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Friends and family of Nancy Salas were outraged when the Glendale Police Department revealed that 22-year-old was not actually a 5th year UCLA senior, and suggested the young woman had perhaps disappeared on Wednesday May 12th of her own accord.
But when she was brought home on May 13th, having been escorted home from 270 miles north in Merced, Salas' stories began to unravel. Having orchestrated a massive search for the missing woman, upon her return and the revelation her disappearance, kidnapping, and, ultimately, the past two years of her life, had been a hoax, many wonder if Salas, or anyone, will pay for her decisions.
Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz told the News-Press that Salas will not face criminal charges, reports LA Now. "She is an adult," he explained. "And she has a right to do as she pleases, and if she wants to leave her family and her friends, that is her right."
However, Salas may still face charges in Merced for filing a false police report. In addition, Glendale is exploring their options for recouping their losses in the search effort. More than a dozen investigators had been assigned to the case, and the physical search involved the hilly terrain where Salas was thought to have been jogging, and employed "a police helicopter, bloodhounds and other canines trained to sniff out dead bodies." Glendale police even arranged for an airplane to travel to Merced and to pick up who they thought was a kidnap victim and escort her home.
Taxpayers are the ones who are footing the bill for Salas' right to disappear in order to avoid admitting to her parents she had dropped out of UCLA.
“It did cause a search, and it did expend an enormous amount of resources, resources that could have been used to investigate other cases,” Lorenz said. “And it certainly is on the taxpayer’s dime.”
