CSUN Soccer Recruit Turns Up, Plans to Return Home

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. Currey declined further comment.