Young lady feared to be under control of sex offender

Growing up in Tennessee, where her mother worked as a university professor, Satara Stratton had dreamed of escaping to Hollywood to become a movie star.

But just eight months after the 24-year-old made the leap to pursue that dream, she has been reported missing and is believed to have become swept up in the city's seedy underworld, according to the Daily Mail Wednesday.

Her mother Sharon Stratton, who has not heard from her daughter since November, believes she is addicted to heroin and under the influence of a registered sex offender, the report said.

Satara, whose stage name is Satara Silver, left home in June 2011 for the West Coast, where she enjoyed early success in a handful of films, including a horror flick called Cult Movie.

Determined to make a success of her new life, the petite blonde also began taking classes and started a job at the Disney Store on Santa Monica Boulevard.

But it was short lived, as she was robbed outside a bank and hospitalized, causing her to miss a semester of school, her mother told the Los Angeles Times.

She added that her daughter's troubles worsened when a fellow employee began extorting money from her and harassing her.

While making a film, Satara met 46-year-old registered sex offender Paul Constantinescu, who runs a rubber stamp company on Santa Monica Boulevard, according to the LA Times.

Police have arrested her on several occasions, with her mugshots documenting how her life appears to be spiralling out of control. Arrests have included possession of narcotics in a hospital, the report said.

Los Angeles police are now looking for Stratton, as well as Constantinescu, with whom she is friends on Facebook. Investigators have visited Constantinescu's address, but he was not there, it said.