Sophia Veronica Cover leaves family Florida family home in middle of night only to wait 11 days to let her distressed family know she is safe and well and that runaway teen is staying with friends in New Jersey amid unanswered questions.
She’d decided to have fun with former school friends, except her family didn’t know…
A 16-year-old Florida teen girl captured on surveillance footage leaving her Naples family home in the middle of the night at the end of last month has been found ‘safe and alive’ nearly 1200 miles away.
Sophia Veronica Cover according to a Monday, August 10th release was found safe and alive in New Jersey, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office stated.
Few details were offered as to how the girl who disappeared over a week ago came to be found with police stating Cover had made contact with law enforcement out of state and was removed from the national and state missing person databases.
Missing Florida runaway found safe and alive at friend’s N.J home
Richard Cover, Sophia’s father, also announced that his daughter had been located in a video clip shared by the Florida Themis Project, a victims’ support group, on Monday, describing her as ‘totally safe.’
‘She was picked up today at a friend’s house in Cherry Hill, N.J., by the FBI,’ he said. ‘She is totally in their custody.’
He added authorities were interviewing her and that he was planning to fly up from Florida to pick her up, Gulf Coast News Now reported.
The dad who initially feared the worse stated, ‘It sounds like just some teenagers deciding that they were smarter than everybody else and decided to hang out together for a few days and it looks like it turned into 11.’
Unanswered questions
On July 31 at around 12:45 a.m., Cover was as seen leaving her home in Golden Gate Estates on foot, the sheriff’s office said in an initial alert.
At the time of her disappearance, Cover was seen leaving while wearing a dark hoodie and backpack, WZVN reported.
The disappearance came four months after the family moved to the area, and the family did not believe Sophia would have run away.
According to Cover, Sophia was found staying with friends. It remained unclear how the teen made it to New Jersey and why she’d waited so long before reaching out.
The dad in a final video thanked those who supported their family as the family desperately sought the teen’s whereabouts.
‘I don’t even know how to express my gratitude to the people of the community, the people around the United States, my friends, my family, everybody,’ Richard said in the clip. ‘It’s just the amount of love and support [we’ve] gotten with no judgement and all love, I just say the people in this world, I have no words.’
Adding, ‘I don’t like the fact that she did what she did, but I’ll be honest with you, you know, kids are going to make mistakes!”‘
‘The bottom line is she’s healthy, she’s safe,’ the parent added.
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