Missing Model’s Car Found in Torrance : Disappearance: Authorities study the vehicle, as well as more of Linda Sobek’s personal possessions that were discovered in Angeles National Forest.

A car belonging to a missing Hermosa Beach calendar model was found Wednesday in a Torrance parking lot during a day of frenzied activity in the search for the 27-year-old woman.

A few hours earlier, friends looking for Linda Sobek in Angeles National Forest turned up a cosmetic case, hair curlers and a receipt from a Manhattan Beach photocopy shop--all of which they believe belong to her.

The friends said the cosmetic case contained Sobek’s initials and the receipt was dated Nov. 16--the day she vanished after leaving her home for a modeling assignment.

In another development Wednesday, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department assumed control of the case at the request of Hermosa Beach police. For the first time, investigators acknowledged that Sobek may have been abducted.

Deputies stopped an acquaintance of Sobek’s--Morgan Carey--at Los Angeles International Airport on Wednesday afternoon and took him to the Lennox sheriff’s station, where they talked to him for about an hour.

Carey--reportedly the brother of pop singer Mariah Carey--later caught a flight to an undisclosed destination. A department spokesman stressed that Morgan Carey is not a suspect. The spokesman could not confirm reports that investigators had questioned an unnamed West Hollywood photographer in connection with the case.

Sobek’s white Nissan sports coupe was recovered Wednesday afternoon in a Denny’s restaurant parking lot after police received a tip from a motorist who had heard about the case. Investigators sealed off the area and studied the site before hauling the vehicle to a crime lab at the sheriff’s station in Carson.

“It’s a very important piece of the puzzle,” Hermosa Beach police Lt. Mark Wright said.

He said investigators found a map book, some envelopes and a white plastic bag inside the car.

The vehicle, which did not appear to have been ransacked, was found locked and covered with dust, indicating that it may have been in the parking lot for a number of days, Wright said.

A large black garbage bag was found near the car, and Sobek’s roommates--Bettye Burgos and Kelly Flynn--were summoned to examine its contents. Neither woman would comment after viewing the bag, but Sheriff’s Sgt. Ronald Spear said the contents did not appear to be connected to the case.

It was unknown whether Burgos and Flynn were among a group of Sobek’s friends who searched for clues Wednesday in Angeles National Forest, where photographs of Sobek and a page from her appointment book had been found the day before.

Hermosa Beach police Sgt. Paul Wolcott said the friends reported finding the cosmetic case, curlers and receipt about six miles from the stretch of highway where a road crew worker found the photos--both of Sobek and her family--and the “Day Planner” page for Nov. 16, the day she disappeared.

Written on the page was an address in West Hollywood--a possible clue as to where Sobek might have gone on the modeling assignment.

Detectives said the photo shoot, which Sobek discussed in a message recorded by her paging service, was odd because she had not mentioned it to her roommates, whom Sobek reportedly told most of her comings and goings.