The husband of actress Chanel Banks has confirmed his wife’s well-being after Los Angeles police announced she was found following her reported disappearance days ago.
In a phone interview with NBCLA, Carlos Jimenez declared that the police’s findings were accurate in that his wife was found safe. The confirmation comes after Banks’ cousin and mother held a news conference in Playa Vista and claimed she had not been located, negating the LAPD’s claims.
“The police confirmed that she was all right. They saw her in person, they provided photos to me. So, yes, I know she’s alive and well,” said Jimenez. “Everything she said in their post, besides what she said about my family, was tracking what she told me and the things she told me about her family.”
Jimenez referred to a message posted on the “Gossip Girl’ actor’s personal Instagram page where she stated she was finally free from her mother.
Though Jimenez admits he hasn’t spoken with Banks directly, fearing she is angry with him for contacting the police, he was relieved to hear that authorities had found her.
“She had told me when she left that she explicitly did not want her family to know where she was, and she didn’t want me to be speaking with police. But, you know, that’s the law,” said Jimenez. “The police confirmed that she was all right. They saw her in person. They provided photos to me.”
Jimenez shared one of the photos with NBCLA that law enforcement sent him when they located Banks in Texas.
Relatives however have made claims that the images shared by law enforcement are not Banks and allege that it is an imposter who showed police an expired license.
“What I saw was a woman that did not look like my cousin. She was much skinnier, this woman in this body cam footage. She was wearing things that my cousin would not normally wear and her voice was different. Her accent was different. My cousin has a New York accent, she was raised in New York,” said Banks’ cousin Danielle-Tori Singh.
On Wednesday, the Los Angeles Police Department told NBCLA it had been notified by authorities in San Antonio, Texas that Banks had been found safe. There was no indication of foul play, the department said.