A New York teenager who had been missing for almost a month was found safe and sound aboard a large ship docked in Long Island.
Emmarae Gervasi, 14, was located Friday afternoon by her own father aboard a large boat off Main Street in Islip, near a local fish market, after she received an anonymous call giving clues about his whereabouts.
Gervasi, of East Patchogue in Suffolk County, had been missing since December 9. The marina where she was found is 13 miles west of Patchogue.
—I found her myself before the police arrived. It was the end of 26 days of hell seeing her alive in my arms. It was a gift from God. “I can’t describe the feeling I had when I grabbed her,” said Frank Gervasi, Emmarae’s father. News 12.
Emmarae is now recovering in hospital and the case remains under active investigation.
Her family had been very worried after her sudden disappearance when she went missing retrieving some items from a Jeep outside her home on Tyrrell Street.
She was then seen getting into a dark-colored vehicle without a coat or shoes.
Security cameras caught her knocking on doors at a Bohemia motel the next day, but she then disappeared once again.
Over the past few weeks, Gervasi said he had been following some leads and working closely with the Suffolk County Police Department.
Emmarae Gervasi, 14, disappeared without a trace on December 9 from her home in East Patchogue on Long Island. She was found Friday on a boat in Islip, Long Island.
In a video posted to Facebook Saturday morning Frank Gervasi, Emmarae’s father thanked everyone who helped in the search for his little girl.
Emmarae had been missing since December 9 and disappeared without wearing a coat or shoes
Friends and family, along with community members, formed search parties to look for Gervasi.
A search was also conducted in upstate New York using police dogs and helicopters, but fortunately no body was found.
Gervasi himself asked for news on social media and searched for clues about his daughter’s appearance while driving around Long Island.
In a video posted to Facebook Saturday morning, Gervasi thanked everyone who helped in the search for her little girl.
‘She is at home. “He’s in a center, he’s getting the help he needs and he’s safe,” he said in a relieved tone.
‘I would like to thank the community for all the support they gave us. Publish all the videos, promote all the content, hand out flyers, donate your time to search for my missing girl. “It’s those things that will help other kids come home,” Gervasi said before explaining how he found her.
‘I received an anonymous tip yesterday and I want to thank that person for reaching out and providing me with information about my daughter. The phone call I got was that she was on a boat in Islip. I followed it on my own and went down to check it out,” he explained.
‘I got into the boat and got my daughter back. She has been saved and is alive. “I think it was perseverance that helped her get home,” Gervasi said.
Speaking with News 12 on Saturday, Gervasi said he believes Emmarae left with someone she knew but then was afraid to come home “because of the consequences.”
She also believes she was picked up by a random man who took over her trailer park before being taken to the boat where she was being held.
Emmarae’s mother, Melissa Dervay, said a “weight was lifted off my shoulders” when the intense search ended.
“The moment I heard his voice and knew he was okay, I felt like a weight was lifted off my shoulders,” Dervay said. Great Long Island.
‘I have been very tense for the last four weeks, fighting a silent battle. Now I’m elated. I feel light and I just want to shout, ‘She’s okay.’ They have found her.”
Emmarae with her father Frank Gervasi and stepmother Alyson
Dad, Frank, believes a random man picked up Emmarae and took over her trailer park before moving her to the boat where she was held and later found.
Emmarae is seen being held by her father, Frank, in a photo from when she was younger.
Since her daughter disappeared, Gervasi has received strange phone calls.
One of the calls came early one morning from an unknown number. The voice on the other end of the phone sounded like that of his missing daughter.
“She said ‘I love you’ and I said ‘Emma?'” he explained, but the line quickly went dead and he couldn’t trace the number.
Gervasi even offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could help him bring his daughter home.
He Gabby Petito Foundationrun by Petito’s parents, whose daughter Gabby disappeared on a cross-country trip with her boyfriend, who then killed her and himself, also ran an ad to help the family.