by Two children who were missing for nearly a year after they were allegedly abducted by their mother are “still in shock” a week after authorities found them in a supermarket, according to their father.
Blake Gilley, 38, told NBC News his 12-year-old son Adrian and 11-year-old daughter Brooke have not attended school and have been discouraged from interacting with anyone in the 11 months since they they disappeared.
“It’s an understatement to say he was terrified and scared,” Gilley told NBC News after an emotional reunion with the children last week.
Adrian and Brooke were reported missing in Liberty, Missouri on March 15, 2022, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.
Police in High Springs, Florida, said they located the two children and their mother, Kristi Nicole Gilley, 36, at a Winn Dixie grocery store on February 1 after performing a routine vehicle license check. .
All three were in disguise, police said, but did not elaborate on how they changed their appearance.
In an arrest photo, Gilley appeared to be wearing a red wig.
Ms. Gilley was arrested with an active kidnapping warrant and appeared in Alachua County Court this week, records show.
She is being held without bond and will fight extradition to Missouri, her attorney Maurice McDaniel told NBC News.
Gilley told the news network that his ex-wife had moved between Airbnb cottages for much of the 11 months they were missing.
The two children had told her that Mrs. Gilley would not tell them where they were going and ordered them to keep their heads out of sight when traveling.
They were physically healthy, but appeared “still in shock.”
More details have emerged about the custody case between the former couple, who divorced in 2016.
According to a Liberty Police Department probable cause kidnapping warrant obtained by law and crimeMs. Gilley had refused to participate in a custody court case and had moved the children to California in April 2022.
“Through ‘lawyer,’ Kristi has refused to cooperate with the courts’ decision to award Blake sole legal custody of their children.”
Mr. Gilley told NBC News that he planned to counsel his children and take them back to school.
