"There is no evidence to support the claims that this was a
stranger abduction or an abduction at all," the Vallejo Police
Department said in a message in regard to the case of 30-year-old
Denise Huskins.
"Given the facts that have been presented thus far, this event
appears to be an orchestrated event and not a crime," the statement
added.
Huskins boyfriend, identified as Aaron Quinn, reported on Monday
that she had been forcibly abducted hours earlier from his home in
Vallejo by strangers who made a ransom demand of $8,500, Vallejo
Police Lieutenant Kenny Park told reporters.
"The statement that Mr. Quinn provided was such an incredible story,
we initially had a hard time believing it," Park said, according to
video of the Wednesday night news conference published online by
local broadcaster KRON 4.
Park said more than 40 local, state and federal detectives worked
around the clock to locate Huskins, whose Facebook account indicated
she recently moved to Vallejo and was working as a physical
therapist.
Park confirmed that the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper received
an email with an audio file of a woman identifying herself as
Huskins on Tuesday. The Chronicle said she referred to Tuesday's
deadly airline crash in the French Alps, apparently to time-stamp
the message and prove she was alive.
The Chronicle reported that she called her father on Wednesday
morning, leaving a voice mail that she was at his apartment in her
coastal hometown of Huntington Beach. The father, who had traveled
north to Vallejo after the reported abduction, then called police,
the newspaper said.
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Huntington Beach police said they encountered Huskins at the
apartment and interviewed her there for two hours before turning her
over to relatives, who took her away to an undisclosed location.
Park said Huskins initially seemed cooperative, but police lost
contact with her and her family after local authorities and the FBI
arranged for her travel north on Wednesday. Huskins and her family
have since retained an attorney, Park said.
Authorities are continuing to investigate the incident and would
request state or federal charges if they determine Huskins or Quinn
broke the law, Park said.
(Additional reporting by Emmett Berg from Vallejo, Calif., and Eric
M. Johnson from Seattle; Writing and additional reporting by Curtis
Skinner in San Francisco and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by
Bill Trott, Grant McCool, Sandra Maler and Cynthia Osterman)
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