Police Ponder Calls to Talk Show, Home of Missing Woman : Investigation: Radio contact is believed a hoax, but mother of Fullerton College student is uncertain about the other.

The search for a 20-year-old Placentia woman who disappeared a week ago took a bizarre turn Tuesday as police investigated phone calls made to her home and to a radio station by someone claiming to be the missing Fullerton College student.

Detectives believe the call to an Iranian talk-radio program Monday night was a hoax. But they acknowledged that Mahtab Ghalandar might have telephoned her mother earlier that evening to say she was being prevented from coming home.

“I sure would like to decide that it was her,” said Detective Corinne Loomis, adding that investigators have no clues concerning Ghalandar’s whereabouts since she vanished from a bus stop across from Fullerton College on Sept. 6.

Police suspect foul play in the disappearance but doubt that Ghalandar was abducted by force from the busy bus stop on Chapman Avenue, Loomis said.

Rather, detectives think Ghalandar was approached by an acquaintance who gave her a ride, Loomis said. However, there are no suspects in the case.

“If you go look at that area in the afternoons, it’s just swarming with people,” Loomis said of the bus stop where Ghalandar was last seen by a classmate about 2:15 p.m. “There are people everywhere. . . . I don’t think she could have been taken by force.”

Ghalandar and her family moved to Placentia a year ago from Iran. Though she speaks little English, Ghalandar made friends at Fullerton College as well as in the county’s Iranian community, Loomis said.

The two telephone calls were among the few leads investigators had in the disappearance.

The first call was placed Monday about 5:30 p.m. to the Placentia apartment that Ghalandar shares with her parents and 12-year-old sister, Loomis said.

When Ghalandar’s mother answered the phone, the caller said “Mom?” according to Loomis. The mother excitedly responded “Mahtab?” prompting the 12-year-old sister to cry hysterically, Loomis said.

As Ghalandar’s mother tried to calm her younger daughter, the caller said that she was “OK” but that “they” would not allow her to come home, Loomis said. Without further elaboration, the caller hung up.

In all the commotion, Ghalandar’s mother told police through an interpreter that she was only 50% sure that the voice on the phone was that of her daughter, Loomis said.

The second call was made about three hours later to an Iranian radio station based in Los Angeles County.

The female caller told a talk radio audience that she ran away from home because her parents were too strict, Loomis said. The caller said she planned to stay away for about a week. At first, the caller was reluctant to give her name. But she eventually identified herself as Ghalandar, Loomis said.

The caller refused to say where she was calling from when asked by the radio interviewer, she added.

Police on Monday night played a recording of the interview to family members, who all agreed that the voice was not that of Ghalandar, Loomis said.

Police said they doubt Ghalandar ran away from home, noting that she had plans with her sister the afternoon she vanished and had scheduled an outing with a friend for the next day.

“It’s dead in the water,” Loomis said of the radio station call.

Ghalandar’s family and friends, along with Placentia police, have posted more than 200 flyers around the Fullerton College area. Ghalandar is 5 feet, 5 inches tall, weighs 140 pounds and has dark brown hair and brown eyes. She was last seen wearing at oatmeal-colored shirt with flowers on it and a gold chain with Arabic letters.

Police urge anyone with information in the case to call them at (714) 993-8164.