UPDATE: RI Native Missing in California Found Safe

Dianne Thacher returned to her dorm room at Sierra Nevada College this afternoon unaware that there was a major search underway in Santa Barbara County, California, and that her family had flown across the country fearing the worst.

Detectives were trying to locate the 23-year-old Rhode Island native after her family reported she had not been heard from in more than a week. Her car was found abandoned with a flat tire three-and-a-half miles from a hotel she had checked out in the city of Goleta right near Santa Barbara Airport on Oct. 6 after visiting friends. Her social media accounts were silent. K-9 units and search and rescue teams on the ground and planes in the air scoured an area about 15 miles from where her car was found based on the final pings of her cell phone before its battery died.

Suddenly, on Tuesday evening, grim fears turned to incredible relief. Thacher came home and saw media coverage indicating she was missing and called the Santa Barbara Sheriff’s office herself.

In a statement, the sheriff’s office said that Thacher apparently met a male friend from Lompoc when she got the flat tire. Her battery died soon afterwards and “Thacher reportedly stayed with the male acquaintance for several days at various locations in Santa Barbara County. ”

“The Sheriff’s Office wants to thank the media’s assistance in its coverage of this missing person case with suspicious circumstances,” according to release. “The Sheriff’s Office takes every missing person case seriously and we are always pleased when there is a happy outcome and the person is located safely.”

Thee search for Thacher entered a second full day on Tuesday with search and rescue teams on the ground, search planes in the air and numerous unanswered questions for her increasingly worried friends and family.

Thacher, a 2010 graduate of The Prout School who grew up in South Kingstown, had not been heard from since Oct. 5.

Her family reported her missing on Sunday and the Santa Barbra Sheriff’s Office with help from the Washoe County Sherrif’s Office in Nevada immediately launched the investigation into Thacher’s whereabouts with several detectives assigned to the case.

“They are following up on leads and are in the process of gathering new information. At this point, no foul play is suspected but the case is considered suspicious,” the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s office said in an update on Tuesday afternoon.

Detectives combed through Thacher’s phone records, social media posts and interviewed friends and family in the hopes of determining the circumstances leading up to her disappearance.

Thacher had checked in to a motel in the 6000 block of Hollister Avenue in the city of Goleta right near Santa Barbara Airport and checked out on Oct. 6.

Police said her car, a 2000 Honda CRV with Rhode Island license plates, was located about three-and-a-half miles from the hotel with a flat tire and several parking tickets on the windshield.

Before Thacher was located, investigators were trying to get a more detailed analysis of her phone records to help pinpoint a more specific location where she might be found. An emergency ping placed it in an area 5 to 10 miles north of Goleta and south of Gaviota along the coast. The area is about 15 miles west of where her car was found and had been flown over by Santa Barbara County Air Support several times.

Before dusk on Monday night, search and rescue members along with a K-9 unit searched the area near where her car was located.

Family members, desperate to find Thacher, flew to California on Tuesday to join the search effort.

“We’re going out there to see what we can do. We’re feeling helpless sitting around back here, you know,” her brother, Henry Thacher, told WPRI.