BEAVER DAM, Wis. — A multi-state AMBER Alert for 17-year-old Sophia Franklin has been canceled after she was found safe, nearly nine weeks after going missing, according to the Beaver Dam Police Department.
Police say 40-year-old Gary Day, the man believed to have been traveling with her when the alert was issued, is in custody.
Beaver Dam police shared an update Thursday morning, saying they were tipped off just before midnight on Wednesday, April 2, by Nebraska deputies about a possible sighting of Sophia.
The Sarpy County Sheriff's Office said deputies responded to a tip at Love’s Travel Stop, a truck stop, and spoke to two people who reported the sighting. Deputies then questioned Day and Sophia inside the truck stop and confirmed their identities. The investigation also revealed felony warrants for Day’s arrest on charges of child abduction and enticement, according to a press release.
Deputies took Day into custody and brought Sophia to a secure facility to await reunification with her family.
Sophia had been missing from her family's Beaver Dam home since Feb. 2. She was 16 and three months pregnant at the time of the AMBER Alert and was believed to be traveling with Day, the father of her unborn baby.
The alert was issued in Wisconsin and later expanded to Missouri and Arkansas, where Day lives. Before it was issued, authorities say Sophia spent over four months with Day in Arkansas while her parents thought she was staying with a friend in town and working.
Leah Franklin, Sophia's mom, told TMJ4 News in a February interview that they first learned about Day when police in Arkansas contacted them. Day was on probation for child abuse at the time.
Watch: Missing pregnant Beaver Dam teen found safe; man arrested
“We were in communication with her that entire time. She wasn't happy with us because we had tried to keep her safe, and she was really upset with us about that. We were trying to let her cool off," Franklin said. "We were trying to keep communication lines open with her so that she would come home."
Sophia was brought back to Wisconsin. Franklin said that things seemed to be getting back on track with Sophia onboard.
"I do believe that she was brainwashed. I believe that she was groomed," Franklin stated in the February interview.
Her mother, recalling the day she discovered Sophia was missing, said the teen wasn’t feeling well.
She told TMJ4 that the next day, she checked on Sophia and found she was gone, leaving the family with a haunting discovery—security footage from the family’s doorbell showing 40-year-old Gary Day walking through their yard.
The Sarpy County Sheriff's Office in Nebraska held a press conference hours after Beaver Dam Police announced Sophia was found safe.
You can watch the full press conference below:
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