Updated 2/1/11 10:17 a.m.
A 19-year-old Riverside resident missing since Jan. 19 has been located in Brookfield, Riverside police confirmed Tuesday morning.
The woman called police to notify them of her whereabouts after reading a story about the search for her published Monday afternoon on the Landmark’s website, according to Riverside Police Chief Thomas Weitzel.
“She called the police department after being notified of the report on the Internet in the Landmark,” Weitzel said.
Initially, the woman refused to tell police where she was staying, but later told them she was living in the basement of her boyfriend’s home in Brookfield, said Weitzel.
Police visited the home last night and determined Salerno was unharmed and staying at the house voluntarily. Since she is 19, Weitzel said police could not force her to go back home to Riverside.
“She’s not returning home at this time,” Weitzel said.
The woman has been taken off the state missing persons list, Weitzel said.
Police have been searching for the woman since Jan. 19, when she failed to show up for a dinner appointment that night. She did not take clothes or medications when she left her Riverside home.
Text messages were periodically sent from the woman’s cellphone and her Facebook account was updated while she was missing, but police had no way of proving she authored the text messages or online updates.
On Monday, police publicly released a missing persons bulletin that had been sent to police agencies statewide. The Landmark published a story about the search Monday afternoon, and the woman called police within an hour of the Landmark’s story going up online, Weitzel said.
