A father who has been reunited with his two missing children after nearly a year says his ex-wife, who is accused of kidnapping, kept them out of school and limited who they interacted with so that they cannot meet.
The 11- and 12-year-olds were reported missing in Missouri on March 15 and were found last week at a grocery store in Florida.
“My children were missing. I didn’t know where they were. … It’s the biggest fear in the world,” Blake Gilley, 38, said in an exclusive interview Monday afternoon. “It’s an understatement to say I was scared and scared.”
Gilley said the children told him they had not been to school since their disappearance and that they avoided detection by moving from one rural Airbnb to another in several states.
The children were found Wednesday at a Winn-Dixie in High Springs, Florida, with their non-custodial mother, Christie Nicole Gilley.
Police said Christie Gilley, 36, was arrested on an active kidnapping warrant from Clay County, Missouri. Police said officers found the children after a routine tag check on Gilley’s vehicle indicated the vehicle’s owner was a fugitive.
Despite hiding the identity, all three were identified. It was not immediately clear how exactly his identity was hidden.
“These children and their abductor were traveling through the area and had no connection to Alachua County, Florida, nor were they enrolled in any school,” Florida police said in a statement on Monday.
“The family was on their way to an Airbnb right outside our area,” said High Springs Police Chief Antoine Sheppard.
Airbnb did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Blake Gilley of Texas said he was reunited with his children on Friday and they told him that their mother tried to keep them inside but that they had to avoid talking to people when they were in public, especially the boy. who doesn’t talk and has down syndrome.
He said his children told him that “Christy would never tell them what city they were in or anything,” adding: “If they were in a car, they would have to keep their head down. My son still does that.” does.”
Blake Gilley said the children said their mother instructed them not to speak or look anyone in the eye. He said that because of that, his son would “just look at the ground.”
“He’s getting better now. I’m telling him, ‘Hey, you’re good, buddy, look up,'” he said.
Christy Gilley was listed as an inmate Monday afternoon at the Alachua County Jail.
Her attorney, Maurice McDaniel, said Monday night that she would fight extradition to Missouri because she wants to become a Florida resident.
McDaniel said he spoke to Christy Gilley for an hour in jail on Friday and denied allegations that he hid his children by bouncing them from one Airbnb to another. She also said that he did not indicate to her that he had instructed her children to limit their interactions with others.
County court documents in Florida said Gilley pleaded not guilty and was set on Thursday without bail. A representative for the Alachua County Clerk said no other court date has been set.
Blake Gilley said the couple divorced in 2016 and Christy Gilley disappeared last year before a custody dispute was resolved.
A probable cause statement from Clay County, Missouri, said the pair had a joint custody agreement prior to April 14 out of Randall County, Texas.
But the father was granted sole custody after Christy Gilley failed to appear in court, according to court documents. The report states that at one point, she was living in the Kansas City area of Liberty, Missouri, with her sister and children.
The court report states, “Christie had been making it consistently difficult for Blake to see or speak with the children over a period of time, and since 3/15/2022 had been denying Blake access or contact with the children.” Was.” ,
The report said authorities checked on the children and their mother at a grandparents’ home in Chico, California, but learned that the grandparents no longer lived there.
An attorney for Christy Gilley said she will no longer cooperate with the court in Clay County because she believes she was being denied due process, according to the report, which said the children were safe and According to the lawyer, he was being home-schooled.
A parental kidnapping warrant was filed for Christy Gilley on July 13.
Blake Gilley said his children were not physically harmed, but emotionally, “they’re still in shock,” adding, “You can see it’s bothering them.”
He hopes to get his children through counseling and back in school “to give them a fighting chance at life.”
He said the police deserve a lot of credit for finding their children.
“They worked their butts off,” Gilley said.