Reporter Goes Missing After Texting Roommate about Suspicious Man Following Her
Texas A&M sports reporter Courtney Roland, 29, was covering an elite football camp in The Heights area of Houston on Saturday, Jan. 6.
Later that night, Roland went to a Walgreens. She soon noticed a suspicious man following her around the store.
Worried, she texted her roommate Autumn Vara to alert her that something wasn’t right.
The man then followed Roland home in a blue truck and parked behind her, but sped off when she got out of her car.
Vara said she and Roland were supposed to meet up that night, but Roland failed to show.
The next day, Roland’s mother received a strange text message from her daughter’s phone that read, “hello the owner of this phone Courtney. I am buying an iPad.”
According to Vara, Roland had recently been extremely alert because her car had been broken into six weeks before.
Police discovered Roland’s car with her phone inside early Monday morning in a mall parking lot. Her purse was later found in a nearby store.
Throughout the search, many people took to social media using the hashtag #HelpFindCourtney to spread the word.
Then, a passerby noticed a woman walking under a highway overpass around 8:15 a.m. on Monday and called the police.
Shortly after a mall Chick-Fil-A opened at 6 a.m., a customer saw the same woman walk into the restaurant: it was Roland. They immediately called the police.
Latest: After seeing Ms. Roland’s case in the news this morning, a passerby called us about 8:15am, stating Ms. Roland was under an overpass at the 610 West Loop at Richmond. Our officers arrived, confirmed it was her and arranged she be checked at an area hospital. #HouNews https://t.co/U6xieTLY0U
— Houston Police (@houstonpolice) January 8, 2018
“She appears unharmed,” the police department tweeted that morning. “She’ll be taken to an area hospital for an evaluation.”
“Courtney has been found by police and about to be reunited with her family,” Vara wrote in a Facebook post.
“Thank you everyone for your thoughts and prayers. Please respect the family during this emotional time.”
In a Monday afternoon press conference, police revealed that a reaction to medication she was taking may have made Roland confused. Details are still coming in.
No matter what the causes or circumstances surrounding her mysterious disappearance and reappearance, Roland’s family is overwhelmed with the support and grateful to God and everyone who helped to bring their daughter home safely.
“We have strong faith in God and he’s in control,” her dad Steve Roland said. Further details on Roland’s disappearence have yet to be revealed, but she is recovering and has been taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation.
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