Gordon Terrelonge says it has been greater than six months since he has seen or heard from his 10-year-old daughter, Gabrielle Terrelonge.
He misplaced contact with Gabrielle and her mom, Passha Davis, this previous spring after a dispute with Davis in Kissimmee, Florida, however stated he anticipated his household would ultimately reunite.
However, when Terrelonge found in on-line jail data in late October that Davis had been arrested in the South Florida metropolis of Margate, he contacted Margate police to ask who was caring for Gabrielle.
It was then, Gordon Terrelonge says, that he and police realized on the identical time: Gabrielle was lacking.
“My life has been hell,” Terrelonge instructed NCS this week. “This is the longest I’ve gone without seeing her.”
Gabrielle was not with Davis when the mom, after being accused of shoplifting, was arrested October 17, and Davis nonetheless was in a Broward County jail when Terrelonge referred to as, police stated. That name sparked an investigation by Florida police and the FBI, who’re seeking the public’s help in discovering Gabrielle.
As far as investigators know, the girl was last seen with Davis on June 30 taking a Greyhound bus from Broward County to Orlando, Margate police Maj. Al Banatte stated. A witness on the bus noticed them arrive on the Florida Mall, and “the manifest and tickets also corroborate this information,” Banatte stated.
Davis, who was re-arrested this month in reference to Gabrielle’s disappearance, instructed police she doesn’t know the place her daughter is and “that she should be with her father,” in accordance with the arrest affidavit. But Margate police say Terrelonge last noticed Gabrielle in Kissimmee in April – when investigators consider Davis left that metropolis with the kid – and that Terrelonge is cooperating with the investigation.
Gabrielle’s disappearance has left her household reeling and determined for solutions about her whereabouts.
“This is very devastating for me,” Gabrielle’s paternal grandmother, Jonett Vassel, instructed NCS over the cellphone as she hung flyers in Orlando with her granddaughter’s image on them. “I cannot sleep, I cannot eat, I’m fasting, I’m praying. I’m still trusting God, because I’m a Christian, so I’m trusting that he will bring her home.”
Police and court docket data paint an image of an unstable dwelling state of affairs for each Davis and Gabrielle since last 12 months.
Davis was homeless and suffered from “mental illness and substance abuse issues,” police stated in her November arrest affidavit. Yet Gabrielle was in Davis’ care, they usually moved from metropolis to metropolis in Florida last 12 months and components of this 12 months, staying with members of the family, at lodges and even sleeping in a automobile, Margate police stated.
Davis’ October arrest got here after she was accused of shoplifting at a Dollar Tree in Margate. The retailer declined to prosecute, however police arrested her on prices of resisting a police officer with out violence and offering false identification whereas being lawfully detained, data present.
She posted bail on October 31 however was re-arrested by Margate police on November 4 and charged with little one neglect in Gabrielle’s disappearance.
Davis “failed to provide any reasonable explanation as to the whereabouts of her minor child” and “failed to provide adequate services and supervision necessary to maintain her physical and mental health,” police allege in a court docket doc.
During Davis’ November 5 bond listening to in the kid neglect case, a protection lawyer instructed a Broward County decide that Davis had instructed him “she is innocent of these charges.”
“She’s wanting to fight these allegations,” the protection lawyer stated.
Davis is represented by the Broward County public defender’s workplace, court docket data present, and NCS has sought remark from that workplace. Davis is being held at a county jail with bond set at $100,000.
In an arraignment Monday referring to the primary arrest, Davis instructed a decide she had psychological sickness. The decide ordered that Davis be evaluated for competency by November 26.
Gabrielle was in college for a part of last 12 months whereas dwelling with her mom and paternal aunt in Port St. Lucie, police say. Her father says he last noticed her this previous spring in Kissimmee. Her last identified sighting was in Orlando in June, police say. Her mom was arrested by Margate police twice this fall — most lately in reference to the girl’s disappearance.
Gabrielle was last enrolled in college in Port St. Lucie, Florida, when she and Davis lived with Gabrielle’s paternal aunt there from April 2024 to November 2024, Banatte stated. Sometime after Thanksgiving last 12 months, Davis and Gabrielle left the aunt’s home for a Motel 6, Margate police stated.
This March, they have been discovered sleeping in a automobile in Broward County, Margate police stated. The Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) intervened and helped Davis and Gabrielle journey to Orlando, in accordance with police.
NCS has reached out to DCF to inquire concerning the encounter, together with why the company helped them go to Orlando, whether or not DCF was conscious of Gabrielle’s college enrollment standing, and whether or not the state thought-about eradicating the kid from Davis’ custody.
Between mid-March and April, Davis and the kid have been with Gordon Terrelonge in the Orlando and Kissimmee areas, Margate police stated. But after the April dispute in Kissimmee, Terrelonge stated, he by no means noticed Gabrielle once more.
Terrelonge described Gabrielle as a joyful little one who is adventurous and loves nature, coloring, sporting princess costumes and having tea events.
He stated Gabrielle and Davis shared an in depth bond, and even when instances have been powerful, Gabrielle most popular to be with her mom over anybody else. Terrelonge stated his makes an attempt to get full authorized custody of Gabrielle have been unsuccessful.
He stated he had misplaced contact with Davis and Gabrielle in the previous, however they might at all times discover their means again to one another inside a number of months.
“She’s always in and out,” Terrelonge stated of Davis. “But I always end up finding them.”
Terrelonge stated he has adopted all leads for attainable locations the place Gabrielle could possibly be. He stated he needs to consider that Gabrielle is secure, however he worries that somebody might have harmed her.
“If anyone knows anything, please come forward and let us know,” Terrelonge stated. “You may save my child’s life.”
NCS’s Taylor Galgano and Lily Hautau contributed to this report.