A 14-year-old teenager from New York who had been missing for nearly a month was found safe aboard a large boat docked on Long Island. Emmarae Gervasi was located on Friday afternoon by her father, who found her on the boat near Main Street in Islip, close to a local fish market after receiving an anonymous tip that helped him track down her location.
Gervasi, from East Patchogue in Suffolk County, had been missing since December 9. The marina where she was found is 13 miles west of Patchogue. Gervasi's father took to Facebook on Saturday to thank the tipsters and cops that helped him in finding his missing daughter.
Found at Last
"I did find her myself before police got there. 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 said to News 12.
Emmarae is currently recovering in the hospital, and the case is still under active investigation.
Her family had been deeply distressed by her sudden disappearance when she went outside her home on Tyrrell Street to retrieve some items from a Jeep. She was later seen getting into a dark-colored vehicle without wearing a coat or shoes.
Security footage showed her knocking on doors at a Bohemia motel the following day, but she vanished once more shortly after.
In the weeks since, Gervasi's father said that he had been following various leads and working closely with the Suffolk County Police Department.
Friends, family, and local community members came together to form search groups in an effort to locate Gervasi. A search was also carried out in upstate New York with the help of police cadaver dogs and helicopters, but fortunately, no body was found.
Gervasi himself made appeals on social media for information and personally followed up on leads regarding his daughter's whereabouts, driving around Long Island.
Family Happy to Find Back Daughter
In a video shared on Facebook Saturday morning, Gervasi expressed his gratitude to everyone who assisted in the search for his daughter. "She is home. She is in a facility and getting the help she needs and is safe,' he said sounding relieved.
"I'd like to thank the community for all the support you gave us. Posting all the videos, pushing all the content, Handing out flyers, donating your time to look for my missing girl. It is those things that are going to help bring other kids home," Gervasi said before explaining how he found her.
"I got an anonymous tip yesterday, and I want to thank that person for coming forward and giving me information about my daughter. The phone call that I received was that she was on a boat in Islip. I followed it up on my own and I went down there to check," he explained.
"I bust into the boat and recovered my daughter. She has been saved and is alive. I believe it was persistency that helped bring her home," Gervasi said.
