'We Just Want Her Home Safe': Long Island Family Of Missing 14-Year-Old
LONG ISLAND, NY — Fourteen-year-old Emma Gervasi was looking forward to spending time with her family this holiday season.
She had a great day Monday, spending time at her stepmother’s job, and then visiting her dad at his office. In a conversation before dinner, she asked him what the family would be having once he got home, then told him that she loved him.
Five minutes later, she told her stepmother that she had to get something from the family’s truck parked outside.
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Gervasi went out into the night in just a T-shirt and no coat, and possibly no shoes, never to return.
She can be seen on security video leaving the home.
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“An unknown car, it looks like, pulled up and she was gone,” said family friend Stephanie Biondi.
It’s unclear whether Gervasi got into the car willingly or against her will because the video is so grainy due to the rain.
“We’ve asked every single neighbor for their camera footage, as well as large companies that are in the neighborhood, the school, and they show the car coming down the block,” she said.
So far, no one has been able to get the license plate number.
Gervasi did not have a cell phone or a social media account, and the family has been trying to figure out how she could have been in contact with anyone who she might have left with.
Gervasi has not been seen since around 5 p.m. on Monday on Terrell Street in Patchogue, police said.
She was last seen wearing a black T-shirt and black leggings, a post on the center’s website said.
In a Facebook post, her father, Frank Gervasi, said she has brown hair and eyes, stands 5 feet, 4 inches tall, and weighs about 140 lbs.
Her profile has since been placed on the website for the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The Suffolk County Police Department’s 5th Squad of detectives in Patchogue are investigating her disappearance, a spokesperson said Tuesday.
A police spokesman said Gervasi’s profile was added to the center’s site as a matter of routine.
It is not clear why the department did not send out an alert of its own, as is the case for missing children and vulnerable adults.
Gervasi had been working through trauma the past four months, according to Biondi.
She spent much of her time at a horse ranch, healing through her interaction with the horses.
In her conversations with Biondi, nothing leads her to believe that the event was planned.
It seems bizarre to her.
“We just want her home safe. Nobody cares about the situation of why or anything else. We just want her home safe,” she said, adding that her family will “figure it out” when she gets home.
“Unfortunately, it’s a sad, sad situation right now,” she said.
Anyone with information about Gervasi’s whereabouts can contact Suffolk’s Crime Stoppers at 1-800-220-TIPS, a confidential police hotline.
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