Gossip Girl actress found after 2 weeks of mysterious disappearance in LA; family suspected ‘something is not right’
Gossip Girl actress, currently based in California, has been mysteriously missing for 2 weeks. Her cousin accuses husband of not cooperating with search.
A Los Angeles actress’ family is still searching for her two weeks after she mysteriously vanished in California. Serial drama viewers will remember Chanel Maya Banks as Jenny Humphrey’s friend, Sawyer Bennett, from Gossip Girl Season 3. The 36-year-old actress also briefly appeared in cop drama Blue Bloods and the film Twelve, also starring rapper 50 Cent, Rory Culkin and Emma Roberts. Banks sometimes also acted under the name Chanel Farrell.
Desperately searching for Banks, her family has flown in from out of state. According to ABC7, the 36-year-old has been settled in the Playa Vista area. She has not been heard from since October 30. The actress’ cousin, Danielle-Tori Singh, has since set up a GoFundMe page. The page further details that two “welfare checks” were conducted on November 7, and subsequently, two more followed the next day. However, she was not found in her apartment on both occasions.
UPDATE (November 13, 8:06 AM PT): According to TMZ's latest revelation on the matter, the Gossip Girl actress was found safe and uninjured. Authorities don't suspect foul play, per the preliminary update. The LAPD received a missing-person report regarding the woman in her 30s on November 8.
What Chanel Maya Banks' cousin and mother found at her LA apartment
After flying in from Toronto, Singh and Banks’ mother, who came from New York, ultimately made it to Banks’ Playa Vista apartment earlier this week on November 10. There they discovered that the missing actress had left her dog and car, reportedly parked in her garage, behind. The cousin further sounds an alarming call signalling that Banks never went anywhere without her dog. Moreover, “she would NEVER go anywhere without telling her mom or myself,” the GoFundMe fundraiser message expounded. The missing star's phone and laptop were not found at her apartment.
Singh also drew attention to Banks’ husband, who appeared to have a “busted lip and marks and scratches on his necks and arms” on November 10. Police have since taken pictures of his injuries. He reportedly did not have those injury marks on his body two ago when the police previously arrived for the last welfare check. Banks’ cousin noted that the man in question has been uncooperative with the investigation. When asked about Chanel’s whereabouts, “he continues to say… ‘she does not want to be found, she will reach out when she’s ready.’”
“Five days without hearing from my cousin is red flags and alarm bells,” the missing woman’s cousin told Eyewitness News, per ABC7. “She doesn't go more than 48 hours without speaking to me or her mom. ... That girl is more like a big sister to me.”
Chanel Banks' husband becomes a target of her cousin's suspicions
Banks and her husband have been married for just over a year, per Singh’s description. He has also insisted that he has last been in contact with her on November 7. Despite her prolonged absence, he never called the police.
As far as Singh’s insight stretches, the LAPD has found “no signs of foul play, and her husband has not committed any crime by with-holding information, there’s nothing they can do until they have evidence or probable cause to arrest him.” However, Singh is presumably suspicious of her cousin’s husband. “He's not willing to help LAPD. He's not willing to help me or her mom find her. He is removing flyers off of posts and cars,” she told the media.
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Now officially rendered a missing person in California, the Gossip Girl actress bears Case # 241414853. Urging the public to donate and help them find Banks, her cousin concluded, “Chanel has no family or friends here and would NEVER go somewhere without telling her mom.”
Singh has started the GoFundMe page to help with their search and hire a private investigator, as the family feels the authorities currently at work are not fathoming the seriousness of the case. “I can tell you in my soul, in my gut, something is not right. ... We're crossing two weeks now without a word, without a sound. Nothing,” she added.
Gossip Girl actress' final lengthy, cryptic social media update before she went missing
Weeks before her mysterious disappearance, Chanel reportedly also stepped back from pursuing acting as a profession and shifted her focus to writing. Additionally, she shared a cryptic message on her TikTok account, "Tres sage, tres soucieux," which translates to: “Very wise, very concerned,” per The Mirror
Her lengthy message came with a solitary picture of herself: “Is it now gauche to post just one photo? Have I missed another trend? That's the thing about trends: they are at once the most fickle and troublesome of waves, a torrential fury consuming the precious attention of all in its path. An insidious thing, the trend captures by captivating its victims robbing them of the most precious gift: authenticity.”
She went on, "As Rosh Hashanah approaches, I've been pondering the significance of unadulterated individuality. For most, it takes courage to be one's authentic self in a world where everyone thinks, acts, and strives to look like everyone else. I'm not deterred in the least, no. I strive to exist in that all-encompassing ever-expansive bliss of bucking the zeitgeist and just doing me.
“So I've decided I'm now in my 'who cares what they say' era, my 'because I can' era. Because at the end of it all, we always admire the originators: the ones who write their own stories.”