverse weather conditions.

Sands, a longtime avid hiker and mountaineer, was reported missing January 13 after setting out to hike on the massive mountain, which rises more than 10,000 feet (3,048 meters) east of Los Angeles and was pounded by severe storms during winter.

Julian Sands (Getty Images)

Authorities said that while warmer weather made the latest search possible, parts of the mountain remain inaccessible due to dangerous conditions.

Since Sands’s disappearance, the sheriff’s department has conducted eight searches and expended more than 500 hours of combined search time.

The actor’s family previously praised the “heroic” efforts of Californian authorities involved in the searches, and were “deeply touched” by the support they had received.

His brother, Nick Sands, told the Craven Herald in late January: “He has not yet been declared missing, presumed dead, but I know in my heart that he has gone.”

Anyone with additional information about Sands is asked to call Detective B Meelker on +1 (909) 356-6710.

Additional reporting by The Associated Press