This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
*UPDATE 2:35 PM Nancy Salas has been reported found, according to a live report on abc7. The 22-year-old Glendale resident is said to be safe and sound in the town of Merced, according to KNX. Though she is well, there are many questions surrounding her disappearance.
At first the Glendale Police Department said the disappearance of 22-year-old Nancy Salas was "suspicious," since the young woman left home for a routine jog without her phone or keys and vanished without a trace. This morning, however, the authorities revealed that in the course of their investigation that Salas had not been enrolled at UCLA since 2008, despite her plans to graduate, attend graduate school, and show off her diploma at a party her parents were organizing.
Following the release of the detectives' findings, and their assertion Salas was being deceptive about her doings, her friends, including her pastor, have expressed their disbelief at their claim. One friend insists Salas was attending classes part-time and was at UCLA Monday nights, while another described the daughter of Salvadoran immigrants as being "loyal" and close to her family, and recalls Salas doing homework during the last school year, reports LA Now.
Salas sings in the band at her church, and her pastor there, C. Laine Julian, commented on a post on LA Now: "She was a 5th year senior graduating in a few weeks." Julian's assertion aligns with Salas' Facebook profile, where her public information includes listing herself as a 2009 UCLA graduate studying Sociology and Public Health. It is also on Facebook where many of her friends have launched a campaign to help find Salas; several people have changed their profile photo to be one of a flier about their vanished friend.
But if Salas would not be involved in anything surreptitious that would prompt her to disappear of her own accord, like the Glendale PD suggest, what happened to the young woman yesterday morning? Her former roommate and UCLA classmate Grace Sangalang says Salas had recently talked about wanting to bring pepper spray with her on her morning run in the hills near her home: "She did tell me a few months ago that she felt like people were watching her when she went running."
