Why Gabriella Pepple's Disappearance is a True Life Horror Story

I don't know if you follow my Facebook page but if you do, then you will know that I told you that this 2022, you can expect a lot more true-life mystery stories happening around Nigeria from me.

The first one I'm bringing you is this chilling case of 4 year old Gabriella Pepple I just cannot stop thinking about. She went missing over a year ago in December of 2020 and at the time of the initial report, all we knew was that she was last seen with her mother, Ms. Precious Owunari Pepple and other family members on Sunday, 13th December, 2020 at Bethel Prayer Ground, close to Deema Community in Bonny LGA before she disappeared. Now in a new interview with her mother, Ms. Pepple is revealing more information about the case and when I tell you - the more you read, the more chilling it is.

Here's everything we know so far about Gabriella's disappearance.

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Speaking to The Punch newspaper, Gabriella's mother, Precious, was asked: "Your daughter got missing in December last year. What exactly led to this?" She said:

My daughter, Gabriella Sokari Tolofari, was four years old when she got missing. She would have been five this year. I was pregnant at the time. I had also just lost my mom that year, too, in May. It was Christmas period like this that the incident happened. My aunt called me on December 8 that she was coming to Bonny from Port Harcourt to join a yearly prayer, which was organised in our village, Bethel Village, very close to Dema Village. She came in on December 12, which was also my birthday, and we went to the village for the prayers. I went with my daughter as well. The next day, being Sunday, I was with my daughter in front of our village house, feeding her. Other kids were also there. My aunt’s 18-year-old girl, Dorathy, was also there.

My daughter complained that she was pressed and needed to poo. I ignored her at first, but Dorathy said she would take her (Gabriella) to the back of the house to poo, as there was no proper toilet in the village. After some time, I also went to the back of the house to pee but I took the right wing. My daughter and Dorathy took the left wing. There were people at the back of the house, so I joined them, while waiting for my daughter to finish pooing. I sat there for a while but she didn’t return. I thought that, perhaps, she had followed Dorathy to another house, so I didn’t feel uncomfortable.

While still sitting there, a little girl about my daughter’s age walked up to me and asked about my daughter’s whereabouts. At that point, I became concerned. I asked the little girl if she had seen Dorathy, who took my daughter to poo and the girl said Dorathy was in the house, cutting vegetables.

Just so you understand, the Dorathy that had taken Gabriella to the toilet to poo left her and went to go and start cutting vegetables. Hmm. So what happened next you ask? Precious continued:

The little girl led me to where Dorathy was. I asked her where my daughter was. She said my daughter had finished pooing and after helping her to wipe her butts, she told her to come and meet me.

Then I asked her why she would do that, knowing that my daughter, who was just four years old, was new in the area and didn’t know her way around. I asked her where my daughter could be, but Dorathy could not give me any reasonable answer. I began to panic at that point. But I tried to calm myself down, telling myself that she might have followed other kids to play. But then I know my daughter is not that kind of a child; she wouldn’t follow just anyone. She followed Dorathy because she knew her. I know that if she wanted to play with anyone, she would inform me.

"At that point what did you do?"

I began to shout around the village, announcing that I was looking for my daughter. This happened around 1pm and I was going round till around 3pm, searching for her, but there was no sign of her. We searched every nook and cranny of the village. We trekked down to Dema village which was miles away. There was no sign of my daughter. Then I began to question Dorathy where exactly she dropped Gabriella, but she was saying the same thing – ‘I wiped her butt and told her to go meet you where you were seated’. I asked everyone I saw out there if they saw any little girl wandering around. From the backyard to the front of the house is not too far, someone must have seen her. One old woman told me she saw her come out of the backyard but didn’t know the direction she went from that point.

(My husband) was at work. I called him to tell him that our daughter had gone missing; he was shocked for a while but tried to calm me down. The next day, he came with some of his friends in a boat for another search. They even divided themselves into two groups. Two boats filled with youths went to Dema Village and another two, also filled, went through Bethel. We searched till the two groups met. We even searched houses but couldn’t find her. That is how things have been till this moment. Whenever I have to recall this, I begin to blame myself. My daughter just become a vapour that I only feel her, but cannot see. It is sad!

What kind of horrible situation to find one's self in! From simple "mommy, I want to poo," to this little girl being missing for over a whole year. This is horrible! This is a real life horror story. WHAT HAPPENED TO GABRIELLA?

The first time I read the story, I thought maybe it was a kidnap situation but it doesn't seem to be that because according to Precious when asked if anybody has come to ask for a ransom:

Nobody has done that till date. We even thought they would call us and say we should pay a ransom to free our child, but no one has called us. At least, all the money I am spending on going to different seers, we’d gather it and pay the ransom. I still have hope that she will come back alive and healthy.

Some other people also think Dorathy maybe hiding something or was somehow part of Gabrielle going missing, but I don't think so. It's a very normal thing for people to be like, "okay, I've finished with you, go and meet your mummy." If anything, it is a lesson for all of us, even me included, to stop letting children just wander around even when we're sure no harm will come to them. The Dorathy girl must be beating herself up somewhere because can you imagine the amount of blame and guilt she must be feeling right now?

I don't even want to entertain my worst fears about what happened to Gabriella, but December aka Christmas period in the village during 2020 was a very desperate time for many people. I just hope that Gabriella is safe wherever she is because the thoughts that are coming to my head, I don't even want to entertain.

What do you think happened to Gabriella Pepple? Let me know what you think about this matter by leaving a comment on my Facebook post. I'm very interested and very curious in hearing what YOU have to say about it so please, let me know.

That's All.

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Until next time, have a wonderful rest of your day.