By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-01-05 23:53:57 | Updated at 2025-01-08 01:24:47
2 days ago
The Long Island dad who described rescuing his teen from a boat after she disappeared for a month says he believes she was sex-trafficked — and “forced to do things that a 14-year-old girl shouldn’t have to do.”
Frank Gervasi’s daughter Emmarae vanished the night of Dec. 9 after reportedly getting into a strange car outside their Patchogue home, and the family said it was terrified someone had kidnapped her.
Her dad and Suffolk County cops then said Friday that she had been found on the boat in Islip — and in a Sunday Facebook video, Gervasi detailed what he thought might have happened to her.
“Emma was being held against her will,” the bearded, tatted-up dad said, adding that he’d read “a lot of dumb comments” that claimed the teen could have just left on her own.
“She was not allowed to leave the boat unless she was escorted by somebody, and she was being forced to do things that a 14-year-old girl shouldn’t have to do,” he continued.
“So I do believe this is sex-trafficking, and it’s being looked into.”
He said the young teen is doing well in her recovery after her month-long nightmare, which only ended when a woman called him with an anonymous tip that ultimately led him to the boat.
“The phone call I received was that she was on a boat in Islip,” he said, adding he was initially skeptical. “The lady who gave me the tip was afraid to go in the boat.”
But the desperate dad said he had no such fear, busting into Emma’s prison ship — moored in a marina near the White Cap Fish Market — to rescue her Friday.
No one else was on board at the time, Gervasi said. He added that he thought she’d been held by “some dangerous people” and that there was a lookout boat nearby to keep tabs on her.
“She is in a facility right now getting the help she needs and is safe,” Gervasi said in a Saturday social media video. “I’d like to thank the community for all of the support that you gave us.”
Emmarae was last seen leaving her house with a jacket or shoes and getting into the car, according to Greater Long Island.
Security cameras captured her knocking on doors at a Bohemia motel the next day, but she disappeared again.
Gervasi said his daughter initially went off with a man she met online, but left him and was later picked up by a “random” 65-year-old man she didn’t know.
Over the past month, Gervasi pleaded for help on social media and said he searched for leads on his own, driving around Long Island in what sometimes felt like a futile search.
“I was starting to lose hope,” he said at one point. “I woke up yesterday, and I wanted to give up. I wanted to die. I just didn’t know where my little girl was.”
Now, Gervasi said, he wants to help other New York families whose kids might have similarly disappeared.
“My nightmare is over. However other parents’ nightmares are still existing — and their children are still missing,” he said Sunday. “It’s an awful feeling, and it’s something that we’re going to be actively working on, trying to figure out how to help other families.
“Trafficking is a huge problem across the world,” he continued. “It’s a very big problem on Long Island, and I stress that parents should keep an eye on their children.
“These people are predators, and they will stop at nothing to get to your kids.”
