Case of Vanished College Student Revealed as Hoax : Crime: 20-year-old Placentia woman feared kidnaped shows up at police station with boyfriend. He is charged. Father collapses.

A 20-year-old Placentia woman missing since Sept. 6 surfaced unharmed at the city’s police station Friday, prompting a chaotic, unhappy family reunion at which she announced plans to marry a boyfriend.

Mahtab Ghalandar’s father collapsed after being reunited with his daughter and was rushed to Placentia-Linda Community Hospital, where he was treated for an unspecified ailment and released.

Ghalandar, whose disappearance sparked a highly publicized search, told police that she spent the last 10 days in Anaheim and San Bernardino with relatives of boyfriend Ruben Torres, 23, who accompanied her to the police station Friday.

“I’ve been doing this for close to 11 years. I’ve seen a lot of amazing emotionally charged scenes. But this was close to the top,” Detective Corinne Loomis said of the dramatic end to the search for Ghalandar.

“It was really incredible,” she said. “It was not a happy reunion. . . . It was a really ugly scene.”

Ghalandar adamantly refused to return home to her parents and later admitted to police that she had telephoned her family as part of the attempt to make them believe she was being held against her will.

The day’s events began to unfold at 8:25 a.m., when Ghalandar and Torres, both students at Fullerton College, unexpectedly appeared at the police reception area and informed detectives that she was safe and had not been kidnaped.

“They were holding hands and acting like they were in love,” said Loomis, adding that investigators suspect the pair came forward out of fear that Ghalandar would be recognized because of the media attention the case has generated.

Ghalandar told police that she and Torres hatched a plot to help her run away from her parents in the Fullerton College cafeteria on the afternoon of her disappearance, Loomis said. Police believe Ghalandar wanted to leave her parents so she could spend more time with Torres.

Ghalandar’s family reported her missing after she failed to return home from classes Sept. 6. The family, who immigrated to the United States from Iran about a year ago, told police they feared for Ghalandar’s safety because she speaks little English.

Torres originally told detectives he dropped Ghalandar at a bus stop across from the college on Chapman Avenue on Sept. 6 after their English-as-a-second-language class ended at 2 p.m. Based on his information, detectives theorized that she had been abducted from there.

In reality, Loomis said, Ghalandar and Torres left the college together and had been living for the last 10 days with a succession of Torres’ relatives.

Police officers, friends, family members and Fullerton College classmates distributed more than 400 missing-person flyers over the last 10 days in an attempt to find Ghalandar.

Mahtab Ghalandar admitted to police Friday that she placed a call to her family’s apartment Tuesday to make them think that she had been kidnaped, Loomis said. During the phone call, which lasted only a few seconds, Ghalandar told her mother that she was in good health but was being prevented from coming home, Loomis said. She then abruptly hung up the phone.

Ghalandar told police she made the call from a pay phone in Fullerton to avoid having it traced, Loomis said.

“She seemed to be unconcerned about the fear this all brought to her family,” Loomis said. “It was my impression that she was unconcerned about the number of hours people spent looking for her.”

Torres was cited for suspicion of obstructing a police investigation, a misdemeanor charge. He was released after receiving an Oct. 17 court date.

“He lied to us from the beginning,” Loomis said. “We investigated this for 169 man-hours and spent $5,000 when a simple phone call and the truth would have sufficed.”

Ghalandar and Torres told detectives Friday that they planned to get married today Ghalandar refused to go home to her parents, so police told family members to come to the station, Loomis said.

When they arrived, “she changed her story completely,” Loomis said. “She said she was abducted. She had time to think about her story and tried to get sympathy” from the family.

Eventually, Ghalandar admitted to her mother and father, that she had run away, but refused to go home, Loomis said. As she was about to leave with Torres, her father, Mohammed Ghalandar, collapsed in the police station, she said.

“He looked ashen. His eyes were semi-closed and he was very still,” Loomis said. “ He looked like he was in distress.”

Paramedics rushed to Mohammed Ghalandar’s aid. When an ambulance arrived, Ghalandar rode with her father to the hospital, where he was treated and released. A hospital spokeswoman refused to discuss the nature of his illness or say what kind of treatment he received.

But Pam Nikmanesh, Ghalandar’s cousin, said the stress of the reunion caused the father’s blood pressure to skyrocket.

“He’s fine now. He’s back home resting,” Nikmanesh said. “He didn’t have a heart attack. He’s doing great now. The family is trying to put it all behind them.”

Nikmanesh said that Mahtab Ghalandar is back home with her parents. Nikmanesh was not sure whether her cousin planned to follow through with her marriage plans.

Despite the case’s bizarre end, both police and Fullerton College officials expressed relief that Ghalandar was found safe.

“It makes us feel good. There were a lot of anxious moments,” said Fullerton College spokesman Al Busch. “We’re glad . . . it’s over.”

“We are always happy when the situation ends where she is safe and well,” Loomis said.