The Australian actress Laura McCulloch has been reported missing by friends and family after a date in Los Angeles but was actually arrested.
The 37-year-old Aussie actress was last seen at a restaurant in the Santa Monica area after going on a first date with a dating app match, according to her family.
The actress’s friends began searching for her, knocking door to door and posting flyers around the city. Her family in Australia was waiting on her friends to report further news.
Laura’s sister Clare, from Melbourne, said she was first contacted by Laura’s friends on Tuesday (8/16/22) after they said they were starting to worry about her.
Laura’s friends also said the last time they had talked or heard from her was last Friday night (8/12/22) when she was on her way to the first date with a man she met on an undisclosed dating app.
“Her phone is now off, I’ve been trying to call her as well.
“I’m absolutely beside myself, we all are.
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“It’s a total nightmare, it’s so hard to not think the absolute worst.”
Laura has filled her career performing shows around the United States, living in New York before making the jump to LA. During this time she worked as a nanny in between acting jobs.
Her family said it’s not like her to not show up to work and cited it as a reason for concern.
Clare McCulloch also reported her sister’s disappearance to the LAPD but they were told officers would not be investigating yet. This left the investigation to Laura’s family and friends despite the LAPD receiving an $87 million dollar increase in this year’s 2022-2023 budget and taking a whopping 27% of the city’s overall budget.
Because the police are not willing to get involved in the investigation, this has led Laura’s team of family and friends to be barred from the CCTV footage at the restaurant she was last seen at. This means the police department’s inaction was directly leading to confusion around the situation.
It has recently been reported that the police were holding McCulloch in jail after the dinner went south and Laura threw her drink at a restaurant patron and her 2-year-old child.
“Upon arrival, officers contacted Ms. McCulloch who showed obvious signs of intoxication.”
“While conducting the investigation, McCulloch charged at the officers while yelling expletives.”
“Despite efforts to calm her, McCulloch continued to display aggressive behaviors. During efforts to detain her, she became physically combative, kicked at officers and bit one officer on the shoulder.”
McCulloch was arrested and transported to Santa Monica Jail where she has been held since. It is currently unknown whether the family knew about this or not, but their initial reports claim that police did not tell them despite filing a missing person report.
This led to a great deal of confusion and fear for the family and even drove them to hire a private investigator.
Clare McCulloch has also said the dating apps her sister was using won’t allow the family access to her messages and even said that her profile is deleted.
“They’ve called and door-knocked all the restaurants and all of them were being extremely unhelpful.”
