Missing Woman Found

By Lookout News

January 4, 2010 -- A British teenager who was "missing" since December 18 was spotted safe and sound in Venice on New Year's Eve.

Leona Perryman, 19, was located by police in the area of 30th Street and Ocean Front Walk after a tipster observed a women matching her description. Police identified Perryman from her passport.

While police were on the scene, the department received a call from Dorset Police in England saying Perryman had contacted her mother.

"Perryman had advised her mother she was in Venice and alright," said Sgt. Jay Trisler, the Police Department spokesman.

Perryman told police she had left the Santa Monica motel where she was staying with her boyfriend, Paul Alfred Atkinson, at around midnight on December 18 and went to Venice.

"Perryman had been staying in the Venice area the entire time with an acquaintance," Trisler said. "Perryman did not know the police department was looking for her until she talked with her mother."

Perryman was taken to a local hospital as a precautionary measure, he said.

Peryman was reported missing by Atkinson, who arrived in the U.S. with her on vacation on October 13.

After his girfriend's disappearance, Atkinson was sought by police, who described him "as a person of interest."

He was spotted by a tipster in a restaurant in Venice and arrested in an unrelated charge for possessing a knife. Atkinson, whose bail was set at $20,000, was scheduled to appear in court on Monday.

There is no evidence of foul play, Trisler said.

Perryman and Atkinson are in the U.S. on a 90-day tourist visa and planned to return to Britain on January 7, Trisler said.