Story highlights FBI, local police scale back mountain search for missing agent

Bloodhounds tracked Stephen Ivens in the area of the Verdugo Mountains

Ivens, 35, may have been distraught and suicidal, an FBI spokeswoman says

The FBI says the missing agent works on "national security-type cases"

An intensive weekend search of rugged terrain near Los Angeles failed to turn up evidence of a missing FBI agent, but authorities continued searching for the man there and elsewhere, an agency spokeswoman said Monday.

Special Agent Stephen Ivens appeared to be distraught and may have been suicidal, FBI spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said, citing interviews with family members and evidence collected by investigators. She declined to elaborate.

Ivens, who works on counterterrorism cases, was last seen by family Thursday night, a police statement said . His FBI-issued service revolver is also missing, Eimiller said.

Investigators and volunteers working for local police, as well as about 50 FBI agents, had searched the rugged Verdugo Mountains after bloodhounds tracked his scent in the area, according to authorities.

Authorities have since scaled back, but have not ended, the mountain search, Eimiller said.

"We're not ruling out that he may have gone in a different direction," she said.

Ivens is white, 6-feet-tall and weighs approximately 160 pounds. He wears prescription glasses, police said, and is described as having brown hair with a receding hair line and brown eyes.

FBI agent Steven Gomez told CNN affiliate KCAL that he could not expand on Ivens' duties beyond that he handled "national security-type" work.

"That's all I can really say about his casework."