Nancy Salas, 22 (DMV Photo) |
GLENDALE -- Prosecutors have filed a misdemeanor charge against a Glendale woman who allegedly made up a story about being abducted to avoid telling her parents she had dropped out of college.
The Merced County district attorney's office on Friday charged Nancy Salas with one count of giving a false report of a crime to a police officer.
The 22-year-old woman vanished from her Glendale home on May 12, triggering an extensive search.
She turned up 300 miles away in Merced, where authorities say she called 911 and claimed to have been kidnapped and sexually assaulted.
Salas eventually admitted she had staged her disappearance and had made up her story about being abducted.
Glendale police officers said Salas told them she was under too much pressure from family and church members about her UCLA student status, which has been confirmed by the school to have ended in 2008.
After winning a prestigious full scholarship to the university in 2005, Salas dropped out in 2008, and was too scared to tell her parents, officers said.
According to Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz, Salas had been deceiving her parents and her friends.
"There's obviously a deception," Lorenz said. "I don't want to go so far as to call it a double life."
"She told detectives she was idolized by her family and friends, and one story led to another," Lorenz said.
Her parents believed Salas to be a third year sociology student at UCLA and were planning their daughter's upcoming graduation party.
The Merced County district attorney's office on Friday charged Nancy Salas with one count of giving a false report of a crime to a police officer.
The 22-year-old woman vanished from her Glendale home on May 12, triggering an extensive search.
She turned up 300 miles away in Merced, where authorities say she called 911 and claimed to have been kidnapped and sexually assaulted.
Salas eventually admitted she had staged her disappearance and had made up her story about being abducted.
Glendale police officers said Salas told them she was under too much pressure from family and church members about her UCLA student status, which has been confirmed by the school to have ended in 2008.
After winning a prestigious full scholarship to the university in 2005, Salas dropped out in 2008, and was too scared to tell her parents, officers said.
According to Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz, Salas had been deceiving her parents and her friends.
"There's obviously a deception," Lorenz said. "I don't want to go so far as to call it a double life."
"She told detectives she was idolized by her family and friends, and one story led to another," Lorenz said.
Her parents believed Salas to be a third year sociology student at UCLA and were planning their daughter's upcoming graduation party.
