ORLANDO, Fla. — A Central Florida family is pleading for help. 

On Monday, Sharitta Shinise Grier of Orlando was arrested during a routine search at the Howard Hamilton International Airport on the island of Providenciales. 

Grier was visiting the Turks and Caicos Islands. 

For her family, they’re still trying to process what’s happened. 

“I couldn’t believe it. I said, ‘Not Rita. Come on now, anybody but Rita,’” Willie Jean Lucas, Sharitta’s mother, said. 

Other family members said they feel the same way. 

“I’m still in shock, because when I first heard the news, I couldn’t believe that out of all the people in the world that Sharitta would be one that they would put behind bars,” Wylene White, Sharitta’s aunt, said. 

As of now, her family said she’s out on bond staying at an Airbnb. As for the reason why she’s on the islands:

“She didn’t want to go. But her daughter told her, ‘Well momma, this is your Mother’s Day gift.’ That’s the reason why she went,” Willie Jean Lucas said. 

She did not go alone. 

“My family went over there. My daughter, her two daughters and my son, they went over there,” Lucas said. 

Her family says this was Grier’s first time going to the islands. 

They say they’re still trying to figure out how she came to possess ammunition. 

“It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense due to the fact that she was coming home and she gets stopped, and for the reasoning and for them to hold her like that, it doesn’t make sense,” Family member Rose Willix said. 

In times of uncertainty, their family is holding on to hope. 

“She’s coming home. I have faith that she’s coming home. I believe that we go through storms to make us better. She’s just going through a storm,” White said. 

Grier’s family said she’s due in court in July.