Crime Weekly - S3 Ep268: Crime Weekly News: Father Tracks Down and Saves Daughter!

Episode Date: January 22, 2025

14-year-old Emmarae Gervasi vanished from her East Patchogue, New York, home on December 9, 2024. After nearly a month of relentless searching, her father, Frank Gervasi, received an anonymous tip leading him to a boat docked in Islip, Long Island. There, he found Emmarae alive, ending a 26-day nightmare. Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod 

Bettering your business takes working with the best. With the James Hardy Alliance, you gain access to leads, training, networking, and support from the number one brand of siding in North America. Achieve new levels of success by joining the James Hardy Alliance today. Hey everyone, welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Levasseur. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And we're going to start off with something positive because as you can tell from the title of this episode, it's not a great piece of news, although there is, I guess I would call it, a better ending than we usually get. But before we get into that, as we all know, Valentine's Day is around the corner, and we wanted to do something special for Criminal Coffee.

So we've come out with a limited edition Valentine's Day Criminal Coffee hoodie. If you're not on YouTube right now and you're only listening on audio, it's basically a pink hoodie with red letters and the criminal coffee fingerprint, instead of it being a little thumbprint, it's actually been turned into a heart. So it's still a coffee bean thumbprint, but now in the shape of a heart. We promoted it on our social media and on our newsletter. So if you're not following us on social media or you're not subscribed to the free newsletter, you're only hearing about it now, but it's not too late. You can order the sweatshirt right now. It's a pre-order and every order that's placed before January 27th, we can guarantee you, you'll get it before Valentine's day.

We're going to continue it. You can still buy it, but if you order after January 27th, you may not get it before valentine's day we're still going to try but no guarantee but stephanie loves the sweatshirt i don't even care if i would get it after valentine's day i would wear this all year round like i was in uh rhode island i don't know like a week and a half ago two weeks ago i can't even tell at this point but when i was at the uh yeah when i was at the warehouse i saw the mock-ups and there were a couple other designs too. And I was like, oh my God, I want every single one of these.

I love these. They're adorable. There was one that said, you're so cute. It's criminal on the back, but we wouldn't get it in time. So if you guys want us to release that next year, let us know because I do. I was like, Derek, where's this one? Where's this one? He's like, oh, it wouldn't come out in time, blah, blah, blah.

And I'm like- Well, not in time for, yeah, for Valentine's Day. I want it so bad. So these are adorable. I love them. I'm not even a pink person. Like I'm really not. And I love these designs.

Some of my favorites so far. Yeah, we've already sold, just with the newsletter and social, just full disclosure, we've sold hundreds already. So it's going to be a lot. But again, if you order before the 27th, we will do our best. I pretty much, unless there's something that comes up, we'll have a tea before Valentine's day. After that, you'll still probably get it in February. We'll probably do it for the whole month of February and then we'll shut it down.

We have a lot of exclusive, like limited time merch that we're going to come out with. As Stephanie was saying, we have so many designs that you guys haven't seen yet for both criminal coffee and crime weekly. It's just a matter of the process, the logistics, all that stuff. So we got it coming. But yes, if you want the Valentine's day sweatshirt, you can go get it right now at criminal coffee co.com. Okay. Now for why we're here today, because again, this is a story that is not a good story. It's actually very scary as a parent with a little bit of a better ending than we normally get. But yet there's still a lesson to be learned here because we share this not because it's something that can be covered on Crime Weekly, but something that

every parent has to be aware of. So here's the overview. And it's a little clunky. A lot of details have not came out yet. We're going to learn a lot more about this story, but from what we're finding so far, there was a 14 year old girl that was essentially kidnapped after being drugged out of long Island. And the story is kind of like almost a movie taken. If you've seen that where essentially from what we know, this, this young girl who's been identified as MRA by her father, Frank Gervasi. She's had some ongoing problems and there's more to the story that Stephanie's going to get into, but basically she was with some unsavory characters. That's a direct quote from Frank and they drugged her, they abducted her and they took her to a boat and how this story all turned out. It's pretty

incredible that we're sitting here right now reporting that Emma Rae is still alive. That's the good news. But there's a lot more to get into. It's almost like a movie plot. Stephanie, what's the specifics? So Emma Rae Gervaisi, a 14-year-old from Long Island, she was reported missing on December 9th, 2024, after she was seen getting into a car outside her home without shoes or a jacket. According to her father, Frank, he said that she had stepped out of her house to get something from the driveway.

She was taken from there. He said, quote, I believe that she might have left willingly to get something out of a car and maybe got pulled in at that point, end quote. And Frank said that he believed she was being held against her will. And now after 26 days, on January 3rd, 2025, her father Frank received an anonymous tip that led him to a boat docked in Islip where he found Emma Ray. She was then taken into a hospital for evaluation

and in connection with her disappearance, two individuals so far have been arrested. There's no saying that there won't be more people arrested or more people implicated. But the two individuals who were arrested were Francis Buckheit, 65, of Islip. He was arrested and charged with rape, kidnapping, and acting in a manner injurious to a child. And then just recently, Bernice Knight, 47, was arrested and charged with rape in the second degree, endangering the welfare of a child and criminal sale of a controlled substance. Now, both suspects have pleaded not guilty to the charges because the audacity.

Yeah. The investigation is ongoing. Authorities are working to uncover the full details surrounding Emma Rae's disappearance and her subsequent discovery by her father. And like I said, this is where the taken aspect comes in because we all know the movie taken Liam Neeson. If you don't know it, you should definitely watch it. I think there's like three or 12. Yeah, there's three or 12 taken. Yes, definitely not. But the first taken is amazing. And I think every parent would want- I told you I would find you. That's the best line ever.

Yeah. Good luck. Yeah, that's it. And he hears it when he's in the... Oh, I don't want to go there. We're going to make this about taking a great part. So Frank, he spent weeks looking for his daughter. He was driving around night and day. He was offering a $15,000 reward for her return, as any parent would do. And then he received a tip on Friday from a woman who told him that there was a child on a boat in Islip. Frank followed it. And then he explained in a video on Saturday what happened kind of when he arrived and

everything that went down. Should we play that? Yeah, if you want to play it. A lot of confusion, a lot of dumb comments i'm reading that emma could have just left on her own will completely incorrect emma was being held against her will um 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 so i do believe this is sex trafficking and it's being looked into.

So can we just leave the stupid comments off the page that, you know, my daughter's a runaway and things like that. She may have left the house with a stupid thought. What happened to her in this really bad world we live in is what we're talking about here. Trafficking is a huge problem across the world. It's a very big problem on Long Island, and I stress that parents should keep an eye on their children, keep an eye on your little girls, even your boys, okay, because these people are predators,

and they will stop at nothing to get to your kids. Anytime a kid is being held against their will or forced to do things that they don't want to do, whether it's for addiction purposes or whatever it is, that's a form of sex trafficking. Okay? They get these girls, they get them hooked on drugs and they make them do stupid stuff for it. That's called sex trafficking. So it's being, you know, brought to the light and we're working closely with detectives on it. Yeah, this clip was it's troubling because there's obviously more to this story that we're going to find out about. Clearly, Emma Ray was wearing a bracelet, an ankle brace, a monitor.

And there was another clip where Frank kind of explained why that was. And I guess she was a runaway slash wayward child. And he filed a petition to put this ankle monitor on her. And that's why she had it on her. And he's very transparent. might've taken some drugs voluntarily. And then while on those drugs, this is when these other drugs were administered and they just completely knocked her out and made her incoherent, which is why she was able to be taken. But he goes on in this clip that you just saw basically saying, Hey guys, can we hold off on the comments? And you know, she did this and she's responsible for it. No hard stop. Not true. The 65 year old man who took her and held her on a boat and did things to her that she did not consent to. And she couldn't consent to at 14 years old, regardless, he's the bad guy here. In fact, just to kind of go on a little bit of a rant, and I don't know if it's changed since, but the only reason we know about Francis is because

Frank identified him. And then obviously the New York post and others were able to go cross reference it and see who was arrested on that date and time, their age, et cetera. And they're able to connect the dots. But when the last time I saw law enforcement had not released the suspect's identity.

Are you kidding me? I know. I'm glad he, I'm glad he said his name. I'm glad. Of course. Of course. Listen, everyone's innocent until proven guilty, but we want to know who this guy is because there's definitely some truth to it. At minimum, he's on the boat with this 14 year old girl at minimum. What are you doing? But I think there's a lot more to it. And again, obviously she went to the hospital. You can see from the charges that

law enforcement has filed that there was obviously some evidence to support that. So yeah, you know, this guy release his name, everyone else's name is out there. His name should be out there as well. And these are the things that just drive me insane as a former cop. Like, this is why people get pissed off. I it like i just don't get it what are we doing like everybody else's name goes out there for a weed offense or for you know driving without a license to get arrested on a warrant it's in the dispatch log the next day but we're not going to put this guy's name out there it's just ridiculous but i have my uh my qualms that's for sure the fact of the matter is it doesn't matter if she had a history of running away.

In fact, that just makes her more ripe to be a victim. Oh, and this person knew that. That's why they cut off the ankle monitor as soon as they got her. They knew it was up. So you have a history of running away. Not only does that make her a better victim for them because she might be considered just a runaway by police, which we've seen happen. Did they take it as serious? Probably not.

And secondly, there's a reason why she's running away, whether she's got issues, she's feeling lonely at home, she's talking about this on social media, she's making friends on social media, quote unquote friends on social media. Most children who are trafficked, they know the person who's doing it. There's a relationship

being built. It's not they're just walking down the road and then they're snatched. There's some sort of personal relationship that the bad guy puts time and effort into building and creating so that this person, the victim, feels safe enough to put themselves in a vulnerable position where they can then be snatched. The fact of the matter is this poor 14-year-old girl was trapped on a boat with this guy and who knows, honestly, how many others. We don't know the extent or the scope of this yet for almost an entire month. And what happened to her was hell. And it's going to take more than some medical care to make her whole again. Her

life is going to be drastically different after this. And anybody out there who's saying like, oh, she ran away or, oh, she knew this was going to happen. You can also go f**k yourselves because she's 14. Yeah, she can't make that decision. Clearly she's going through something, whether it's substance abuse or mental health issues. There's an epidemic of both amongst young people in this country right now. She's going through something. It made her a vulnerable target. But in no way ever in any scenario in any universe that exists could anybody with a brain and two brain cells to rub together to make a spark look at this and blame her in any way? And if you're doing that, you have issues.

Yeah, you're a part of the problem. Yeah. For sure. And there's so much more to it. This could have been a lot worse. You can go read the articles yourself. Yeah. They could have left in that boat and not come back.

Right. And from what Frank is saying, there's a whole crew of people involved and allegedly when she was first taken, she was brought to a hotel first and then transferred to the boat. And from what Frank is telling us, again, Frank is the only source right now. His daughter told him that she had overheard them saying they were going to take the boat, they were going to move it. And maybe there was a plan to even move her down south. Again, this is all alleged. We don't know about that. We only know what we know so far. We know about the arrests. We know where she was found. And on a positive note, there was a quote from Frank that I thought as a father, you know, it was good to read that. And he said, basically, when he got on the boat, there was nobody else on the boat. And his daughter just looked at him and said, oh, my God,

dad, what are you doing here? Thank you. Thank God. And she basically just gave him a big hug. She rushed into his arms. And he said it was the greatest feeling in the world. So listen, Frank's out there acknowledging there's, there's, there's things that need to be worked on. And the fact that she's still with us and she has the opportunity to work on those things after going on what was a horrific experience. This, this could be something that hopefully in the long run, she's able to process it like some of the courageous people out there who go through this type of trauma and are able to use it for positive to not only help themselves, but help others. So yeah, the people condemning her and the father,

we all have problems. Listen, we all live in glass houses. Nobody should be judging. Educate yourself about human trafficking, what it looks like, what the victims of it look like. Educate yourself and shut your mouth until you have. Exactly. And I think it's a lesson for all of us because, yes, Emma was more susceptible to it, but it can happen to any young adult or even a young child where someone out there who has these malicious intentions finds something that interests your child, even if they're not wearing an ankle monitor or they haven't run away and they get them just outside the home. And that's all it takes is a couple seconds and your life has changed forever. So again,

I would rather not be discussing this case, but I will say it's part of the reason I was okay with it was because there is a little bit of some, I don't want, I hate to even use the word like a good ending because it's not good. She didn't get taken and we've never heard from her again. That's the best case scenario when something happens because if they start moving her, they move her down South. That's it. She's gone. They're bringing other people on this boat now. They're selling her, things like that. And now maybe then they move her to a different country. We don't know what happens to her. So obviously, I'm sure all of us wish, and Frank as well, and her parents wish, this had not happened to begin with, but

he came in clutch, grabbed her, took her home before she could have become a ghost. And that is the best case scenario that we can hope for in this situation. Of course. And for full disclosure, we're not oblivious to the fact that there's some other things going on here. We're not on anybody's team. Does not matter. I'm on her team. I'm on her team for sure. But just to be transparent, part of the criticism coming to Frank and the family, and this is something that Frank has admitted, apparently Frank and his wife have made some videos that they have posted online on OnlyFans and other websites. And so that's where a lot of the criticism is coming from, the environment that was created that could have led to Emma. We're not here to judge that.

We're here to talk about the crime. Yeah. I'm on Emma Ray's team. I'm on her side. Whatever adults in her life did, whatever they did, this is not what should have happened to her. Correct. And this is not what she was meant for. Correct.

Yeah. Correct. So we're just looking out for the children because somebody has to. And we're hoping we find out more about these individuals. Have they done this before? I'm sure they were going to do it again. At minimum, we got them off the street and now we won't have any more victims at their hands. Yeah.

Unfortunately, there's 15 more to replace them when they go away. That's why we have to remain vigilant. Remain vigilant. Watch what your kids are doing on the internet, please. Yes, absolutely. Well, we'll knock them down one at a time. Any other words from you? This is kind of more of a quick episode, but we wanted to cover it. We really want to get into the new series this week. We're going to be recording it later today. Do you want to tell them what it is considering this is a shorter series? Let's tell them. Let's change it up. Yeah. So Derek and I, I think it was a few months ago that we had mentioned the Ray Rivera case.

It was on Unsolved Mysteries a few years back, the reboot. And I was talking about how I had covered it on YouTube back in like 2020 and that other things have come out since. And it's just such a really good, mysterious case. Even Shannon, our editor, had texted me and said, what case are we doing? And I said, Ray Rivera. And it's just such a really good, mysterious case. Even Shannon, our editor, had texted me and said, what case are we doing? And I said, Ray Rivera. And she's like so excited. She's like, oh my God, this is such a great case. I'm so excited to hear what you guys think about it. And so we've decided that we're going to cover the Ray Rivera case on Crime Weekly

and really do a deep dive and get Derek's take on it. Yeah, I'm looking forward to learning more about it with all of these cases. Yes, I've heard the name before. I don't know the specifics of the case. I always like learning more because something that happened in this case based on, I don't even know if it was solved or not, but whatever actions were taken by law enforcement, I always like to keep notes because you can apply it to future cases that we discuss here or in my own investigations going forward. So you're always learning. You're always growing. It's another tool in the toolbox. That's why I love covering these cases. As far as Emma, we're happy for her and her family that they're reunited. This could have been a lot worse. And we're hoping that moving forward, it can bring their family closer and

that this ultimately results in something positive where they can all learn from it, grow from it, and again, potentially share what they've been through to help others who may be going through similar situations. We got to always hope for a better place, a better world for everyone. So, but that's going to do it for us, guys. Looking forward to covering the Ray Rivera case. We'll be back soon. Until then, everyone stay safe out there. Have a good night.

Bye. Thank you.