Sophia Franklin, missing ‘pregnant’ Beaver Dam, Wisconsin teen, 16, found as Gary Day, Arkansas man is arrested and charged amid questions of how the girl came to end up being with the man and her parents’ seeming complicity.
So where were her parents….? The two-month search for a missing 16 year old Wisconsin teen has come to an end after rescuers say she was found safe — along with the 40-year-old man believed to have gotten her pregnant.
Sophia 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 following a tip off.
Sophia Franklin missing Wisconsin teen failed by her parents?
The Amber Alert was canceled Thursday morning with her alleged abductor, Gary Day taken into custody.
The 40 year old was charged with two counts of child abduction and two counts of child enticement in February.
Franklin — who is 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 Franklin 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.
Did Sophia Franklin, Beaver Dam teen willingly leave home?
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.
At the time, the 16-years-old was three months pregnant when she was reported missing by her family on February 3. She was last seen leaving her home the day before, as captured by security footage.
The case triggered an Amber Alert in Wisconsin, Arkansas and Missouri, according to WISN.
‘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.
Investigators stated Franklin had been communicating with Day online since April 2024, and prosecutors initially believed Day picking her up and taking her to his home in central Arkansas.
Which is to wonder, did Sophia Franklin’s parents (not publicly identified) really believe that their 16 year old teen daughter was solely with friends? Didn’t they think to check in on her? Or the close friend?
Age of consent and social media reacts to missing Beaver Dam teen’s travails
Of note, in Wisconsin, the age of consent to sexual intercourse is 18 years old. The only exception to Wisconsin’s age of consent law extends to lawfully married couples. However, the law allows 16- and 17-year-olds to consent to sexual contact, defined as touching, whether direct or through clothing, of a person’s intimate parts.
Similarly, the age of consent in Arkansas, where the teen girl is believed to have been staying with Day is 16 years old.
And then there were these comments on social media that caught this author’s attention. See what you think?
‘She was obviously with him willingly. The question is what is the age of consent in her state. It seems from the story the parents of this young woman failed her. But more needs to be explained.’
‘Her parents thought she was staying with a friend for six months? While they’re at it they should be investigating the parents. There’s definitely more to this story than was reported.’
‘I’m not seeing the crime. The age of consent in Wisconsin is 16. She left voluntarily with him, twice. Am I missing something, from a legal, not moral standpoint?’
