Family's Plea: 'Just Give Her Back to Us'
Police now say Brianna Denison, 19, was likely abducted as she slept Sunday.
Jan. 23, 2008 — -- Family and friends of a 19-year-old college student missing now for three days made a dramatic plea for her return after Reno authorities Tuesday called her disappearance a likely "abduction."
Brianna Denison, 19, was reported missing when a friend she was staying with after attending a party at a Reno casino awoke Sunday to find Denison missing and a small blood stain on the pillow she had been given to use.
"She wasn't there and I noticed the blood on the pillows, so I called the cops," friend K.T. Hunter said. "From there, this has just been a nightmare."
The blood stain, which is being analyzed in a crime lab, was not the only factor that caused alarm for authorities and family members of Denison, who is a native of Reno. Dension left the house without her shoes, cell phone or purse. Authorities believe she was barefoot, wearing only what she had worn to bed -- sweats and a white tank top.
"We are investigating this as an abduction," Steve Frady, a spokesman for the Reno Police Department, confirmed to ABC News Tuesday.
As officers and canines canvassed the area near the house today for any sign of Denison, the young woman's family posted a $100,000 reward in the case, according to the Reno Gazette-Journal, and the Secret Witness Program, an anonymous tip line taking information on her disappearance, offered another $2,500. The dogs searching the neighborhood failed to pick up a scent during Tuesday's searches, Frady said.
Tips, Frady said, continue to come to investigators. "We are continuing to talk to people," he said. "We are getting information, and we're continuing to follow those leads." Authorities announced today that they will now check in with more than 100 registered sex offenders who live within a mile of the house and make contact with more than 1,700 registered sex offenders in the county.
Denison's family and friends describe the missing woman as a college psychology major who is known for levelheadedness and selflessness. While they attempt to hold onto hope, they also admit that the circumstances make it difficult to do so. "If Brianna can see us, or the abductor, have a heart," Lauren Denison, Brianna's aunt, said. "Just give her back to us."
Authorities had been seeking an unnamed man in his 40s who they thought might have information about Denison's whereabouts, but now have ruled him out as a "person of interest."
The man became implicated in the abduction investigation after he dropped one of Denison's friends at the same house where the missing young woman had been staying. Many college-age women share the rental house near the University of Nevada.
The man picked up Denison's friend around 1 a.m. Sunday at the Sands Regency Hotel Casino after she could not hail a taxi. He dropped the young woman at the house roughly three hours before Denison and another friend returned from the same party.
"He came forward yesterday [Tuesday] and detectives were able to speak with him at length," Frady told ABC News. "We have eliminated him as having involvement in the case."
