WESTWOOD —A missing 22-year-old Glendale woman, who reportedly was a fourth-year sociology student at UCLA, was found on Thursday, May 13, after a nationwide alert was made on Wednesday. The family of Nancy Salas reported her missing, and the woman was later found in good condition in Merced.

It remains unclear at this time how Salas got to the Central Valley, but officials said they don’t believe foul play was involved. After she told her mother, she would be going out Wednesday morning for a jog in a nearby park and reportedly leaving her purse and personal items behind, authorities took the disappearance very seriously. Glendale Police immediately used bloodhounds and helicopters to search nearby Chevy Chase Canyon and surrounding parks for the young woman until the early morning hours on Thursday. Later Thursday morning, the police had found out something very surprising about Salas’s claims to her parents that she was attending classes on Mondays. They were soon notified by UCLA that Salas was not currently enrolled in the school.

The young woman’s parents, Henry and Joanna Salas, who are immigrants from El Salvador went on local television to beg the community’s help in searching for their daughter. The mother reported to authorities and the media that her daughter was soon to be graduating from college and had been a good child who sang in their church’s choir, and had a bright future ahead of her. Mrs. Salas further stated on HLN News, “She’s not the type of girl to just run away.” Salas had been telling her parents and close friends that she was about to graduate from UCLA in a couple weeks, but that is a claim that remained cloaked in mystery until Thursday night. Police and UCLA officials stated publicly that the young woman had not been enrolled in classes at the university since 2008.

However, at least one student, who is a friend of Salas’s told the media she’d seen her in a class recently. Glendale Police Sgt. Tom Lorenz speculated early Thursday that Salas may have dropped out of college, but kept the news from her parents. “She may have been leading a double life, and it was starting to catch up with her,” he said to the media.

Salas’s blog and Twitter account had messages that alarmed authorities. She had been describing feelings of paranoia and feeling unsafe. In one February 2010 entry, Salas wrote: “Why do these nightmares keep haunting me.” Later on May 6 she wrote, “Creepy dream #1000. Bahhumbug!” She also tweeted feeling paranoia of a “creepy man” spying on her during her workouts in Chevy Chase Canyon. During the investigation friends told authorities Nancy Salas had shared these feelings with them in the past.

Authorities in Merced said, the young woman walked into their precinct and reported to them that she had gotten away from a kidnapper. Merced is approximately 300 miles from where the young woman went missing. Authorities questioned Salas Thursday night for further details and clarification in her case. Later that same day Glendale police said they were still investigating. Lorenz said that if Salas faked the kidnapping, she could be charged with making a false report. Salas’s parents say they are not concerned with the details, but are just happy that she’s safe and they want her back home.

On Friday, authorities said Salas admitted to staging her own disappearance because she feared her parents finding out that she dropped out of UCLA two years ago.