A woman who vanished near Cal State San Bernardino almost two weeks ago has turned up in good health at a Los Angeles shelter.
Details are still coming in about the re-emergence of Sahray Barber who contacted her family on Thursday after seeing a story about herself on the news, as The Press Enterprise reports:
Police searched through the air, on horseback and by foot after Barber, 22, was reported missing. Investigators sent a DNA sample to a lab in case they needed to identify a body.
Then Thursday, Barber’s father, Stephen, told police that he had just received a call from Sahray. She had seen her picture on a television newscast and called her father. Detectives went to an unidentified location that Lt. Rich Lawhead described as some sort of shelter and brought Barber to her parents’ home.
Lawhead could not provide too many specifics on where Barber was found or other aspects of her condition, other than she was physically healthy, because of privacy rights, he said.
“Not everything adds up here, and there’s going to have to be some questions answered,” Lawhead said. “She has had some stuff going on in her life and she has asked that to be private.”
Barber had disappeared the morning of March 9 while leaving her San Bernardino apartment. Because she lives across from Cal State San Bernardino, where two women were recently attacked, it was thought that Barber’s disappearance might be related. Police began actively searching for her and police have pointed out that anyone who may have misled them may face charges and have to pay back the cost of the search for her – which included thousands of dollars in overtime.
The Barber family has not given any details about Sahray’s disappearance or re-emergence other than the following email:
“God has righteously answered all of our prayers in guiding Sahray back to us. For this we are ecstatic and so very thankful. We ask that you respect our privacy and you allow law enforcement to continue their investigation unhindered. A huge worldwide Thank You for all the prayers and support. God Bless!
-Steve Barber & Family”
Meanwhile, authorities are not saying much either – except to point out just how odd the case is. “This kind of tops the chart right now for kind of strange, especially the direction we were led initially in this case, without saying too much,” Lawhead said. “I was shocked yesterday when I got the call.”
