Eighth person charged in bizarre case of Long Island teen who vanished and was rescued from docked boat
A 20-year-old man is now the eighth person arrested in connection with a Long Island girl who vanished for a month under bizarre circumstances before she was rescued from a docked boat.
Kevin McDonald, of Medford, is charged with raping 14-year-old Emmarae Gervasi in a car in Bellport on Dec. 10 — the day after she was first reported missing, according to Newsday.
He then dropped her off at a Bohemia hotel, prosecutors said at his arraignment in Suffolk County District Court in Central Islip on Wednesday.
McDonald pleaded not guilty to second-degree rape and endangering the welfare of a child.
His bail was set at $250,000 cash or $500,000 bond, News12 reported. He is scheduled to be back in court on Feb. 5.
His attorney, Richard Kaufman, said McDonald has no criminal record.
“The few things I’ve learned merit further investigation,” he told Newsday.
The Post has reached out to the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office for additional information.
The young girl first went missing from her Patchogue home around 5 p.m. Dec. 9, when she hopped in a car allegedly driven by Francis Buckheit, another defendant in the case.
The girl’s father, Frank Gervasi, acting on an anonymous tip, stormed onto a 56-foot yacht owned by Buckheit and docked at a marina in Islip on Jan. 3 and rescued his daughter. Gervasi said he believed his daughter was being sex trafficked, he told The Post at the time.
The latest arrests in the case came this week. Two women, Jacquelyn Comiskey, 52, and Elizabeth Hunter, 34, were charged with sex trafficking and endangering the welfare of a child on Monday, according to court records viewed by The Post.
Comiskey allegedly transported the girl to the Copiague home of another defendant, Bunice Knight, on Jan. 2 — a day before the teen was found on the boat — in exchange for crack cocaine.
Buckheit was arrested on Jan. 3 when he drove up to the dock drunk, authorities said. He’s charged with kidnapping, rape and endangering the welfare of a child.
Ten days later, Knight was arrested and charged with rape and three counts of criminal sale of a controlled substance.
Three other men have also been charged in the case: Alton Harrell, 63, was arrested on Jan. 17, while Daniel Burke, 63, and Robert Eccleston, 63, were arrested on Jan. 24.
Harrell was connected to the case with an incident on Dec. 9, while Burke and Eccleston are suspected of crimes committed on Dec. 10.
They were each charged with kidnapping, rape and endangering the welfare of a child.
