Nicole Evers-Everette, the granddaughter of Medgar and Myrlie Evers, who had been reported missing, is safe, according to her mother and law enforcement officials.
Aside from confirming that she had been found, the Gwinnett County Police Department did not release any details about where or how she was found. There is no indication that foul play was involved.
“Nicole has been located,” a spokesman for the Gwinnett County Police Department said. “And her family is aware of her location.”
MSNBC’s Joy-Ann Reid, the author of “Medgar & Myrlie: Medgar Evers and the Love Story that Awakened America,” posted on Instagram that Evers-Everette had been found and was in a Georgia hospital.
In a statement, Evers-Everette’s mother, Reena Evers-Everette said she was “so thankful that my Niki has been found safe.”
“Thank you to God, law enforcement, and all those who assisted in helping us locate Niki,” she said. “I am eternally grateful and overwhelmed by the love and support shown during this difficult time. I recognize that this outcome would not be possible without the incredible commitment of my family and the power of the media and social media. My deepest thanks to all who have shown up, spoken up, and stood up, to help find my daughter.”
Before her daughter was found, Reena Evers-Everette said she last spoke to “Niki,” as she is known to family, at about 6 p.m. on Sunday.
According to the original police report, a friend called 911 on Tuesday after not hearing from her for several days.
Detectives collected security footage from Sept. 23 from Nicole Evers-Everette’s home showing her leaving with a suitcase. But in a statement announcing her disappearance, her mother, Reena Evers-Everette, said her daughter didn’t have her cellphone or purse with her.
Nicole Evers-Everette’s brief disappearance attracted heavy attention on social media.
Aside from Reid, who initially posted that Nicole Evers-Everette was missing, media personality Roland Martin posted about it to his 735,000 followers on Instagram.
Investigative journalist Jerry Mitchell, whose reporting led to the 1994 conviction of Byron De La Beckwith, more than 30 years after he assassinated Medgar Evers, posted about it several times on X, before reporting Friday morning that she had been found.
“Niki has newfound and she’s okay,” he wrote. “Praise God!”
Nicole Evers-Everette is the granddaughter of one of the civil rights movement’s most prominent couples, Medgar and Myrlie Evers.
Medgar Evers was the NAACP’s first field secretary in Mississippi working to end the segregation of public facilities and open up voting rights for African Americans.
On June 12, 1963, just hours after a nationally televised address by President John F. Kennedy on civil rights, Medgar Evers was gunned down by De La Beckwith in the driveway of his Jackson, Mississippi home.
At his death, Myrlie Evers picked up his mantle, eventually rising to chairwoman of the NAACP.
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