California woman who vanished eight years ago reappears to ask police to take her off missing persons list

Lisa Hu is thought to have been estranged from her mother and the pair have since reunited

The missing woman was last seen in December 2015 and it’s now been confirmed she has been safely located (Oakland Police Department)

A Californian woman who vanished nearly eight years ago has reappeared and asked police to take her off their missing persons list.

Lisa Hu was reported missing to Oakland Police Department in December 2015 after she was last seen in the 900 block of 34th Street.

However, on Sunday Ms Hu was taken off Oakland Police Department’s missing persons list at her request, telling officials she was never missing.

It has been widely reported that Ms Hu was estranged from her mother when she disappeared, but the pair have now reunited.

Oakland Police Department has provided no information about Ms Hu’s whereabouts during the time she was missing, other than to say she’s been found and is safe.

“Thanks to our community and media partners, Lisa Hu is no longer a #Missing Person. She has been safely located,” an online statement said.

This case is the latest in a series of missing persons who have mysteriously reappeared.

In July missing Arizona teen Alicia Navarro reappeared and told police nobody had hurt her in the four years since she’d been gone.

Meanwhile, Houston man Rudy Farias apparently vanished in 2015, before turning up in June this year, with stories soon circulating that the missing persons report his mother filed was a scam all along.

In another fraudulent missing persons case, Alabama woman Carlee Russell faces misdemeanour charges after confessing to faking her own disappearance in July with an elaborate abduction story in which she claimed she’d been kidnapped after stopping to help a toddler and had managed to escape.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System estimates around 600,000 people go missing per year in the US, and while many can be found safe and well some do remain missing indefinitely.

Recent well-publicised cases include the disappearance of Katy Perry songwriter Camela Leierth-Segura, who wasn’t reported missing to police until six weeks after she was last seen.