"Real Housewives of D.C." star Michaele Salahi hit the road with Journey guitarist Neal Schon and was not kidnapped as her husband suspected, according to a representative with Schon's management company.
She told a sheriff's deputy late Tuesday that she was "with a good friend and was where she wanted to be," Warren County, Virginia, Sheriff Danny McEathron said in a statement to CNN Wednesday afternoon.
The reality show personality traveled to Memphis on Tuesday, where Journey was performing, to be with Schon, the representative with Scoop Marketing confirmed to CNN Wednesday afternoon.
Tareq Salahi, speaking through his manager on Wednesday morning, told CNN his wife had been missing since Tuesday morning and may have been kidnapped.
"It is our belief as of last night Michaele Salahi may have been kidnapped or abducted and is being held under duress and forced to tell persons, including authorities, she is OK," manager Gina Rodriguez said.
McEathron said Tareq Salahi's suspicion that his wife's phone conversation with a deputy late Tuesday, minutes after he reported her missing, was not proof she was safe.
"She seemed calm, was engaged in conversation, and assured the deputy that she had left the residence with a good friend and was where she wanted to be," McEathron said. "Mrs. Salahi advised that she did not want Mr. Salahi to know where she was."
The deputy, who was familiar with her voice from previous conversations, positively identified the caller as Michaele Salahi, the sheriff said.
He said investigators were trying "to make additional contact with Mrs. Salahi to assure her well-being."
The FBI also is investigating, an FBI spokeswoman said.
"We have been notified and aware of the situation and are working with the Warren County Sheriff's Office," FBI spokeswoman Dee Rybiski said Wednesday afternoon.
FBI agents visited Tareq Salahi Wednesday afternoon to interview him, a law enforcement official told CNN.
The couple initially gained notoriety as White House party crashers when they were photographed with President Barack Obama at a state dinner in 2009 even though they were not on the official guest list.
Salahi said he last saw his wife at 11 a.m. at their northern Virginia home as she was leaving for a hairstylist appointment and a dance class. She did not keep either appointment, Rodriguez said.
Michaele Salahi called her husband at 7 p.m., using a cell phone with an unfamiliar Oregon number, and told him she was going to her mother's house, Rodriguez said. Her mother later told him she was unaware of her plan to visit and that she never arrived, she said.
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