Family Demands Answers After Joshua Gabriel Disappears During Beach Trip With Friends

Family Demands Answers After Joshua Gabriel Disappears During Beach Trip With Friends

A Jacksonville, North Carolina mother continues her fight for answers nine months after her 17-year-old son vanished at North Topsail Beach, 11 miles of Topsail Island in Onslow County, southeastern North Carolina.

 Ola Rogers believes race played a major role in what she calls a lack of urgency from authorities.

Joshua Gabriel, who is Black, went to the beach at North Topsail with a group of friends — all of whom were white except for one who was mixed, according to his mother — on October 8, 2025, and never returned.

Rogers exclusively told The North Carolina Beat that she received a call around 4:45 p.m. from her son’s friend Evan, using Joshua’s phone. Evan reportedly told her that Joshua “went down in the water and did not come up.”

“As his mother, I want to know what happened between the time I got that phone call and the time you boys claimed y’all saw my baby go down and never come back up,” Rogers told us. “And how come it took a child to call me to let me know that my son was not coming back home possibly.”

Authorities have not named any suspects or persons of interest in Joshua’s disappearance.

According to Rogers, nothing about that moment felt right—not the call, not the explanation, and not the scene she pulled up on.

Rogers said she immediately sped from Jacksonville to North Topsail Beach.

“I flew like a bat from hell,” she said. “When I got there, there was only one little piece of dingy a*s boat in the f*****g water.”

She said she saw one officer, spectators, and the parents of the other boys Joshua had been with. But what she didn’t see, she said, was urgency.

“Nobody was calling my son’s name, nobody was looking for my son,” she said. “And they had some BS drones out there but I call BS right away because Joshua was an avid swimmer.”

All of her children were taught water safety from a young age. Joshua, she said, was stronger in the water than most of the boys he was with that day.

“My father did not play no games, he always wanted us to enjoy water but also fear it at the same time because water is unexpected.”

She emphasized that Joshua was an avid, strong swimmer who knew how to handle rip currents.

“He knew to swim parallel to a rip current,” she said through tears. “And if he couldn’t do that, Josh knew to just be calm and let it take you. He was taught.”

Rogers believes Joshua was a stronger swimmer than the other boys with him that day.

“SEVEN WENT IN AND ONLY SIX CAME OUT”

Rogers has repeatedly questioned the official narrative that Joshua was the only one who didn’t make it out of the water.

“You can’t tell me as a mom that seven went in and only six came out,” she said. “I call bull shit.”

“My baby could’ve made it out that water,” Rogers said. “And the cops want to tell me ‘you should prepare yourself and your family for a recovery instead of a rescue’? As a mother, who the f**k are you to tell me that? That means you’re giving up on my baby and he doesn’t deserve that.”

Concerns About the Friends and the Phone

Evan, who had been very close to the family (calling Rogers “mom” and regularly visiting), has not been seen by the family since the day Joshua disappeared.

“You’re my son’s friend and my son left here with you,” Rogers said. “My son walked out of this house with Evan and never came back.”

Law enforcement has not made any allegations of wrongdoing against Evan or any other boy who was present.

A message reportedly sent from Evan’s Instagram account (@mxliti) to Joshua’s sister raised further suspicion in the family’s eyes:

“Bri even if you know all who was there at the beach don’t tell Joseph i’m scared he’s gonna do something.”

Joshua’s sister told The NC Beat the message felt “fishy.” Authorities have not named Evan or any of the other boys as suspects or persons of interest.

“It was just a little fishy to me because why would you be scared… if it was the current that did it then why are you scared? You have no reason to be scared unless you’re guilty.”

Rogers’ daughter acknowledged these were her personal feelings, and authorities have not suggested that Evan is a threat or suspect in this case.

Rogers said that when she tried to go into the water to search for her son herself, she was tackled by at least three officers.

“They weren’t doing their jobs,” she said. “As his mom, it was my right to do my job and try to find my baby because they weren’t doing it, because no one out there looked like me.”

Two weeks after Joshua went missing, Jacksonville Police took custody of his phone. The family still does not know why.

Rogers believes something happened before Joshua ever entered the water.

“Either my son is dead on that beach and they buried my son, or they did something to my baby before he got in that water that prevented him from being able to get out,” she said. “It’s either A or B.”

These statements reflect Rogers’ personal beliefs. Investigators have not identified foul play, nor have they publicly confirmed any theories.

Rogers claims North Topsail Beach authorities did not consistently update the family. She said they often had to call for answers and were given “vague” responses. Their last public update was on October 10, 2025.

Officials told her Joshua had been entered into the missing and exploited children database in case a body surfaced.

She said the official search lasted “two or three days” before she was told to “prepare for a recovery instead of a rescue,” due to an approaching storm.

“You’re giving up on somebody you don’t even know,” Roders said. “Just tell me what happened to my son.”

The North Carolina Beat obtained group photos showing Joshua standing among five white boys and a mixed boy, at the beach. Rogers identified Joshua wearing the same red shirt he left home in.

Another photo shows Joshua and Evan together in the parking lot of Beach Access #4 at 484 New River Inlet Road — the same location where he vanished.

We are publishing these images solely because they establish the timeline of Joshua’s last known movements. Neither Evan nor the other boys have been named suspects or persons of interest by law enforcement.

Joshua Gabriel attended Jacksonville High School, where he was in the 11th grade. Rogers said her son was amazing — from the time he was born, he was a fighter. Born prematurely at 23 weeks and 3 days after a domestic violence incident, doctors said he wouldn’t walk or crawl — but he did.

“When the doctors said he wouldn’t walk, he walked. When they said he would never crawl or hold a bottle because of the way his hands are positioned — but he did, through love, prayer, and physical therapy.” “My baby superseded everything that everybody said he couldn’t do,” she said through tears.

Joshua had just started working at Dairy Queen on North Marine Boulevard to help his mother with bills.

He has two brothers and a big sister — an older brother, a younger brother, and a big sister — who all miss him and want the truth. Rogers said Joshua had recently become an uncle to his sister’s beautiful baby boy.

“He wanted to teach Caleb everything and be the best role model and best uncle for Caleb as he could possibly be,” Rogers said through tears. “He wanted to show Caleb that even if you didn’t have your dad around, you had your uncle.”

She said Joshua was a responsible kid. He would sometimes work 5 p.m. to 11 p.m., get home, take a shower, go to sleep, and be right up and on time for school.

“You couldn’t have a bad day around Joshua. He was witty and he always had a snappy comeback, and he was a clown. He could be a butthole, but he was my butthole,” she said.

Rogers said that a week before Joshua went missing, he had come to her wanting to start a petition with enough signatures to get the school to consider building a pool so they could have a swim team.

She said Joshua lived for the water.

The last time Rogers saw her son was when he left home with Evan around 2:30 p.m. 

Rogers has not stopped fighting.

“My baby didn’t deserve whatever happened to him at that beach,” she said. “And nobody seems to care.”

North Topsail Beach Police Department last public update was on October 10, 2025. The North Carolina Beat initially reached out to North Topsail Beach Police Department for an update on Thursday, November 13, 2025, and as of Friday, July 10, 2026, they have not responded.