A father who has been reunited with his two missing children after nearly a year said that his ex-wife, who is accused of kidnapping, kept them out of school and limited who they interacted with so they wouldn’t be found.
The children, 11 and 12 years old, were reported missing in Missouri on March 15, and were found at a Florida grocery store last week.
“My kids were missing. I didn’t know where they are. … That’s the biggest fear in the world,” Blake Gilley, 38, said Monday afternoon in an exclusive interview. “It is an understatement to say I was terrified and freaked out.”
Gilley said the kids told him that they haven’t been to school since they disappeared and that they avoided detection by bouncing from one rural Airbnb to another in multiple states.
The children were found Wednesday at a Winn-Dixie in High Springs, Fla., with their non-custodial mother, Kristi Nicole Gilley.
The 36-year-old woman was arrested on an active kidnapping warrant out of Clay County, Missouri, police said. Officers found the kids after a routine tag check on Gilley’s vehicle, which indicated that the vehicle’s owner was a fugitive, police said.
The three were identified, despite having disguised their identities. It was not immediately clear how exactly their identities were disguised.
“These children and their abductor were passing through the area and had no residency connection to Alachua County, Florida, nor were they enrolled in any schools,” Florida police said Monday in a statement.
The family was “en route to an Airbnb right outside of our area,” High Springs Police Chief Antoine Sheppard said.
Airbnb did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Blake Gilley, of Texas, said that he was reunited with his children Friday and that they told him their mother tried to keep them inside, but when they were in public, they were to avoid speaking with people, especially the boy who is non-verbal and has Down syndrome.
He said that his kids told him that…
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