Missing girl case: Detective shares details of girl's 25-day disappearance in open court

The Long Island man accused of kidnapping a Patchogue girl and keeping her on his yacht for nearly three weeks in 2024 listened intently Thursday as the teen’s account of her disappearance was shared in open court for the first time.

Francis Buckheit, 66, of East Islip, at times shook or lowered his head as a Suffolk police detective read the sworn statement she took from the then-14-year-old the day she was found on board Buckheit’s yacht at an Islip marina.

“ ‘I am not hurt and I want help getting clean,’ ” Suffolk police Det. Sgt. Lauren Ventura quoted from the end of the statement the girl gave at Stony Brook University Hospital on Jan. 3, 2025.

Ventura described the girl, whom Newsday is not naming because she is a minor and the victim of alleged and adjudicated sex crimes, as “calm, cooperative and talkative,” as she spoke with her in the aftermath of the high-profile disappearance.

“She wasn’t upset and crying,” the detective told the court.

Thursday’s pretrial hearing was held as Buckheit’s defense challenges whether police had probable cause to make an arrest and to suppress any statements he may have made to police when he returned to the marina hours after the girl had been located. Buckheit is charged with first-degree kidnapping, child sex trafficking and second-degree rape, along with seven additional felony and misdemeanor charges, including use of a child in a sexual performance.

The girl's seven-page statement, details from which Newsday previously reported in a multi-part investigation into her disappearance and the issue of sex trafficking on Long Island, spanned 25 days from the moment she left her father’s house on Dec. 9, 2024, to his discovery of her aboard Buckheit’s yacht at Whitecap Marina on Jan. 3, 2025.

Most of the girl’s time after she left her home with her alleged drug dealer and removed an ankle monitor she received while on probation was spent with Buckheit, who she told the detective supplied her with crack cocaine and “had sex” with her on a daily basis, according to the statement and testimony from Ventura. It was the girl herself who gave police Buckheit’s name before picking him out of a photo array, the detective told the court.

“She stated she was ‘very, very, very, very confident, very sure,’ ” it was Buckheit she had been with, Ventura testified.

The girl described frequently leaving the boat during her weeks with Buckheit, who she said took her to a Ronkonkoma gentleman’s club and to have sex with alleged drug dealers at several locations around Suffolk County. She told police Buckheit told her he wanted to get her pregnant, according to the statement read in court.

“She gave me a lot of detail about what had happened,” Ventura told defense attorney Danielle Papa on cross examination. “She was very clear about what happened and who was involved.”

Papa previewed the defense strategy in regards to the kidnapping charges for when the case moves to trial next year, asking the detective if the girl was ever physically restrained or forced to stay on the boat.

“She was not physically forced to stay on that boat,” said Ventura, who also testified that the girl was left alone at times while Buckheit went to work.

The detective, on further cross examination, said Buckheit bought the girl a cellphone about a week after she arrived at the marina and that she was free to make phone calls with it.

Buckheit was among 11 defendants charged in an 83-count indictment related to the girl’s disappearance. While three defendants have pleaded guilty and one died at the county jail earlier this year, as many as seven defendants could stand trial early next year. Buckheit is among two defendants facing the possibility of spending up to life in prison if convicted of first-degree kidnapping.

Acting Supreme Court Justice Karen Wilutis, who is presiding over the trial, previously denied a motion by the defense to dismiss kidnapping, child sex trafficking and child sexual abuse images charges against Buckheit.

On Thursday, Papa renewed an argument that a cellphone containing sexually explicit images of the girl was obtained by police through an improper search, but Wilutis said prior to the start of the hearing that “all search warrants were [previously] found to be legally sufficient."

“Defense attorney’s position may be raised at the trial, during cross examination,” the judge said.

The hearing is expected to continue with additional law enforcement testimony Nov. 12.