Missing pregnant teen and 40-year-old father of her child may be in Missouri, cops say
A multi-state AMBER Alert involving the disappearance of a 16-year-old girl and the father of her unborn child now includes Missouri, authorities say.
Sophia Franklin, last seen in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin, on Feb. 2, may be traveling through Missouri with her accused kidnapper, 40-year-old Gary Day, according to the Missouri State Highway Patrol.
Troopers said Feb. 12 that Franklin and Day, who authorities say impregnated the teen, could be traveling through Boone, Cooper, Howard, Moniteau, Morgan, Pettis or Saline counties on their way to an unknown location in Arkansas.
AMBER Alerts were previously issued in Wisconsin and Arkansas. Day lives in Lonoke County, Arkansas, WBAY reported.
Day was driving a 2014 black Buick LaCrosse and has used multiple license plates — an Arkansas BBR 20L plate and a KGW5186 Pennsylvania plate, authorities say.
Police in Wisconsin said there was a no-contact order between Day and Franklin before the two disappeared.
Franklin and Day met online in April, according to a criminal complaint obtained by WITI. The teen previously left with Day and was with him for months before returning home, according to investigators.
While in Arkansas, their relationship turned physical because “they knew it was illegal in Wisconsin and Illinois,” WKOW reported, citing court documents.
Even after Franklin first returned to her home in December, Day maintained contact with her and threatened “to harm himself because they were separated,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported, citing the criminal complaint.
Day was charged Feb. 4 with two counts of abducting a child and two counts of child enticement, court records show.
The missing teen’s mother, according to WLUK, said before her daughter disappeared she had “been dealing with hives on her arms, legs and even face.” Franklin, who is three months pregnant, was also “struggling with morning sickness.”
“In short, Sophie needs to come home and continue with the medical care she has been receiving for herself and the baby,” Leah Franklin said, according to WLUK.
Sophia Franklin is described as 5 feet, 9 inches and weighs 186 pounds, investigators say. She has brown hair and brown eyes.
Authorities say Day is 5 feet, 7 inches, weighing 165 pounds. He has balding blonde hair and green eyes.
“We don’t know what to do other than wait and pray. It’s a torment,” the Franklin family said in a Feb. 10 statement to WBAY. “Her absence is felt every moment. There is so much on the horizon for you, Sophie. Hard things, yes, but GOOD things too. And your family is here for all of it. We aren’t going anywhere — we just need you to come back.”
Anyone with information is asked to contact Beaver Dam police at 888-304-3936.