FBI joins the probe into the disappearance of a SoCal grandpa linked to a crypto fortune

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The FBI has joined the investigation into the suspicious disappearance of 74-year-old Naiping Hou, a resident of Rancho Cucamonga and father of noted cryptocurrency investor Wen Hou.FBI officials said the agency was joining the investigation begun last year by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.They said the joint investigation was launched about a month ago.Wen Hou could not immediately be reached for commentIn an interview with The Times last year, he said he began to suspect something was wrong when he started to receive weird text messages from his father in April.He said his father gave robotic responses in a family group chat and became more silent and refused to visit his grandchildren.

World & Nation Brian Hooker told CBS News shortly after his release that he wants to believe his wife is still alive and plans to go back out to look for her as soon as possible.It was on Naiping Hou’s May 3 birthday that his son began to suspect someone else was controlling his father’s phone.He said his father refused to visit him and his grandchildren at their Las Vegas home.Wen Hou said whoever was controlling his phone refused to answer any calls on the birthday and, instead of thanking Wen Hou for the handmade Chinese noodles he sent as a gift to his father’s Rancho Cucamonga home, he simply texted: “Yes I received it.”Wen Hou said he asked family friends to go check in on his father the following day.

Hou said they found the noodle package sitting on the stoop.Inside the home, he said they found that it had been stripped of all its furniture and had a shoddy new paint job on the interior wallsHis father’s cars were also missing from the garage.

Naiping Hou was nowhere to be found.The elder Hou was reported missing on May 4 of last year, according to the Sheriff’s Department.Detectives believe someone used the elder Hou’s cellphone to impersonate hi...