Missing LI teen ‘safe’ and ‘alive’ after dad ‘busted’ in to save her — thanks to tipsters and cops

The father of a Long Island teen who went missing for a month took to Facebook Saturday to thank the tipsters and cops that led him to his missing daughter.

“She is in a facility right now getting the help she needs and is safe,” Frank Gervasi said of his daughter Emmarae, 14, in video he posted on Facebook just before 1 p.m. “I’d like to thank the community for all of the support that you gave us.”

It was “social media videos and (donated) flyers” that led to an anonymous tip from a woman that helped him find his daughter, Gervasi said.

Emmarae Gervasi, 14, went missing for a month before her father, acting on a tip, rescued her from a boat in a marina near Islip Friday. Frank Gervasi/ Facebook

“The phone call I received was that she was on a boat in Islip,” he said, adding he was initially skeptical. “The lady who gave me the tip was afraid to go in the boat.”

Gervais said he “busted” onto the boat in a marina near the White Cap Fish Market in Islip Friday and retrieved his daughter. He said no one else was on the boat at the time.

“Persistency brought her home,” Gervais said, indicating there may be more than one person under investigation. He believes she had been with “some dangerous people.”

Emmarae had run away from home at least once before, and had had some “struggles” in her life, Gervasi told The Post Saturday.

He said she is now being cared for in a hospital where she is “detoxing.”

He declined to give further details.

“The fact that she’s safe and alive is amazing,” Gervasi said. “It was so incredible to hold her in my arms after I found her.”

Frank Gervasi, 49, Emmarae’s father, said he was able to find and rescue his daughter after a woman tipped him off to her location. Frank Gervasi/ Facebook

Emmarae vanished Dec. 9 after getting into a strange car outside her Patchogue home around 5 p.m., leading her family to fear she was being held against her will.

Gervasi was last seen walking out of her house without a jacket or shoes on before getting into the car, according to Greater Long Island.

Security cameras captured her knocking on doors at a Bohemia motel the next day, but she disappeared again.

Emmarae’s dad got a tip that she was that she was on a boat in Islip. News 12

Gervasi said his daughter initially went off with a man she met online, but left him before she was then picked up by a “random” 65-year-old man she didn’t know, he said.

He believed Emmarae had been told she couldn’t leave the boat.

Gervais said he wants to begin helping other families on Long Island who have missing children.