By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2025-04-03 13:29:07 | Updated at 2025-04-04 18:50:21
1 day ago
The urgent two-month search for missing Wisconsin teen Sophia Franklin has been called off after she was found safe — along with the 40-year-old man believed to have gotten her pregnant.
Franklin was spotted just before midnight Wednesday — her 17th birthday — with Gary Day, 40, near Omaha, Nebraska, around 500 miles from her home in Beaver Dam, according to WISN.
Day — who is “known to be the father” of Franklin’s unborn child, according to a multi-state Amber Alert when she went missing Feb. 3 — was arrested after police located the pair off a tip.
The Amber Alert was canceled Thursday morning as Day was taken into custody. He was charged with two counts of child abduction and two counts of child enticement in February.
Franklin — who is now five months pregnant — was taken to a hospital where both she and her unborn baby were determined to be healthy, officials said.
Early in their search for the missing teen, authorities revealed she had secretly stayed with Day at his home in Cabot, Arkansas, for six months in 2024 while her family thought she was staying with a friend close to home in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.
Police located Franklin at Day’s home in December when they were conducting a probation check on Day, who was on probation for felony domestic battery charges.
“When they went to check on him, somebody ran out the back door, and that turned out to be a 16-year-old female from Wisconsin,” Lonoke County Sheriff John Staley said.
Franklin was brought back to Beaver Dam — only to go missing on Feb. 3, when a man appearing to be Day was spotted on a doorbell camera near Franklin’s home early Monday, officials said.
The case triggered an Amber Alert in Wisconsin, Arkansas and Missouri, according to the outlet.
“The Beaver Dam Police Department would like to thank the Sarpy County Sheriff’s Office, as well as the numerous other law enforcement agencies that put forth the time and effort to locate Sophia,” Beaver Dam Chief John Kreuziger said in a statement.
“We would also like to thank the community members in multiple states for their awareness and willingness to share leads to follow to help bring Sophia safely home,” Kreuziger added.
