Missing Mom, Child Turn Up Safely

A 29-year-old Ventura woman and her 5-year-old daughter returned home Thursday morning after being reported missing earlier this week.

Kim Alain Barrios-Bauer and her daughter, Alaina, were not in danger, as Barrios-Bauer’s mother had feared after they failed to return home from a beach trip Tuesday.

Instead, the mother and daughter had driven to Tulare, in Northern California. They stayed at a hotel and returned about 4 a.m. Thursday, said Ventura Police Sgt. George Morris.

Police had launched a search along area beaches and were contacting the missing woman’s friends and family. On Tuesday morning, Barrios-Bauer had told her mother, with whom she and Alaina are living, that she and the girl were going out for some exercise and would be back in the afternoon.

Morris said a police investigation revealed no one was hurt and no crimes were committed; there was simply miscommunication between Alaina’s mother and grandmother.

“I think the woman just wanted to get away for a while and didn’t tell her [mother],” Morris said. “When she got home she realized, ‘Holy cow, the whole world’s looking for me.’ ”