Police Search for Aspiring Actress in Los Angeles
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California Department of Justice(LOS ANGELES) — Five years after arriving in Los Angeles from Tennessee with dreams of being an actress, Satara Stratton is in the California Missing Persons database.
Los Angeles police are looking for 24-year-old Stratton. She disappeared last November. Her mother, Sharon Stratton, fears that she is under the influence of a registered sex offender and addicted to drugs.
According to Sharon, Satara has not been in contact with family or friends since Nov. 22. Sharon said that her daughter had usually called or texted her daily and had been planning to return home to see her grandmother when she disappeared.
Though Sharon said she has not heard from her daughter since November, the Los Angeles Police Department missing persons department did not officially start investigating until February. They are currently looking for Satara, who is listed as “Voluntarily Missing,” along with 46-year-old Paul Constantinescu, who is wanted for questioning.
Satara’s mother said she believes that Constantinescu, who is registered as a sex offender on California’s Megan’s Law website, has kept her daughter from contacting her, either through psychological abuse or by drugging her.
“She sounded scared, she was afraid for what they might do,” Sharon told ABC News about her last conversation with her daughter. “But she didn’t want to turn on these people.”
Det. Carmine Sasso, who runs the LAPD’s Missing Persons Unit, told the Los Angeles Times that this was not a unique case.
“These young people come out from another state, some small town, to a multimillion population, trying to hit it big and they get caught up,” he told the Los Angeles Times. “You have these predators who prey on these individuals.”
Sharon said her daughter’s life started to spiral out of control last summer, when she was hospitalized with a kidney infection. As a result of the stay, Sharon says that Satara, whose stage name is Satara Silver, lost her job and apartment. As she was trying to get back on her feet, Sharon said an acquaintance started to harass her and push her into drugs.
According to the Los Angeles Times, Satara met Constantinescu while making a film last year. Sharon says both Constantinescu and the other acquaintance pushed drugs onto her daughter at the hospital and again after she entered rehab.
While Satara has not contacted friends or family recently, according to LA Weekly she has been seen in Hollywood. “She’s been spotted occasionally, but we always get the information kind of late,” Sasso told LA Weekly.
Sharon said the only recent contact from her daughter was an email that was sent to her boyfriend. Although Sharon said that it did not sound like her daughter’s “voice,” the email asked for help and said that there was a hit man in Tennessee, where Sharon currently lives.
“It’s a nightmare,” said Sharon. “People say it sounds like a movie plot, but it’s my daughter. It’s real.”
Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact the Los Angeles Missing Persons Department at (213) 996-1800.
Copyright 2012 ABC News Radio