11-Year-Old Found Dead After Lake Erie Boat Ride - Neighbor Indicted

Missing in Minutes

Angelique Cunningham, 11, disappeared from a recreational boat on Lake Erie less than 15 minutes after it left a Toledo-area marina, according to WTVG-13ABC. “She was missing from the boat in Lake Erie less than 15 minutes after the boat left Meinke Marina,” Lucas County Sheriff Mike Navarre said. What was meant to be an evening outing on the water turned, within minutes, into a search that would stretch across the lake and end without the answer her family was waiting for.

Two Adults, Two Very Different Outcomes

The child had gone out on the boat Wednesday night with two adults, 41-year-old Kristen Marie Gerrie and 38-year-old Jonathan Ciha, according to WTVG-13ABC. By Thursday morning, Ciha had been found dead in Lake Erie, and authorities determined he had drowned. Gerrie survived and swam to shore. The contrast between the two adults’ outcomes, and the absence of the child, is what has driven the investigation.

The Search

Crews searched Lake Erie for the missing girl before the sheriff’s office announced that responders had “exhausted all resources in the search,” and the effort was suspended that Friday. The suspension did not close the case; it marked the point at which the water search could go no further. Angelique had not been found.

A Charge, but Not a Resolution

On Thursday, July 3, authorities arrested Gerrie, described as a neighbor who had also been characterized as a babysitter, according to WTVG-13ABC. She was charged with endangering children and held on a $50,000 bond. The charge reflects allegations about the child’s care rather than a conclusion about how she disappeared. Gerrie is presumed innocent unless and until convicted, and authorities have not alleged that she intended for the child to be harmed.

An Open Question

The central question in the case remains unanswered: the child has not been recovered, and the sequence that separated an 11-year-old from a boat within minutes has not been fully explained in the records released so far. Investigators have continued to work the case after the water search ended. For now, a family is left with a charge, a drowning, and a daughter who has not come home.

References: Crews Searching Missing Child Last Seen Boat