Daylight abduction

A woman was abducted from the Safeway parking lot on Mangrove Avenue Tuesday (July 1) and found shortly thereafter with little memory of the incident.

Around 9 a.m., the Chico Police Department received a report of a woman who had told her family she was done shopping at Safeway. But she never arrived home, according to a police press release. Detectives found the woman walking down West First Avenue, and she recounted being approached from behind while she loaded groceries in her vehicle and having something placed over her face. She remembered walking in a wooded area and ultimately arriving downtown, but nothing else.

Investigators believe she was drugged and taken to Bidwell Park—she had “minor injuries consistent with moving through a wooded area,” said Sgt. Matt Madden—but sexual assault has been ruled out as a motive.

Bizarrely, no solid leads have emerged, Madden said, despite the likelihood of witnesses. “That parking lot was full,” he said. “We would assume somebody would have seen something.”