‘Gossip Girl’ and ‘Blue Bloods’ Actress Found Safe After Vanishing for Two Weeks

An actress known for Blue Bloods and the original Gossip Girl has been found safe after missing for two weeks. Chanel Maya Banks, who briefly recurred in the third season of the CW teen drama as Sawyer Bennett, had been missing from her Los Angeles home but was thankfully found safe in Texas, according to PEOPLE. Los Angeles Police Department spokesperson Charles Miller told the outlet that Banks was found on Monday in the Lone Star State, and there was no foul play involved.

“She is fine,” Miller said. “No danger. She is OK. She has been taken out of the missing person system for us, and we have closed our investigation.” After being located by an outside agency, police say a delay between coordinating law enforcement agencies was the reason it wasn’t announced until Wednesday that she had been found when LAPD’s media relations received information.

A GoFundMe was set up by Banks’ cousin Danielle-Tori Singh after she went missing, noting her family’s last point of contact with her was on Oct. 30, and after two welfare checks were performed on Nov. 7 and Nov. 8, she wasn’t in her apartment. She further explained that she and her aunt were able to get in her apartment on Nov. 10 and all of Banks’ belongings were still there. “The only items we did not locate are her phone and laptop,” Singh wrote. “She also does not go anywhere without her little dog, which also has been left behind. She also does not have her vehicle because it’s parked in her garage. She would NEVER go anywhere without telling her mom or myself.”

Additionally, Singh said they noticed Banks’ husband with an injured lip and marks and scratches on his neck and arms. Police were called, and they took pictures of his injuries, “which he did not have two days ago when police did the last welfare check,” she shared. She flew in from Toronto to search for her cousin, whose husband was not cooperating with police.

No other information has been revealed about Chanel Maya Banks and how and why she fled LA to be in Texas, but the good news is that she was found safe, which is really all that matters. Aside from Gossip Girl, Banks appeared in the series premiere of Blue Bloods back in 2010 and the action thriller Twelve that same year, starring Chace Crawford, Emma Roberts, Rory Culkin, and Philip Ettinger.