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Missing Missouri Children Found With Their Mother In Florida 11 Months Later
Eleven months after they were reported missing, Adrian Gilley, 12, and Brooke Gilley, 11, were recovered in the care of their non-custodial mother, Kristi Nicole Gilley, 36, in Florida last week.
A 36-year-old Missouri woman was arrested in Florida for the kidnapping of her children, who were recovered in her care at a Winn-Dixie grocery store a year after they were reported missing.
Kristi Nicole Gilley, 36, her 11-year-old daughter Brooke Gilley and her 12-year-old son Adrian Gilley were located on Feb. 1, when a routine vehicle tag check indicated that its driver was a fugitive, according to a High Springs Police Department press release.
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“The children were turned over to the Florida Department of Children and Families Services and will be reunited with their birth family,” the department wrote.
Gilley and the children were wearing unspecified disguises at the time of their discovery.
Kristi Gilley was arrested on an out-of-state fugitive warrant, and has been in the custody of the Alachua County Sheriff’s Office in Florida since Feb. 2 as she awaits extradition to Clay County, Missouri, according to jail records.
“Both Gilley kids have been safely located out of state,” the Liberty Police Department wrote on Facebook. “Their non-custodial mother is in custody on parental kidnapping charges out of Clay County. Thank you to everyone who shared this post as it helped bring these children home!”
According to a missing person’s poster shared by the California Attorney General’s office, the children were last seen on March 15, 2022 – Adrian’s 12th birthday.
According to a Clay County criminal complaint reviewed by Oxygen.com, Kristi Gilley absconded with her children to "deprive [their father] of his custody right," and made it difficult for him "to visit or speak with the children." Gilley moved in with her sister in Liberty, Missouri after the pair were divorced — although they had a joint custody agreement, the children "primarily lived with her."
Gilley filed for a custody modification and requested "repeated continuances" throughout the case. When she was denied another continuance and failed to show up in court on April 14 of last year, according to the criminal complaint, her ex-husband was granted sole custody.
Before that court date, the father learned that his children's school records were requested by Marigold School District in Chico, California. The Chico California Police Department were sent to Kristi Gilley's grandfather's house, however, and found that Gilley's grandfather — along with Kristi and her children — were not living there.
When police contacted Gilley's appointed advocate, she informed detectives that the mother would "not be cooperating with Clay County Court" because she felt that the court was "violating Krist's rights" by refusing to grant a court continuance.
The children were safe and being homeschooled, she said, and the mother would "not be ready for court until they gathered sufficient proof that [the children's father] should not have custody of them."
Gilley's advocate refused to give police the mother's address, launching her children's missing persons case.
On Gilley's arrest warrant reviewed by Oxygen.com, police checked off a box indicating that the mother "is a danger to the crime victim, the community or another person."
A review of Missouri Case Net showed that Gilley had only one prior arrest in the state: in 2015, according to the database, she failed to register her out-of-state vehicle, and was fined $78.
Court records list Gainesville public defender William Miller as Gilley’s attorney of record – Oxygen.com could not reach Miller for comment via phone or email at press time.
