Aferdita Gjergjaj

• Missing Since 02/26/2001
• Missing From Auburn Hills, Michigan
• Classification Endangered Missing
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 09/07/1970 (53)
• Age 30 years old
• Height and Weight 5'3 - 5'5, 115 - 130 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A black top, a denim jacket, a black leather coat and denim slacks.
• Associated Vehicle(s) Light blue Ford Escort (accounted for)
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Red hair, brown eyes. Aferdita's nicknames are Gina and Rita. Her last name is pronounced "jehr-jyz." She is a native of Albania; she moved to the United States in early childhood. Aferdita has a scar on her forehead.

Details of Disappearance

Aferdita was last seen in Auburn Hills, Michigan on February 26, 2001. She told her sister she was going to meet her ex-husband, Binak "Kola" Gjerjaj, and their children in the parking lot of Showcase Cinemas on Opdyke Road at 7:00 p.m.

Images from a surveillance camera in the parking lot show Aferdita arrived there, got out of her car, went to another one and sat inside it for half an hour. Then the vehicle drove away with her still inside. She has never been heard from again.

Afterdita was reported missing after she failed to arrive for work at a clothing boutique in Troy, Michigan, where she was the manager. Her light blue Ford Escort was found in the parking lot of the cinemas shortly after her disappearance. Her cellular phone and purse were inside the vehicle, and so was an unused round from Aferdita's handgun. The gun itself was missing and has not been recovered.

A photograph of Binak is posted with this case summary. He and Aferdita married in 1987 and separated in 1996, and in 1998 Binak filed for divorce. Aferdita and Binak shared legal child custody, but physical custody was granted to Binak. Aferdita had been seeking more access to the children in 2001, and Binak had allegedly threatened to kill her if she tried to take them away from him. He fled the country shortly after Aferdita went missing, leaving his children, and hasn't contacted them since.

Binak moved to Kosovo, a nation in the Balkan peninsula area in southeastern Europe. In 2002, he was charged with felony assault for allegedly beating beating Aferdita in 1998. Kosovo refused to extradite him to the United States to face the charge, however.

In March 2011, he was arrested in Kosovo on another warrant out of Michigan, charging him with Aferdita's murder. Again, however, Kosovo refused to extradite him, and he was released in June of that year.

In June 2019, Binak was arrested again in Kosovo for Aferdita's murder, and this time it looked more likely that Kosovo would extradite him, as they had, for the first time in their history, extradited another indicted person to the United States. While still in the custody of Kosovar authorities, he hanged himself in a jail bathroom.

Aferdita has been declared legally dead, but her body has never been found. Her disappearance remains unsolved and foul play is suspected.