A frantic hunt is underway for a missing Australian actress and singer in the United States, whose last known encounter was an online-arranged blind date.
Laura McCulloch, 37, was last seen at a Japanese restaurant in Los Angeles on Friday, August 12; she was scheduled to meet someone for a ‘Bumble or Tinder’-arranged date.
The ‘bubbly and vivacious’ Victorian woman has not been seen since, has skipped work, yoga class, and other ‘commitments’ on a regular basis, and has even erased her dating accounts.
Her relatives and friends are urgently undertaking their own search for her, alleging that Los Angeles police did not consider her to be missing as of Tuesday night.
‘We have had nothing but pushback and dismissal from the police,’ her sister Clare McCulloch claimed in a social media post.
Frustrated at the lack of help from LA police the family has started a GoFundMe page to help pay for a private detective, organised by her cousin Merrie McCulloch.
‘Unfortunately, efforts to involve authorities including local law enforcement and the Australian Embassy have also been of no use, and so we turn to our community for support,’ Merrie McCulloch wrote.
‘As time is crucial in all missing persons cases, a private investigator has been hired to assist us to swiftly piece together the puzzle of Laura’s whereabouts.’
She said Laura’s behaviour in missing work and her normal routines was ‘very out of character’.
Ms. McCulloch’s friends launched a social media campaign with a series of missing person posters with her image and last known whereabouts.
According to one post, she was last heard from before to a Bumble or Tinder meet-up.
Before the date, she reportedly wore a blue shirt, red skirt, and tan shoes.
The family also claims that the restaurant in Santa Monica where she had agreed to meet her date refused to share surveillance video without a court order.
It was the Gyu-Kaku Japanese barbecue restaurant at 231 Arizona Avenue, Santa Monica (3rd St Promenade).
Her worried sister Clare McCulloch shared their posts, adding: ‘If you are in L.A or you know anyone in L.A please share this far and wide across all of your networks!’
‘Please, please, please help us find my sister!’
Late on Tuesday night she posted ‘Keep praying those great big f***ing prayers for the safe return of my sister.’
She also claimed her sister’s dating profile has been deleted and her messages cannot be retrieved, 9News reported.
Clare McCulloch said she is ‘absolutely beside myself’ as her sister is not answering her phone.
‘It’s a total nightmare, it’s so hard to not think the absolute worst.’
According to a California Department of Justice website ‘there is no waiting period’ for someone to be formally considered missing.
‘All California police and sheriffs’ departments must accept any report, including a report by telephone, of a missing person, including runaways, without delay and will give priority to the handling of the report,’ the website says.
Laura McCulloch moved to LA after being based in New York in 2021 where she worked as an actor, singer, voice-over artist, writer and producer.
In 2022, her only cinematic credit is the independent short film Covid Support Group, directed by American director Abigail Bogle.
In March 2021, she portrayed Madame Le Farge in an American theatrical adaptation of A Tale of Two Cities at South Carolina’s Bob Jones University.
She has also held the position of a nanny between roles.
In 2009, she had a supporting part in the cinematic adaptation of the legendary ballet The Nutcracker. In 2010, she starred in the Australian short film The Black Sheep.