Trinity Bray, Mother Who Went Missing with Three-Year-Old Son Over One Year Ago, Booked into Mendocino CO Jail for Child Neglect

Trinity Brey [Booking photo from MCSO taken December 14]

Over one year later, Bray was booked into the Mendocino County jail yesterday afternoon for a felony charge of abandonment/child neglect.

In an interview, last December, California Highway Patrol’s Sergeant Matthew Harvey revealed information investigators have gathered regarding the traffic accident and the subsequent disappearance which prompted a criminal investigation that could lead to Bray being charged with child endangerment and felony hit and run.

Please note, there has not been any confirmation that the charges described in the booking logs are related to last December’s incident.

We have an inquiry with both California Highway Patrol Garberville tomorrow morning as well as the Mendocino County District Attorney David Eyester for further information and confirmation.

Sergeant Harvey told us initial reports on November 30, 2020, indicated at approximately 12:00 p.m., a single-vehicle accident occurred when a gray Toyota Sienna crashed into a tree going northbound on Highway 101. Officers reporting to the scene found one adult male in the vehicle who had sustained major injuries who was later transported to an area hospital.

Witnesses told dispatch an adult female was seen walking away from the single-vehicle accident either carrying or walking with the child. Based on these reports, CHP officers canvassed Highway 101 assisted by Leggett Valley Volunteer Fire Department who hiked the embankments alongside the highway.

Sergeant Harvey explained Bray told investigators that after the single-vehicle car crash, she and her child fell down a steep embankment, falling into the Eel River, and found abandoned marijuana grow across the river to take refuge in throughout the four days they were missing. As of last December, investigators were unable to corroborate these claims, said Sergeant Harvey.

Mendocino County’s Search and Rescue team, Leggett Valley Volunteer Fire, CHP, and other agencies assisted in the search for Bray and her son in the days following their disappearance.

It was at approximately 11:00 a.m. on December 4 when CHP began to receive reports of a naked woman sitting in the middle of Highway 101, according to Sergeant Harvey. A driver stopped to speak with the distressed woman who indicated there was a child down the embankment. Upon receiving these reports, Sergeant Harvey said CHP officers were “confident that it would be Bray and the child.”

Below are photos from KMUD News taken as the mother and child were located.

https://www.facebook.com/KmudNews/posts/3245484005581082

Sergeant Harvey said first responders found the child significantly down the embankment along Highway 101 and one witness had told CHP the child was “holding onto a log.”

Sergeant Harvey said this case is specifically difficult to speak about because “we have a young child who is potentially the victim of a crime. We want to be sensitive to that information. Initially, we put out more information about the child than we would because he was missing.”

Earlier Chapters:

• Major Injury Crash North of Leggett on Hwy 101
• Woman and Child Missing After Major Injury Accident South of Confusion Hill
• Mother and Child Still Missing After Crash North of Leggett; Family Asks for Help
• Searchers Looked Yesterday for Missing Mother and Child and Will Look Again Today
• Ambulance and Officers Responding North of Leggett to a Report That Possibly the Missing Mother and Child Were Located
• Friends Confirm That Woman and Child Missing After a Crash Near Confusion Hill Have Been Located
• Trinity Brey, Mother Who Went Missing With Three-Year-Old Son, Could Face Charges of Child Endangerment and Felony Hit and Run