Two-month search for missing pregnant teen Sophia Franklin ends after she’s found with 40-year-old man charged with abducting her

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

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 on April 2

Gary Day has been charged with two counts of abduction of a child and two counts of child enticement

An Amber Alert was issued for Sophia Franklin, [photo], then 16, after she was last seen leaving her home in Wisconsin on Feb 3, with a 40-year-old man. She was found on Thursday, five months pregnant with her abductor’s child

The urgent two-month search for missing Wisconsin teen Sophia Franklin was called off on April 2, after she was found safe, along with the 40-year-old man believed to have gotten her pregnant.
An urgent hunt began when she went missing February 3. It was believed Franklin had been abducted Gary Day when she ran away to his home, more than 700 miles away in Arkansas.
Franklin was spotted just before midnight Wednesday her 17th birthday, with Gary Day, 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 raised when she was reported missing, was placed in custody after police located the pair following a tip on Thursday morning and the Amber Alert canceled.
Gary Day had been charged with two counts of child abduction and two counts of child enticement in February.
Franklin, now five months pregnant, was taken to a hospital, where both she and her unborn baby were determined to be healthy, officials said.

Gary Day, [photo], was arrested on Thursday morning in the company of the teen he got pregnant. He has been charged with two counts of abduction of a child and two counts of child enticement

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.
At the time Day was on probation for felony domestic battery. Officers located Franklin at Day’s home in December when they were conducting a probation check.
“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 February 3, when a man believed 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.

Back in Dec. 2024, cops located the runaway at Day’s home in while conducting a probation check on Day. He was on probation for felony domestic battery. Franklin then 16, had spent six months in his home. In Feb. the pair went on the run in a black 2014 Buick LaCrosse

“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.