A 28-year-old woman who went missing from the Hollywood Hills area three days ago and whose car was later found abandoned in the Lancaster area was found alive Wednesday, walking along an Antelope Valley freeway.
Laura Lynne Stacy’s exact condition wasn’t immediately available, but she was examined by paramedics and was taken to Antelope Valley Hospital to be checked. It was still a mystery how she wound up in the northern reaches of the county.
Los Angeles Police Department Lt. Dionne Watts said the woman was suffering from exposure to the recent cold. Stacy was found along the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway near Avenue K.
“Miss Stacy was located by our detectives who were responding to assist in the investigation here in Lancaster,” Watts said. “They observed her walking on the side of the freeway, made contact with her and verified that it was her.”
Stacy had last been seen Sunday in the 3600 block of Barham Boulevard, two blocks south of Forest Lawn Drive, driving a 2005 black Acura TL with Colorado license plates, the Los Angeles Police Department reported.
An Acura matching that description was found around 10:20 p.m. Tuesday near 90th Street East and Avenue E in Lancaster, and investigators determined it was Stacy’s car, said LAPD Officer Aareon Jefferson.
Deputies searched the car and the area Tuesday, but no one was located. The search resumed after daybreak, aided by helicopter crews.
On Sunday, Stacy’s phone was found in Golden Valley Park in Santa Clarita, said Sgt. Brian Hudson of the sheriff’s Santa Clarita Station. Deputies did not find anything else, Hudson said.
Stacy had recently moved from the Denver area.
“She wanted to try something new and come to California,” Marcy Stacy told the Los Angeles Daily News Tuesday night. “We’re praying that she’s OK and that this is a nightmare.”
Laura Stacy lives in the Burbank/Hollywood Hills area with a female roommate who was the last to see her Sunday morning, her mother told the newspaper. When her daughter didn’t respond to texts from family members later that day, Marcy Stacy said she felt uneasy.
On Monday morning about 5:15 a.m., Marcy Stacy got a text from her daughter’s cell phone from someone who said they had found the phone at Golden Valley Park, about 30 miles from where Laura Stacy was last seen, the Daily News reported.
Stacy’s mother and other family members flew out from Colorado on Tuesday to search for her and put up posters in her neighborhood and in Santa Clarita.
“I’m not sure why she was way out here,” Marcy Stacy told the Daily News.
–City News Service