Police say ‘Gossip Girl’ actor has been found but the family is at odds

The search for “Gossip Girl” actor Chanel Maya Banks is over after being reported missing by her relatives on Friday, police say.
Banks, 36, was located in Texas on Monday, a couple of days after a missing person report was filed, and about two weeks after family members say they last heard from her, Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Charles Miller told USA TODAY Thursday.
“No foul play or crimes are suspected, and she’s been taken out of our missing person system,” Miller said. “Our investigation is closed.”
Banks, also known for her work on “Blue Bloods” as Maria Romando, has since addressed the situation and shared in an interview with the Los Angeles Times and alleged in various social media posts that she wasn’t missing, she was trying to get away from her family due to abuse.
“I’m fine. I had to distance myself,” Banks told The Times. “All I want to do is get away from those people.”
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Amid the search for Banks, her family printed flyers, called in welfare checks, and set up a now-deactivated GoFundMe to raise funds to help with the search.
They also held a news conference on Wednesday.
Banks’ cousin Danielle-Tori Singh had shared in an interview with The Times, published Nov. 13, that the last conservation they had through FaceTime on Oct. 27 was cut short.
At the Wednesday press conference, Singh and Banks’ mother Judy Kumar claimed they still had no idea where Banks was.
“LAPD and missing persons division in the Los Angeles area have decided to go ahead and close the case,” Singh said. “They are confident that they have seen her, however, that’s not sufficient enough for us so we are in the dark at this point in time.”
The woman authorities say they located and identified as Chanel Banks, according to Banks’ mother and cousin, did not bear any physical resemblance to their family member. Singh added that the woman found had provided officers with an expired New York driver’s license.
“What I can tell you is I am not confident that that is her,” Singh said. “I think somebody got her ID and is using it and pretending to be her. I don’t know where she is, but I know we will find her.”
Banks’ cousin added: “What I saw was a woman who did not look like my cousin. Banks’ mother also said: “I know what my daughter looks like.” However, Banks told The Times that her mother and cousin were lying to the news media.
Singh and other relatives have “vowed” to continue to search for Banks, who they believe is still missing, according to ABC7 Eyewitness News.
“We can’t speak to what the family says,” Miller told USA TODAY Thursday. “We conducted our investigation. We verified she’s been located by local enforcement in Texas.”
Banks maintains she is “not missing,” writing on her Instagram bio and in a series of Instagram stories that her decision to separate herself from her husband and family was a conscious one.
“I just want to be free of a toxic woman and her family,” Banks’ online bio reads. “That’s my right. That’s it. The end. They made up LITERALLY everything else.”
On Wednesday, Banks also gave True Crime News a statement.
“My name is Chanel Banks I’m a 36-year-old American nobody, and for my entire life I have been silently carrying the pain of the ritual … abuse, manipulation, and outright endless torment I’ve endured continuously since I was a defenseless baby, at the hands of my own so-called family, who are all so very concerned about my current whereabouts,” Banks claimed in the statement. “I have met with the police and verified that not only am I OK, but I’m finally free.”
Banks also offered additional details to her Instagram stories, including the real reason she left, the nature of the abuse, her strained relationship with her family and claims that her husband and her family sought a conservatorship over her.
Banks wrote on Instagram that she met with local authorities and verified she was “okay.”
“They say, once you’re free in Christ Jesus, you’re free indeed, so I told my husband six days ago I was going to get baptized by one of my favorite pastors Pastor Robert Clancy,” Banks wrote. “He drove me to the airport and then I was off for a week…but I also saw it as an opportunity to escape my cage.”
At the time of publication, Banks has since archived a few posts from her Instagram. Statements she made about her disappearance are still available on her Instagram stories.
Banks’ husband Carlos Jimenez also denied her allegations that his family was seeking a conservatorship for her, telling The Times that Banks urged him against disclosing any information surrounding her whereabouts with law enforcement. Jimenez also claimed Banks accused her family of abuse before they considered her missing.
“I think she’s doing this out of her own volition,” Jimenez told The Times. “I respect her choice not to talk with me or her family.”
Banks’ cousin had also told The Times that the actor’s husband had “not been cooperative” with family throughout the investigation.
Chanel Maya Banks is an actress with character credits in television shows including “Gossip Girl,” “Blue Bloods” and “Twelve,” according to her IMDB page.