RENO (AP) — Reno police Monday said they believe a young woman who disappeared from a friend’s home early Sunday morning was kidnapped.
Brianna Denison, 19, was last seen around 4 a.m. Sunday when she went to sleep on a couch at a friend’s home near the University of Nevada, Reno.
Police Lt. Robert McDonald said drops of blood were left on a pillow she used, and the teddy bear her friend gave her to add support to the thin pillow is missing.
McDonald said the couch where Denison slept is in front of a glass door that was left unlocked.
Denison, a Reno High School graduate, is a psychology student at Santa Barbara City College in Santa Barbara, Calif. She was visiting during winter break.
Police said she has not contacted her mother or teenage brother who live in Reno, any of her friends or her boyfriend who lives in Oregon.
Investigators want to talk to a man who had dropped off a friend of Denison’s at the home that night
McDonald said the friend had approached the man at the Sands Hotel and Casino for a ride and that he did not come inside the home. He is not a suspect but is being sought for questioning.
In the hours before her disappearance, Denison had been participating in activities associated with the SWAT 72 college snowboarding event being held at Squaw Valley USA resort.
Police said she had gone to a rap concert Saturday night and had been at the Sands Hotel and Casino.
McDonald said Denison may have been barefoot when she disappeared. She left behind her purse, cell phone, and her only clothing items, which were two pairs of shoes and a skirt outfit.
Described as 5-feet tall, 98 pounds, with long brown hair and blue eyes, Denison was last seen wearing light blue or pink sweat pants and a thin sleeveless white top.
Denison’s friend, K.T. Hunter, said that the couch is against the wall of her bedroom.
She was sleeping in the room, along with her dog, when Denison disappeared.
Hunter, 19, said she didn’t hear any noise and the dog never barked.