Penelope ‘Penny’ Wise, missing Cedar Springs, Michigan teen found safe after it’s revealed 16 year old girl is living and engaged to 44 year old Rockford man she met on the first night of running away from home.
A teenage girl hailing from Michigan who had been missing for nearly two months after suddenly leaving her family home in May was found over the weekend living with — and engaged to — an older man she just met, officials said.
Penelope ‘Penny’ Wise, 17, was reported missing by family members after she ran away from her Cedar Springs home on May 31 at around 6 p.m., according to the Kent County Sheriff’s Office.
She was last seen on security footage walking alone near a bar in Rockford at around midnight on June 1.
Missing teen ends up living and engaged to 44 year old man she met at 2am
Wise apparently met her 44-year-old now fiancé that same night, the sheriff’s office said Monday in an update to her missing person’s case.
Wise is believed to have voluntarily left her home but in the nearly two months since she was spotted near the bar, there was not a trace of the girl anywhere. Nor had the teen girl with braces made any contact with her family.
She had not been seen by either bystanders or security cameras in the area — leading to a massive search effort by investigators from the FBI, US Marshals Service, Michigan State Police and the Rockland Department of Safety.
‘We believe she intentionally walked away from home, but due to the length of time and no sightings KCSO [Kent County Sheriff’s Office] and her family are concerned for her well-being,’ the sheriff’s office said in a June 7 update.
Despite the backup from other law enforcement agencies and volunteers, additional on-the-ground searches and an open tipline for information about Wise, investigators had no leads into her disappearance until Sunday morning.
An ‘observant’ community member called police at around 11 a.m. after seeing the teen girl riding a bike and recognizing her from the missing persons flyers according to FOX17.
Family struggled knowing whether missing 16 year old was still alive or not
Investigators responded and learned that Wise had been living with the unnamed man 27 years her senior since the night she ran away from home.
She had first met him at around 2 a.m. on June 1 and had been living in his house from that same day until this past Sunday — when she left the home on a bike and was spotted by the resident.
Investigators also learned that Wise and the man had gotten engaged in the time between her disappearance and this weekend.
They said the teenage girl was located ‘safe’ and sheriff’s detectives are still investigating the case.
‘I struggled with keeping hope she was gonna be found safe and alive just because as time went on … she didn’t reach out to anybody and that didn’t seem like her,’ Penny’s ‘relieved’ mom, Mishael Wise told News 8 on Sunday. ‘Your mind starts going through the worst-case scenarios. So I was preparing myself in a way in case something bad had happened.’
The mom said it was ‘very heartbreaking’ to go more than seven weeks wondering whether her daughter was alive.
The Kent County Prosecutor’s Office has not authorized any charges against Wise’s new fiancé, according to M Live.
Of note, the age of consent in Michigan is 16.
