Missing Pregnant Teen Allegedly Found with 40-Year-Old Father of Unborn Child 2 Months After Disappearing

A pregnant Wisconsin teenager who went missing in February was found on her 17th birthday with a 40-year-old man police say is the father of her unborn child. 

Sophia Franklin was found in Nebraska on Wednesday, April 2, almost two months after she disappeared from her residence in Beaver Dam, Wis., the Beaver Dam Police Department announced on Thursday. 

Police arrested Gary F. Day on several charges, including abduction, according to online court records. 

Sophia was reported missing on Feb. 3, a day after she was last seen in her Beaver Dam residence, police said at the time. An Amber Alert identified Day as the suspect in her alleged abduction.

Authorities claim the suspect met Sophia online in April 2024, per FOX 6 Now, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and WISN.

A few months after the two began talking, Day allegedly traveled to Wisconsin and took Sophia to Arkansas where she remained for months until local police located her, police said, per FOX 6 Now and the Journal Sentinel.  

Day allegedly took Sophia around July and held her until December, police said.

Sophia’s parents restricted her online access after that, but Day was allegedly still able to communicate with the child, per court records cited by FOX 6 Now.

“The whole situation scares me,” Sophia’s mother Leah Franklin previously told the Journal Sentinel. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen.”

Sophia and Day were spotted on Wednesday evening — which was also Sophia’s 17th birthday — at a truck stop by a couple who grew suspicious after speaking with the child, police said, according to WMTV 15.

Sophia and the unborn child are safe and healthy, police said, the outlet reported.

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Day has been charged with two counts of abduction of a child and two counts of child enticement causing mental/bodily harm, per online court records, which did not indicate plea or attorney information. 

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