Missing Glendale Girl Nancy Salas Turns Up, Admits Abduction Story Was Fake
Nancy Salas, the missing UCLA student, turned up in a carpet store in Merced in central California Thursday, Glendale police Sgt. Tom Lorenz said.
She had made up a false story that she’d been abducted at knifepoint when actually she had run away because of stress. Her abduction brought forth a massive search operation organized by the police.
She was re-united with her family in Glendale late Thursday night, nearly two days after she went missing. She was last reported to be seen at 6:30 a.m. Wednesday morning when she told her family that she was going on her usual run.
Salas admitted that she had made up the false abduction story because she wanted to escape the intense pressure from her family and friends. She also admitted that she had lied to her family and friend about attending the University of California, Los Angeles.
While investigating her abduction the police had discovered that she was no longer at UCLA.
The school confirmed that the fourth-year student and sociology major was last enrolled at UCLA in fall 2008.
She was idolized by her family, neighbors, friends, church, as being a successful student at UCLA,” Lorenz said. “She didn’t know how to handle it and she fled.”
Her parents who were planning a graduation ceremony for her, were visibly relieved when they found that their daughter is safe and sound. “Everything has ended up beautifully,” the woman’s father Henry Salas, said in Spanish. “It’s incredible the help that we had — roommates, friends, friends from the university, friends from church.”
Salas immediately asked an employee to call 911 when she turned up at the carpet store in Merced.
