Missing CSUN Soccer Player Found Safe

Los Angeles police said late Friday they had aborted a missing-person investigation involving a Cal State Northridge soccer recruit after the 23-year-old Canadian told them she is safe and had been “telephonically reunited with her parents.”

Nikki Thomas, who failed to appear at preseason activities this week after arriving in Los Angeles on Sunday, apparently changed her mind about attending CSUN and has booked a flight back to Toronto, a family friend said.

Thomas has been staying by herself in Los Angeles, according to friend Fawn Currey. She was not aware of the widespread concern over her disappearance and that she was the subject of a missing-person report until she phoned CSUN women’s soccer Coach Brian Wiesner about 9 p.m. Friday. She then heard a recorded greeting directing callers to dial another number for information on her disappearance.

She immediately phoned her mother’s home in Mississauga, near Toronto, and told her she was fine, Currey said. Nikki Thomas then notified the LAPD that she was not missing, and her mother, Carol Thomas, made a similar call to Toronto authorities, Currey said.

Thomas had already booked a return flight to Toronto for Sunday, Currey said, and is due to arrive around 8 p.m. Pacific time. Asked where Thomas had been staying and why she had not contacted anyone since her arrival at Los Angeles International Airport last Sunday, Currey declined further comment.

“At this end, all we know is she’s obviously had a change of mind,” Currey said. “We just want her to come home.”

Currey said Carol Thomas was mentally exhausted and unable to come to the phone. “She’s been crying and is just thankful Nikki’s safe. I think the aftermath of having gone through this past couple of days has gotten to her.”

Wiesner said Thomas left a brief message on his office answering machine Friday night saying she would not come to CSUN because she believed she was not well-conditioned enough to play soccer.

“She apologized if she caused us any trouble, but she said nothing about where she is, no phone numbers, nothing,” Wiesner said. “Unbelievable. The girl flies all the way out here to not show up.”

Wiesner, who signed Thomas to a full athletic scholarship sight unseen last winter, said he does not regret that decision and is not angry with Thomas.

“All the research we did in recruiting her led me to feel we were making a good decision,” he said. “It’s hard to be angry with somebody when it appears she didn’t do anything out of malice. She just made some decisions that weren’t thought out.”

Thomas was due at CSUN on Monday morning for physical exams for the women’s soccer team but did not appear. She had left a phone message Sunday night for her mother, saying she had arrived at LAX and had been sightseeing. But she had not contacted her family or anyone connected with CSUN since then.

Thomas was also absent from the beginning of preseason practice Thursday, the same day a missing-person report was filed with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Carol Thomas and Wiesner said they originally ascribed the recruit’s absence to a misunderstanding of when she was supposed to arrive on campus. But when she remained absent by late Tuesday, the mother and coach became concerned.

Carol Thomas, an accounting firm manager, had asked her phone company to trace her daughter’s call Sunday and was told its origin was Van Nuys. She also verified through her bank that $120 was withdrawn Tuesday from an automatic teller in Burbank from an account she shares with her daughter.

Thomas, who was the University of Detroit Mercy’s starting goalkeeper for three seasons, was a member of the program’s first team in 1993 and holds its records for saves in a match, season and career. She was a second team All-Midwest Collegiate Conference selection the past two years.

Thomas contacted Wiesner late last year about using her final season of eligibility with the Matadors and was signed last winter.

Times staff writer Jill Leovy contributed to this story.