Fullerton Bank Teller Feared Kidnapped Returns Home Safe

A Fullerton bank teller police feared might have been kidnapped last week by an angry ex-boyfriend turned up unharmed Saturday afternoon, nearly 48 hours after she went missing, police said.

“She had her child, she was with her estranged boyfriend, they are fine and they are home now,” said Fullerton Police Sgt. Robert Bastreri.

He said the woman, Loraine Marquez, 28, told investigators she had not been held against her will, but the investigation is continuing.

According to police, Marquez left her job at the Bank of America at Brookhurst Road and Orangethorpe Avenue for her regular lunch break Thursday, but she failed to return. She later used a cell phone to call the branch manager from the bank parking lot, complaining that her ex-boyfriend refused to let her out of the car.

Marquez called the bank again at 5:30 p.m. Thursday to transfer money from her savings account to her checking account, and later called a relative from a phone booth in Oceanside to ask what documentation was needed to go to Guadalajara, Mexico.

Bastreri said the woman and her child surfaced about noon Saturday.