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Wisconsin police have released new pictures and a video of 40-year-old Gary Day and 16-year-old Sophia Franklin, who disappeared from a Beaver Dam, WI, home in early February and who authorities say is pregnant with Day’s child. Franklin’s mother, Leah Franklin, has also spoken out about the case.
Franklin’s Feb. 3 disappearance triggered an Amber Alert in several states, and a man authorities believe is Day was seen on a neighbor’s home security camera near the Franklin family’s residence.
Beaver Dam Police have released this brief security footage showing Gary Day (40) on Feb. 4, the same day an Amber Alert for Sophia Franklin (16) was issued. Franklin and Day haven’t been seen since and police say the teen is pregnant with Day’s child.https://t.co/4hfSsm1wMt pic.twitter.com/4jqJ8XxnZj
— Mallory Anderson (@MalloryNews) February 18, 2025
Beaver Dam police have also released two previously unseen photos of Franklin and Day.
The Sophia Franklin missing persons case
BREAKING NEWS
An Amber Alert for a missing 16-year-old from Beaver Dam was extended into Missouri. The Missouri State Highway Patrol announced Sophia Franklin, 16, and Gary Day, 40, may be traveling through the state. https://t.co/9a9XLrNXpl— WKOW 27 News (@WKOW) February 12, 2025
Day, who has a lengthy criminal record for domestic and child abuse, met Franklin online last April. Three months later, he took Franklin from Beaver Dam to his home in Arkansas, as authorities searched Wisconsin for the missing teen. Conducting a probation check, Arkansas police found Franklin at Day’s house, and Franklin’s parents drove from Wisconsin to Arkansas and brought her back.
A restraining order was filed preventing Day from contacting Franklin, but in January, when Franklin was three months pregnant, online conversations between the teenager and Day were discovered. According to the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Day threatened to hurt himself if he and the teen could not be together. Franklin also referred to their daughter in those online conversations.
Speaking with the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Franklin’s mother, Leah Franklin, said the first time her daughter disappeared, she was in contact, telling her she was with friends in Beaver Dam when she had gone to Arkansas. This time, though, Sophia had not been in touch, and Leah fears she may never hear from her daughter again.
“It hits your gut,” Leah said. “We want her not with that person. His age is obviously concerning. It is also the fact that he wanted to take her. The whole situation scares me. Never in my wildest dreams did I think this would happen.”
Day has now been charged in Wisconsin with child abduction and two counts of child enticement. The initial Amber Alert covered Wisconsin, Alabama, and Missouri, and Day and Franklin are believed to be traveling to an unknown location in Arkansas. Police believe they’re traveling in a Black Buick Lacrosse with Pennsylvania plates and say Day has changed the plates at least once.
Franklin’s mother, Leah, says she and Franklin’s father tried to warn their daughter about the dangers of the internet and limit her usage. “The situation we are in now are the reasons we gave her for putting those parameters in place,” Leah said.
“I fear he has harmed her more than he already has, or he has already mentally entrenched her more than he already has,” she added. “There is nothing that has happened that has taken away one ounce of our love for you. We just want you home,” she said.