January 21, 2025
Fourteen-year-old EmmaRae Gervasi went missing from Suffolk County, N.Y, on December 8, 2024.
According to Suffolk County Police, she was last seen on December 9, 2024, at approximately 5 p.m. in East Patchogue.
The teenager’s father, Frank Gervasi, said Emmarae went outside that night and did not come back.
He believed that she intended to go outside for a brief period of time, possibly with the intention of retrieving something from the driveway but failed to return. She went out with shoes or a coat. She did not have her cellphone.
In an interview with Dr. Phil, Frank said EmmaRae had been talking to an older man online, and that a surveillance camera captured the moment the teenager got into a vehicle that pulled up outside the home.
He believes his daughter was coaxed into going with the individual, although, at the time of writing, police have yet to update on the case.
"This is definitely somebody that she met online. I know that she had been chatting with him prior to this disappearance multiple times through Snapchat and things like that. So, it was definitely someone she had been talking to online,” he said; adding “the person was definitely older. In his late thirties if I'm not mistaken."
Frank said he searched for his daughter day and night from the moment he knew she was missing. He drove around the streets, he said, asking if anyone had seen her.
According to Frank, the following day, surveillance videos from a motel in Bohemia captured EmmaRae, who appeared to be under the influence, stumbling around knocking on different doors before walking off camera.
Her father believes she had been given drugs at this point.
Volunteers and law enforcement were doing all they could to find his daughter, however, Frank felt time was of the essence, and more could be done.
He offered a $15,000 reward for her return.
Several days after EmmaRae had disappeared, Frank received a phone call during the early hours of the morning. When he answered it, he heard his daughter say, "I love you." Frank expressed that he had received multiple calls from online trolls pretending to be his daughter. He added that many of the tips called into police lead nowhere, and were often time consuming to follow up on, making it difficult to decide which tips should be followed up and which should be discarded.
On his social media account, Frank was criticised by some users who questioned his parenting, and EmmaRae’s struggles.
EmmaRae, who according to her father is in recovery, has a history of running away, as well as struggles with substance abuse.
He warned that he has not, at the time of writing, set up any GoFundMe page for his daughter, and said people should not donate to any GoFundMe pages pertaining to EmmaRae’s case.
Others social media users expressed the joy they felt that he had found his daughter after 26 days, an uncommon ending in cases of missing children who aren’t found after 72 hours.
Around January 3, 2025, Frank said he received a tip from a woman who remains unidentified in the media.
She said she had seen a girl on a boat docked at the White Cap Marina, near a fish market in Islip. The woman’s detailed description of EmmaRae, including her tattoos, convinced Frank it was a genuine sighting.
In an interview Frank said he believed the woman had some kind of connection to those involved in EmmaRae’s abduction, and that she appeared to fear the victims captors, telling him to enter the boat at his own risk.
Frank Gervasi described kicking in the door of the boat and finding EmmaRae inside, 26 days after her initial disappearance.
Frank later told News12:
"The joy that comes over you when you find your child is a feeling that only a parent that has gone through this can understand."
"To see her alive in my arms...it was a gift from God."
A 64-year-old man named in the media as Francis Buckheit, was recently arrested in connection with the teenager’s disappearance, on kidnapping and endangering the welfare of a child, reports News 12 Long Island.
Media outlets report that Buckheit: "had slurred speech and had a blood alcohol content of .12 when given a Breathalyzer."
According to News 12, Court documents detail that Buckheit allegedly planned to take EmmaRae to the Carolinas via sea. Buckheit has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Frank said in an interview that he believes there is more than one person involved. He believes his daughter is a victim of sex trafficking, and that she was abused by at least one of her alleged captors through the period she was missing.
In a short interview with News12 he talked about what happened after EmmaRae left the house that night:
“It didn't work out too well for her, I think she was afraid to come back home because of the consequences and things like that, and somehow got picked up by some random guy, I don't want to mention names, (she) ended up in a trailer park and ended up on this boat."
Suffolk County police removed the boat from the dock and impounded it as evidence.
Court documents state that the defense has said: "There is absolutely no evidence in this record that she was held against her will.”
"He's emotional, he's upset, he maintains his innocence," said Buckheit's court appointed attorney, Danielle Papa, "there's a lot more to the story than what's been presented in the papers at this time which we're in the process of investigating. I have an investigator working on this case with me."
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