Family Of 'Gossip Girl' Actress To Return Funds Raised Her Search

LOS ANGELES, CA — The saga of a missing actress whose safe recovery was disputed by her family took another dramatic turn Friday, when the woman's family conceded that she wasn't missing and agreed to return funds raised to help find her.

Relatives of Chanel Maya Banks, 36, of Playa Vista announced they would return donations made to a GoFundMe page created to help bankroll a search effort. Banks, who appeared in "Gossip Girl" and on "Blue Bloods," was reported missing a week ago. Her relatives created a GoFundMe page implying she may have been the victim of foul play.

When a Los Angeles Police Department officer told Patch Banks was found safe in Texas and was not the victim of foul play, Banks' cousin disputed the police account.

SEE ALSO: Police Say Missing 'Gossip Girl' Actress Found Safe

That prompted a post on Banks' Instagram account, purported to be from Banks announcing that she had flown to Texas to become baptized by a preacher who made headlines for preaching about the end times.

“My name is Chanel Banks,” the post read. “I am a 36-year-old American nobody and for my entire life I have been silently carrying the pain of the ritual sexual abuse, manipulation, and outright endless torment I’ve endured continuously since I was a defenseless baby, at the hands of my so-called family, whom are all so very ‘concerned’ about my current whereabouts.

“Please do not donate to any GoFundMe that says I am missing,” the post continues, “I am not missing.”

The posts concluded with the author saying that shortly before she left, she found out her family and her husband's family were planning to obtain a conservatorship over her to give them "complete legal control."

Her family continued to dispute that Banks had been found until Banks posted a video of herself on social media Thursday night, saying she was getting ready to take part in a television interview.

Banks was first reported missing Nov. 8, with her family saying their last contact with her was on Oct. 30. According to the GoFundMe page established by Banks' cousin, Danielle-Tori Singh, a series of welfare checks were made at her apartment on Nov. 7-8, but she was nowhere to be found.

On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Police Department stated that the agency had been notified by authorities in Texas that Banks had been found safe.

But once media reports began circulating that Banks had been found, Singh took to social media Wednesday, posting an 8-minute video on Facebook denouncing the reports and insisting that her cousin is still missing.

She said a woman was located in Texas apparently in possession of a "10-year-old expired New York City driver's license" with Banks' name on it. But Singh said the woman is not her cousin.

"Please don't stop looking for my cousin," she said in the video. "... My cousin has not been found. Please continue looking for her."

Singh said she saw video and audio from body cam footage showing the woman found in Texas, and she insisted it was not Banks. She said the woman in the video "could not answer one personal question, not about our family, not about herself."

The GoFundMe page established by Singh to help bankroll the search effort had raised more than $4,100 as of Wednesday morning.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.