Australian woman reported missing was arrested for biting a police officer in the US
- Laura McCulloch was reported missing after going on a online date. Her family even went as far as launching a GoFundMe to help finance the search
- But it turned out she had been arrested on suspicion of public intoxication and resisting arrest after allegedly biting an officer in Los Angeles
The 37-year-old was booked on Friday night on suspicion of public intoxication and resisting arrest after she allegedly bit a police officer who had been called to a restaurant in Santa Monica, Los Angeles in response to an altercation, Santa Monica Police Lieutenant Rudy Flores said on Tuesday in a statement to The New York Times.
McCulloch appeared at the Airport Courthouse on Tuesday and was charged with a felony, according to online court records. Bail was set at US$25,000.
At around 8:30pm on Friday, Santa Monica Police were dispatched to a restaurant on the 200 block of Arizona Avenue for a report of a battery, Flores said. They were told that McCulloch allegedly threw a drink at a restaurant patron and their 2-year-old child.
McCulloch showed “obvious signs of intoxication”, later “charged at the officers while yelling expletives” and continued to act aggressively while officers tried to calm her.
“During efforts to detain her, she became physically combative, kicked at officers and bit one officer on the shoulder,” Flores said.
Before that, McCulloch’s friends and family were desperately searching for her after she reportedly went missing and they went as far as sharing missing-persons posts on social media and launching a GoFundMe to help finance the search. This was after the Los Angeles Police Department had declined to begin a search for the woman, the family said.