Two young children who were reported missing in Missouri last year were found safe with their non-custodial and fugitive mother at a supermarket in Florida February 1, authorities said.
The two siblings, Brooke Gilley, 11, and Adrian Gilley, 12, disappeared in March 2022. Their family believed they had been kidnapped by their mother, who did not have custody of them at the time of their disappearance.
Police found the three at a Winn Dixie Supermarket in High Springs, Florida, last Wednesday, February 1, after officers conducted a routine traffic check on their mother, Kristi Gilley’s car, which revealed that she was a fugitive from Missouri police.
Officers from the High Springs Police Department located 36-year-old Gilley and her two children inside the supermarket where they were shopping and arrested her. According to police, the three were wearing disguises at the time of the arrest.
There is more to the story than meets the eye.
Gilley took her biological children to California and didn’t show up for a custody hearing on April 14, 2022 in Missouri. She was battling with her ex-husband, Blake Gilley, for custody of the children. Rather than fight it out in the courts, she kidnapped the children, and according to the youngsters, they lived in several Airbnbs. Because she didn’t show up for the hearing, full custody was granted to the children’s father.
Gilley remains in custody in Florida, awaiting extradition to Missouri, where she will face charges.
The children’s father was reunited with his children. He said that for nearly a year, his ex-wife kept them out of school and hid them so they wouldn’t be found. He said the children were traumatized, particularly his son, who has Down’s syndrome, and he hoped to get them back in school and involved in normal life.
