February 10, 2025 • 41 mins
Tonight, there is an active Amber Alert for 16-year-old Sophia Martin Franklin in Arkansas, more than 700 miles from her home in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Sophia is 5’9”, 186 pounds, with brown hair and blue eyes. The teenager, now missing a week, is believed to be travelling in a black 2014 Buick Lacrosse with Pennsylvania plate number KGW5186. The driver is 40-year-old abductor, Gary Day, the father of Sophia’s unborn child, but how did Franklin come to be with Day?
The summer before Sophia’s junior year of high school, Sophia asks her parents if it would be okay if she stays with her best friend’s family. The girls have been close for years and do everything together. Sophia makes a lot of good points about saving time and gas, and promises to check in frequently, so her parents eventually agree, knowing how happy it would make their daughter. Sophia makes the move in late July and says she’s having the time of her life!
Meanwhile, Gary Day is four years into a 6-year probation sentence and is used to surprise visits from his probation officer, but in December, the 40-year-old seems extremely nervous when the officer stops by. The supervisor also catches a glimpse of a woman running out the back door! He immediately chases her down and after an intense line of questioning—gets out that she is just 16-years-old and from Wisconsin! The teen admits she’s been with Day since August, and her family has no idea.
Sophia Franklin is removed from Day’s home and taken for a medical examination while authorities contact her family. Her parents are shocked and horrified to learn their daughter has been three states away with a predator this whole time—and even more appalled to learn she’s pregnant. Sophia is returned to Wisconsin as quickly as possible, and her parents take every step possible to protect her from Day and help their daughter heal.
Joining Nancy Grace today:
- Darryl Cohen - Former Assistant District Attorney, Former Assistant State Attorney, Defense Attorney, Cohen, Cooper, Estep, & Allen, LLC, CCEAlaw.com, Facebook: "Darryl B Cohen", Twitter: @DarrylBCohen
- Dr. Bethany Marshall - Psychoanalyst, Author: "Deal Breaker," featured in hit show: "Paris in Love" on Peacock www.drbethanymarshall.com/ , Instagram & TikTok: drbethanymarshall, Twitter: @DrBethanyLive
- Brian Fitzgibbons - Director of Operations for USPA Nationwide Security, www.uspasecurity.com, Instagram: @uspa_nationwide_security,
- Dr. Stacy Vaughan - Vice President of Growth and Prevention at Childhelp; website: www.childhelp.org; Instagram and Facebook: @childhelp; YouTube: @Childhelporg
- Alexis Tereszcuk - Crime Online investigative reporter
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace urgent amber alert a missing
pregnant girl believed to be with a forty year old
sex predator.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm Nancy Grace.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
This is Crime Stories.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
A Wisconsin family desperately searching for answers as to the
whereabouts of their missing team. Where is Sophia Franklin.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Like so many parents, they think everything's fine, their daughter
making great grades in school, attending their little Baptist church
with them every Sunday. Everything seems to be going along
normally in their minds, and then.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
This listen tonight, there's an active amber alert for sixteen
year old Sophia Martin Franklin in Arkansas, more than seven
hundred miles from her home in beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Sophia
is five foot nine, one hundred and eighty six with
brown hair and blue eyes. The teenager, now missing a week,
is believed to be traveling in a black twenty fourteen
Buick Lacrosse with Pennsylvania plate number KGW five one eighty six.
(01:11):
The driver, forty year old abductor, Gary Day, the father
of Sophia's unborn child.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
You were first hearing the beaver Dan police Chief John
Kruzeger from our friends at WSN twelve. This is what
we know at this hour. A teen girl pregnant by
a forty year old sex predator with.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
A rap sheet.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Right now, we don't know what state they could be in,
we don't know where they're headed, and we know that
he has a history of changing his car tags. Let's
see that twenty fourteen Buick one more time.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
It said Buick Lacrosse.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
This is the actual vehicle the two are traveling in,
unless he changed it out.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
And I'd like to point out.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
That this big loser is driving his mother's car. That's right.
I did a search on this car and it is
actually registered to his mother. Joining me an all star
panel to make sense of what we know right now,
but to explain how serious this is. Joining me first
(02:23):
is Shauna Burns out of North Carolina. This is the
mother of a little girl named Haley Burns. Her daughter
was also lured online by a much older sex predator
when her daughter, Heley, had just turned sixteen. Shauna, what
happened in Haley's case.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
Hailey did not recognize the danger in this situation that
she was getting herself into. When she was going to
stay with a friend and ended up being held against
her wills for three hundred and ninety nine days. And
the person that took her was anything but a friend.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
What exactly happened to Haley, Shawna?
Speaker 5 (03:06):
He took her and put her in a room first
and then ultimately kept her in a dog cage. He
starved her, did horrible things to her. Things I can't
go into because they're two graphics. But the worst things
that you could imagine, those are what he did to
(03:26):
my child.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
With me is a broken hearted mother, Shawna Burns, joining
us out of North Carolina. Her little girl, Haley, just sixteen,
was abducted by a man, a predator, a sex predator
that she met online. And to make matters worse, Shawna Burns,
isn't it true that Haley met her kidnapper and rapist
(03:50):
in a chat room where he was targeting young girls
with eating disorders?
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Yes, yes, he prayed. He prayed on a lot of
women in that chat room.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
How long did he have your daughter?
Speaker 5 (04:03):
Three hundred and ninety nine days?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
And during that time we did our best to help
find Haley. And when she was found, how much weight
had she lost?
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Shauna she weighed a bait about eighty six to eighty
seven pounds when she came back, and she was.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
A I cook.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
I cook every night, I cook every single night. So
my kid was a healthy weight when she left, and
she came back skin and bones. And one of the
hardest things was having to reintroduce food to her because
he had not let her have meat or dairy or
produce or anything like that on any regular basis, so
(04:41):
she could not eat it. She had to very slowly.
We had to do rice and then chicken, and that
was the hardest part because she'd been starved for so long.
When she came home, she just wanted to eat, but
she couldn't because then she would get sick.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Shauna, isn't it true that Haley's kidnap her who met
her online kept her locked up and would only give
her food in exchange for enforced sex.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
Yes, And the more violent that the acts were, the
more food she got.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Guys, you're hearing Shawna Burns describing what happened to her
daughter after she met a sex predator online. Same thing here.
This girl, now pregnant by the predator, has been kidnapped
straight out to Alexis Tereschuk joining US Crime online dot
(05:35):
Com investigative reporter. I want to go through what happened
when Sophia goes missing.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Listen Sunday night.
Speaker 7 (05:43):
Sophia says her usual good nights and turns in around
nine pm. Monday morning, around eight am, Sofia's sister spots
Gary Days, black buick idling a block down the street.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
While she calls police.
Speaker 7 (05:56):
A family member goes to check on Sophia and finds
her room empty. The family reviews surveillance footage and at
seven forty eight am, the camera catches Day walking up
the driveway then running up to the home. The Franklins
immediately report Sophia missing.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Me on the lookout for this sex predator.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
A forty year old male traveling in a twenty fourteen
Buick Lacrosse.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
He has changed license plates.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
He started off with an Arkansas plate B Brother B
Brother R read to zero L Lucy repeat bb R
two zero L. We believe, based on intelligence we have received,
he is now using a Pennsylvania plate k g W
(06:43):
five one eighty six, but is known to change plates. Alexis,
let's go back to that Sunday evening when Sophia said
good night to her family and goes to bed.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
What happened then a.
Speaker 8 (06:54):
Regular Sunday night, cold winter night. She goes to sleep
at nine o'clock. Nothing unusual, her parents did. Nothing was
unusual that night. They wake up in the next morning,
they go into her room, she is not there. Everybody panics.
Her sister notices about a block away from the house
that there is a car that she thinks is very suspicious.
(07:16):
So they go back. Sisters not in the house. They
search the house, They look around the house. Her dad
pulls up their security footage whether they have cameras outside
the house, and they see a man outside their house
kind of running towards their backyard on their security footage
that morning. They instantly are terrified for her and they
call nine one one and report her missing. And she
is only sixteen years old.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Brian just turned just turned sixteen. Brian hits Gibbons joining
me Director Operations USPA Nationwide Security. He leads a team
of investigators specializing and locating missing people. Brian, this guy
had the whole thing planted. By the way he has
(07:58):
a wrap sheet. Is a sex predator. This guy was
idling the sister Sophia's sister noticed a black butte Lacrosse
engine running about a block away from the home when
they pull up that morning's video, as Alexis Trestut was describing,
(08:18):
around seven ish that morning, they see Day the perp
walking up to the home. As he nears the home,
he starts running toward the back of the home.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
The fact that he was lying in wait is very disturbing.
Speaker 9 (08:36):
Forsgibbons absolutely, Nancy, and that leads me to believe that
he was in communication with.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Sophia prior to this pickup.
Speaker 9 (08:45):
We also know that he had an ankle monitoring bracelet
that he had removed or allowed to the battery to
die that day earlier that day, within twenty four hours.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Brian, when I hear ankle monitor, my blood boy? Okay,
why because people disable them and strict them all the time,
all the time. We hear about it discarded or cut
off or disabled ankle monitor, Yet we still continue.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
To do it. And now Sophia is gone pregnant.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Can I tell you, Brian, how many cases just like
this and a shootout and badly, when the sex predator
realizes he's cornered, he's caught, he takes himself and the
little girl down with him.
Speaker 9 (09:34):
Absolutely, this is an extremely perilous time for Sophia, especially
with Day being desperate enough to remove his ankle monitor.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
I'm very surprised, and I'm gonna get off. Ankle monitor
has got bigger fish to fry, Brian. But I'm very
surprised when he removed his ankle monitor it did not
send some immediate alert to the monitor's supervisor. Wouldn't that
have happened? I mean, once you see the mind doesn't
move for a period of time, and when it is
taken off, it should send a disabling frequency to the monitor.
Speaker 9 (10:08):
In this case, I believe it did. Nancy within forty
eight hours. You can see in court documents that his
probation officer was already filing paperwork to that effect. So
the party's in Arkansas and you definitely need it here.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Moved Zap forty eight hours.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Forty eight hours, Brian. You and I know the stats
backwards and forwards. The first three days, really, the first
twenty four hours are crucial. Forty eight hours you might
as well say forty eight days as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Just think about it, Brian.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Sixty mph hour after hour after hour they are on
the run.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Forty eight hours.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Seriously, that's what you've.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Got for me.
Speaker 9 (10:58):
Yeah, that radius gets bigger and big as you're saying,
you know, forty eight hours is a massive amount of
time here.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Can we talk about Brian
Fitzgibbons very quickly before I tell you who this guy
really is that has a sixteen year old just turned sixteen,
pregnant we think three months pregnant by him and they're
(11:31):
on the run. Can we talk about in the vehicle
because I believe that's the best possibility, the best chance
we've got of finding Sophia alive. Okay, tell me what
you know about this black Buick Lacrosse and what's the
possibility of a navigation nav system in this So.
Speaker 9 (11:50):
These twenty fourteen Buick Lacrosse are equipped with an Intelllink
navigation system. Now, the important piece here is that the
Intello link, the brain behind it that communicates to both
cellular and satellite data, is driven by on Star. That
on Star module, whether or not Day has an active subscription,
(12:12):
can be located with a court order.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So on Star he's able to.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Pause, pause, pause, See not everybody knows what you're talking about.
But when you said court order, let me tell everybody,
and I have series XM, serious XM and others can
be forced to hand over their tracking information, including nav systems.
(12:38):
We just saw this in the Alex Murdlock double murder trial,
where his NAV system in his suburban told us everything
we needed to know about the time he gunned down
his wife Maggie and son Paul and then took off
to hide out at Mommy's house.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Really, you could even see.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
When he opened the door to leave the crime saying,
when he turned the car on, put it in drive,
took off, when he lowered the window on the passenger
site to throw out his wife's cell phone, then let
the window back up and took off. It's very advanced,
but that was in a brand new suburban. This is
a twenty fourteen Buick Lacrosse.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
And you said intell a link.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
What how old is intell link And isn't it true
they have to be updated in order to remain current.
What is intellink And how does that help me find
this vehicle?
Speaker 9 (13:32):
So intell alink is effectively the interface that the driver
is going to use to connect their phone to use
navigation systems and just like you said, those maps would
need to be updated now driver behavior. Nowadays, not many
people are actually using the navigation system on the dash.
That being said, the intellolink system is driven by the
(13:56):
GPS that on stars communicating out to the satellite or
cellular networks to give that vehicle a brain.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
For lack of a better term.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Sixteen year old Sophia Franklin's online chad with an unknown
man makes Sophia's family's worst nightmare of reality.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Where is Sophie?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
This girl just turned sixteen and is already three to
four months pregnant by this predator.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
That's right, And you know.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
What, for those of you just joining us, I want
to heed you to hear again about who is this
forty year old perv. Listen.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
It's not a good dude.
Speaker 10 (14:42):
He targets young females, uses the internet as you see,
travel to Wisconsin.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And bag once.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Gary Day, forty lives in Cabin, Arkansas, and has been
divorced four times, most recently from the mother of his
two sons, ages three and four. Day is still serving
probation for endangering the wor welfare of his oldest son
and was recently charged with domestic battery against the child.
Day is not permitted to leave the state of Arkansas
without permission from his probation officer.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Well he did. That was from our friends at News
three Now, and we're learning more.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Listen, law enforcement discovers the black Buick Lacrosse is registered
to Day's mother and should have Arkansas plate number BBR
two zero L, But forty five minutes later, the car
is spotted heading south on Highway one point fifty one
near sun Prairie, Wisconsin, with Pennsylvania plate number KGW five
one eighty six. Police advice that Day may continue to
(15:36):
switch license plates and believe he may be traveling back
to Arkansas because his mother lives there, but cannot say
that with complete certainty. Drivers in Illinois and Missouri are
asked to keep a close eye out for the twenty
fourteen Lacrosse.
Speaker 11 (15:49):
We do know that he's switching plates right now and
putting different plates on the vehicle, which makes it a
little bit more difficult for law enforcement. But we're still
working through the logistics of that friends, News three Now.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Guys, that is beaver Dan Police Chief John Cruisier. Okay,
let me make sense of what I'm hearing straight out
to doctor Bethany Marshall, renowned psycho analys joining us from La,
author of deal Breaker, and you can see her now
on Peacock, Doctor Bethany. Thank you for being with us,
Doctor Bethany. Okay, you know, I might as well get
(16:23):
comfortable for you to tell me everything that's going on
up here right now. But just jumping out at me,
he's forty, he's almost forty one years old, and he's
driving his mommy's car.
Speaker 12 (16:36):
Let's just start with that. I caught that too, Nancy.
I mean, this is a guy, you know. I think
he's probably so prolifically involved in his perversion and his
sex addiction and pursuing underage girls that he probably doesn't
even I know he has a job, he's an insurance
home inspector, but I doubt he even functions very highly
(16:56):
in society, Nancy.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
He probably lives off.
Speaker 12 (16:59):
His mother, and the fact that he has child abuse
charges against his own son and then he's gravitating towards
minor women tells me that this guy likes to have
a lot of power over his victims. He's probably all
syrupy and sweet when he meets these girls.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
He probably tries.
Speaker 12 (17:17):
To alienate them from their parents. He probably tells them
that he understands them, that nobody else understands them, But
the minute Sophia disagrees with him. I'm sure this is
one menacing individual. This is a guy who looks nice
on the outside but is very cruel deep down. And
(17:39):
the idling in front of the house, I mean, that
is so creepy to me, Nancy. His whole day is
spent just canvassing for girls. I don't even know how
he has time to do much else because his whole perversion,
his whole obsession, is wrapped around this.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Speaking of joining me is veterine trial lawyer, former felony
prosecute now defense attorney Darryl Cohen, a partner with Cohen
Cooper A step and Allan. Darryl, thank you for being
with us, Darryl. How many times in a bond forfeiture
calendar when somebody wouldn't show for court would say go
(18:17):
to his mom's house. I'm sure he's hiding under the
bed or in the closet right now. I mean another thing,
aside from his driving his mother's car, didn't his employer.
I believe that he worked at insurance company. Correct me
if I'm wrong. Alexis and doctor Bethany, didn't they notice
the big fat ankle monitor he was wearing. Why would
(18:40):
you keep someone employed not just with a.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Police arrest, but with a conviction, With a.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Conviction and a big honkin ankle monitor.
Speaker 13 (18:51):
Nancy, these things happen. You have an ankle monitor because
you're not a terrible criminal as far as the system
is concerned. You have an ankle monitor because they don't
want to incarcerate you. You have an ankle monitor so
you can be tracked. They have an ankle monitor that
(19:11):
shouldn't come off, that shouldn't lose its battery. But if
and when it does, that's when the company that owns
those ankle monitors should immediately immediately notify law enforcement.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Okay, see, we all know what you did right in there.
I know you got your law degree. But is there
a magician hiding deep inside your soul? Because you I
ask you this and he tried to show me that.
It's like pulling a different rabbit out of the hat.
That's not what I asked for. You're talking about what
(19:47):
a great person he is, and you're suddenly talking about
it's the ankle monitors companies fault that they didn't catch him.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Let's just hear who we're dealing with.
Speaker 14 (19:59):
Listen and Grace Day bring their four year old baby,
Carter to the emergency room with what they think is
a broken leg. Doctors do not believe the parents's story
that Carter's foot got caught in the sink drain during
a bath, and also discover bruising on Carter's cheeks and ears.
Arkansas DCFS gets involved in the case, and Gary Day
claims he was not present when Carter sustained the injury,
(20:22):
but admits it happened several days ago. Both parents are
charged with endangering the welfare of a minor for not
seeking medical attention for the baby earlier before.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Darryl Cohen defense attorney pipes in and tries to blame
the baby for that getting his foot caught in a drain.
Joining me right now is special guest doctor Stacy Vaughn,
vice president of Growth and Prevention at child help dot Org,
one of my favorite groups, child help dot Org. Doctor
(20:54):
Stacy Vaughan, thank you for being with us. Did you
hear that this incident occurred days before? And they are
just bringing him to the emergency room with what they
believe they broken leg. The child has been suffering. It's
only four months old with a potential broken leg. And
they try to say his foot got caught in the
(21:16):
sink drain, the sink drain during a bath.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I wonder if his ear and his face got caught
in the drain too, because they're covered in bruises. But
guess what they get to take the baby home?
Speaker 15 (21:32):
Yeah, Nancy, And that's so typical of what happens when
children are brought into emergency rooms with a cover story
and we learn, you know, through medical exams and tests
that there are multiple injuries prior. But why this wasn't
reported to dcf s in that state, and why that
(21:53):
child wasn't removed, I don't understand that.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
And you know what, doctor Stacey Vaughn, it didn't end there.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Listen.
Speaker 16 (22:01):
Four years later, Grace Day files a police report claiming
her husband hurt Carter. Grace tells officers she found bruises
on the four year old's arm and shoulder, and Gary
Day admitted he lost it when he found Carter climbing
on a piece of furniture after he cleaned up a
mess Carter made in the bathroom with toothpaste. Carter tells
cops his dad sometimes turns into the Hulk and says
(22:23):
this isn't the first time Day has hurt him. Gary
Day is charged with domestic battery, but the state does
not have enough evidence to prove the case and the
charges are dismissed.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
I do not understand that at all, Daryl Kohen, Can
you just take your defense hat off for just one
moment and go back to your glory days when you
were on the right side of the law.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Really, they didn't have enough evidence.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
You've got a child with a prior where he brought
the child in with a potential broken leg. Now the
same child is covered in bruises, the mom brings him in,
and they don't have enough evidence to go forward.
Speaker 13 (23:00):
Why maybe, Nancy, they felt like they had enough to
push it enough to have him arrested and to give
him DA's time, let him be on perrobation, which really
means I am waiting trial. Maybe they didn't feel that
they could prove it was him who did it as
(23:21):
opposed to mom. And maybe just maybe they were too
lazy or didn't have enough forensic evidence to prove it
was either one of them and they didn't want to
take the child away.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Okay, Darryl, yes, you no. Do you have any facts
supporting anything you just said?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Are you just.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Spinning it out like rubel Stiltskin, Right, You're spinning no facts.
Speaker 13 (23:45):
Just basic knowledge of the law, you see, Nancy, basic
knowledge of the way the system works, whether we like
it or not.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Doctor Bethany Marshall before Darryl can say something else, it's
the same for second verse, same as the first. The
child is brought in at four months. The child is
covered in bruises with potential broken leg at four months,
with some kakamami story that his foot got caught in
the sink drain. The sink drain is about that big, okay,
(24:17):
but he's got a potentially broken leg. Then four years later,
targeting the same child out of the family, the child
is covered in bruises and the state doesn't go forward
with it.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
He walks away.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
And now so Fia is pregnant and missing with a
known predator.
Speaker 12 (24:38):
You know, Nancy, it made me wonder if he is
in pregnating women so that he can have access to children.
I mean, the crime doesn't just stop with you know,
predating on underage women. It's also impregnating them so he
can have more children around him, so that he can
abuse them and be cruel to them. You know, Nanncy,
(24:59):
we we know of the two crimes against the four
year old. Where are all the other undergage girls that
he's probably predating upon?
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Two?
Speaker 12 (25:08):
This is just the tip of the iceberg, Nancy. This
is Sophia and this is a four year old. There
are other girls out there. There are other heartbroken parents
who's trying to alien they alienate their.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Daughters from them.
Speaker 12 (25:22):
This story is going to grow and spread.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
This guy has a lot.
Speaker 12 (25:25):
Of time on his hands to take advantage of children.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Trouble unfolds in Wisconsin when sixteen year old Sophia Franklin
is lured from her home by an older man. Police
plead for help in finding Sophia.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
What is he talking about? An older man? It makes
it sound like maybe he's twenty one, he's going on
forty one, as she has just turned sixteen and she
is at least four months pregnant. So he started statutorily
raping her when she was fifteen. Fifteen, Guys, there were
(26:04):
so many red flags listen days before her disappearance.
Speaker 7 (26:08):
Sophia's parents discover a strange Google account on her phone
and give Beaver Dan Pde permission to investigate it. They
find disturbing messages between Sophia and Day. Dave repeatedly threatened suicide,
and Sophia attempts to console him, telling Day he needs
to live for their daughter, who she has preemptively named
Ava quote. I know how much you wanted a girl,
(26:31):
and I know how much you care for your children.
Day simply responds, tell her, I'm dead.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Okay, wait, tell the unborn baby girl that they just
turn sixteen year old little girl is carrying, he says,
tell her, I'm dead. Threats of suicide are common amongst
child sex predators, and here it is again, joining me
right now a special guest in addition to doctor Bethany
(26:57):
Marshall and Shawna Burns, to Toyan Jordan joining us. She
is the chief parent officer at Bark Parental Controls, author
of Parenting and a Tech World. The parents noticed strange
Google accounts that couldn't break in, so they bring in
the sheriff, and what they find is very distressing. It's
(27:20):
not a new story to Tanya.
Speaker 6 (27:21):
It's not a new story, Nancy. Unfortunately, so many children
are being harmed by predators online in places and spaces
that parents have no idea exists. So the reason that
we know about the rate at which children are harmed
online on places like Gmail, et cetera, is because at
(27:42):
BARK we helped to protect over seven point four million
children across the nation, and just over the course of
twenty twenty four, we analyzed almost eight billion activities across
places like Gmail, Google docs, text, email, YouTube, over thirty apps.
And children are being harmed and grew in places that
parents might think are perfectly safe.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Straight out to Shauna Burns joining Us. Shauna's daughter Haley
was lured online. She was missing approximately a year. She
was kept in a cage, starved, sex abused, beaten. Shauna,
before your daughter was kidnapped, her purp was lying about
(28:25):
who he was and contacting her online, and you had
no idea.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
No, we had absolutely no idea.
Speaker 17 (28:32):
It's it's exactly what your prosecutor friend was saying earlier.
He presented it to her that we would never understand her,
we would never be able to.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
Just accept her the way that she was, and.
Speaker 17 (28:47):
That he could, and that he could help her with
her innorexia, and that he could help her to get
to her ideal weight, and that we were always going
to want.
Speaker 9 (28:57):
To find.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Her ideal weight. She's just a little girl. She doesn't
need to be worried about her ideal weight. He preyed
upon her, finding her in a chat room. She was actually,
as I recall, using a computer at school. Isn't that right, Shauna?
Speaker 9 (29:14):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
Every bit of communication happened with them at school.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So you had no way of knowing, and in your mind,
Heley was perfectly fine, no indication that this was happening. Guys,
same thing here with Sophia. Listen.
Speaker 14 (29:32):
Sophia Franklin, sixteen is raised in beaver Dam, Wisconsin, in
a large, loving family. She's the second oldest of her
six siblings, A proud golden Beaver at beaver Dam High
sings in choir and attends church with her family at
Bible Baptist every Sunday.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Alexis Tereschuk joining me Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter.
This little girl, Sophia, who is now probably being held
and some interstate motel with the car hidden somewhere and
being brought an egg McMuffin from McDonald's in exchange for
(30:08):
statutory rapes all day long. That's what's happening to her
right now. That's true.
Speaker 8 (30:13):
She has been missing.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
She was taken from her home.
Speaker 8 (30:16):
She is pregnant by this man who is, as you said,
he's almost forty one years old. This has been ongoing
for months. Her parents have tried to stop this. They
contacted the police immediately. They showed the police their phone.
They said, she is still talking to this predator. Nothing
is stopping him.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
Nothing.
Speaker 8 (30:31):
He has an ankle monitor only he is able to drive,
he's able to go out in public. He is able
to get to her. He's cross state lines, violated every
bit of probation, and still was able to get her.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
And she left her home.
Speaker 8 (30:45):
And she is not old enough to, according to law,
to be able to be making these decisions on her own.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Thanks Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, a missing teen girl
we believe about four months pregnant by a known child predator.
(31:13):
He has kidnapped her and they are on the run
in a twenty fourteen black Buick Lacrosse joining me an
All Star panel. But let me just tell you all
the warnings were there and there's a backstory.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Listen.
Speaker 7 (31:29):
Gary Day is four years into a six year probation
sentence and is used to surprise visits from his probation officer.
But in December, the forty year old seems extremely nervous.
When the officer stops by, the supervisor also catches a
glimpse of a woman running out the back door. He
immediately chases her down and after an intense line of questioning,
(31:51):
gets out that she is just sixteen years old and
from Wisconsin.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
This is what happened. By the way, when you are
on probation or parole, are subject to surprise visits from
probation or parole officers. That's what happened here and the
perp it's very nervous when the probation parole came to
the door and then a little girl runs out the
(32:18):
back who Sophia.
Speaker 10 (32:21):
Listen, when they went to check on him, somebody around
at the back door, and that turned out to be
a sixteen year old female from Wisconsin.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Sophia Franklin is removed from Day's home and taken from
a medical examination while authorities contact her family. Her parents
are shocked and horrified to learn their daughter has been
with a predator and even more a paul to learn
she's pregnant. Sophia is returned to Wisconsin as quickly as possible,
and her parents take every step possible to protect her
from day and help their daughter heal.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Dever From our friends at CBAS Chicago, Alexis Tereschuk joining
us clime online dot com Alexis, how did she end
up in his home before the kidnapped?
Speaker 8 (33:02):
They started talking to each other online. She then convinced
her parents that she wanted to go stay with a friend.
It was summertime. She wanted to go visit and stay
with his friend, so they said okay. They believe she
was going to stay with his friend. In the meantime,
he had been telling her that he was going to
come get her. He did. He came and got her.
She went and stayed at his house. He crossed state
(33:24):
lines to get her. He took her back to Arkansas
from Wisconsin, and that's where she was saying and her
friend was helping her lie to her parents. They were
all lying and saying that she was with a friend.
Nobody knew that she was with this old man predator.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Oh my stars. Doctor Bethany Marshall. One little week or
two sleep away during the summer turns into this, and
when his parole probation officer knocks on the door, they
see a girl running out of the back.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
It's her.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
He has been targeting her and statutorally raping her for
so long. That's how she got pregnant.
Speaker 12 (34:07):
He was grooming her. He was alienating her from her parents.
He was making her feel special and unique and desirable
and understood in ways that she imagines nobody else can.
He made her feel that the family going through the
Baptist church was sort of all wrong, in a perverse
(34:27):
kind of life, and that the life he could offer
her was great. Little does he know, does she? Little
does she know? He's driving his mother's car. He probably
has no money, nothing to offer her. He's a pervert.
He's abusive. He doesn't even treat his own children kindly.
He probably has other girls he's grooming, so when she
(34:47):
ages out, he can move on to the next victim, Nancy,
because that's what they do. They only victimize for a
certain period of time until the control slips.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Then they lose interest in the.
Speaker 12 (34:58):
Victim and they go on to another one. It's not
like stalkers who stay in love with the victim, maybe
for years at a time.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
These predators only.
Speaker 12 (35:08):
Want the children as long as they can have power
over them and alienate them from the parents, and then
when that power slips, Nancy, they are not interested anymore.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
That's what I'm worried about.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
When she wakes up in that roadside motel and realizes
she wants to go home, he's already threatened to commit suicide.
What will happen? Then to Tania Jordan joining US Chief
Parent Office at BART Parental Controls, author of Parenting in
a tech world.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
To Tanya, it's.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Always lies, and these predators actually target the child online.
They find things out about them like, oh, she goes
to Bible Baptist church. Oh she plays soccer. Oh she
goes to beaver Dam High School. They find out things
by looking up the child's profile online. Then they start
(36:01):
befriending the child. Oh I play soccer too, Oh I
was a beaver My cousin goes to that high school,
so she graduated last year. You probably don't know her.
Blah blah blah, and they start spanning the tale.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
To Tanya, Nancy, it is so important for every parent
and every caregiver to realize that there's over half a
million predators online at any given time that we know of,
and that's according to the FBI. So please don't think
not my child. It's not a matter of if, but
when they're going to encounter somebody trying to message them
(36:35):
online to groom them, befriend them, and worse. And that's
why we've got to have these conversations proactively.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Please don't think not my kid. There's a very famous
quote that says, if that is the law, then the
law is an ass truer words we're never spoken.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Listen to this.
Speaker 14 (36:53):
Unfortunately, law enforcement has a hard time holding Day accountable
at the age of content in Arkansas is sixteen, so
Day is not committed a chargeable sex crime. Day is
charged with violating this probation, contributing to the delinquency of
a minor, and interfering with custody. The Franklins push for
more serious charges in Wisconsin, but for now are only
able to obtain a no contact order with Day.
Speaker 10 (37:14):
It's an antiquated law rules. We're going to work on
changing that. I'm going to work with some of our
legislators and go to reach out to them, let them
know that that's something we we probably should change, especially
with all the trafficking and the issues that we have.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Probably should change.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Okay, that's the Arkansas Sheriff John Steally, and that's my
friends at five News and antiquated law Darryl Cohen.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
And antiquated law. That you know what that says to me.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
It's been around so long you should know you have
to fix it, but nobody's done anything. And now Sophia
is with a forty one soon to be forty one
year old predator and some motel getting statutorily raped and
exchange her in egg McMuffin.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
That's what's happening.
Speaker 13 (38:04):
And see, in Arkansas, it is not statutorily raped, whether
we like it or not, and I don't. She has
the right as a sixteen year old to engage in
sex as long as it's voluntary. Other states.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
In Arkansas, in Arkansas, but wait a minute, wait a minute.
In Wisconsin, the age of consent is eighteen. I believe
they started having sex relations if you can call it that,
when she's fifteen, because she's sixteen and four months pregnant.
But that said, so you're telling me it's okay for
him to go and get her out of Wisconsin, where
(38:39):
the age of consent is eighteen, take her across state
lines to Arkansas and rape her.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
And that's okay.
Speaker 13 (38:46):
I'm not saying it's okay. I'm saying the little you
will not prevent. Well, it sounds like I am, but
I'm not. I'm saying the losses that she can engage
voluntarily in sex in Arkansas when she is sixteen or.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Okay, yet me rephrase my question. Isn't it a felony
to take a minor across state lines for the purposes
of sex? Think Jared Fogel, the subway guy?
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Does that?
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Jog your recollection regarding the black and white letter of
the law.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Daryl Cohen, do I.
Speaker 13 (39:20):
Like what happened?
Speaker 12 (39:20):
No?
Speaker 1 (39:21):
The man Act is the man answering?
Speaker 13 (39:23):
That is a federal law. Did he violate?
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Okay?
Speaker 13 (39:27):
You know what likely he did.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
If I held you over a fire with your toes
dangling in the flames, you would never admit what he
did is a crime. Okay, let's deal with reality. Brian Fitzgibbons,
I'm never going to get the right answer out of
Daryl Cohen. I completely understand that. That's why I win
so many cases. Can we talk about how we're going
(39:52):
to find her?
Speaker 9 (39:53):
At this point, Nancy, We've got to be looking at
Number one, Can we track the vehicle? If that's simple possible,
we have to start looking at cell phones? Where is
Gary Day getting money to survive? At this point, those
are the three top issues that I would be looking at.
It's number one, the vehicle tracking, number two cell phone tracking,
(40:14):
and then the third The third spot would be how
is he staying alive here? How are they eating? Where
are they staying? Where is he getting funding?
Speaker 5 (40:22):
Well?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
I can guarantee you this fitz Givens, they ain't at
the RITZ. If you know or think you know anything
about the location of Sophia, please dial beaver d MPD
nine two zero eight eight seven four six one two
repeat nine two zero eight eight seven four six one two,
(40:44):
or the Amber Alert tip line eight eight eight three
zero four three nine three six repeat eight eight eight
three zero four three nine three six, or reach out
to our friends at child help dot Org. You can
find them online or at eight hundred for a Child
(41:05):
eight hundred four two two four four five eight. I
can't stress how many cases like this end in further tragedy,
Nancy Gray signing off goodbye friend,
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace urgent amber alert a missing
pregnant girl believed to be with a forty year old
sex predator.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
I'm Nancy Grace.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
This is Crime Stories.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Thank you for being with us.
Speaker 3 (00:20):
A Wisconsin family desperately searching for answers as to the
whereabouts of their missing team. Where is Sophia Franklin.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Like so many parents, they think everything's fine, their daughter
making great grades in school, attending their little Baptist church
with them every Sunday. Everything seems to be going along
normally in their minds, and then.
Speaker 4 (00:46):
This listen tonight, there's an active amber alert for sixteen
year old Sophia Martin Franklin in Arkansas, more than seven
hundred miles from her home in beaver Dam, Wisconsin. Sophia
is five foot nine, one hundred and eighty six with
brown hair and blue eyes. The teenager, now missing a week,
is believed to be traveling in a black twenty fourteen
Buick Lacrosse with Pennsylvania plate number KGW five one eighty six.
(01:11):
The driver, forty year old abductor, Gary Day, the father
of Sophia's unborn child.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
You were first hearing the beaver Dan police Chief John
Kruzeger from our friends at WSN twelve. This is what
we know at this hour. A teen girl pregnant by
a forty year old sex predator with.
Speaker 2 (01:35):
A rap sheet.
Speaker 1 (01:37):
Right now, we don't know what state they could be in,
we don't know where they're headed, and we know that
he has a history of changing his car tags. Let's
see that twenty fourteen Buick one more time.
Speaker 2 (01:53):
It said Buick Lacrosse.
Speaker 1 (01:54):
This is the actual vehicle the two are traveling in,
unless he changed it out.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
And I'd like to point out.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
That this big loser is driving his mother's car. That's right.
I did a search on this car and it is
actually registered to his mother. Joining me an all star
panel to make sense of what we know right now,
but to explain how serious this is. Joining me first
(02:23):
is Shauna Burns out of North Carolina. This is the
mother of a little girl named Haley Burns. Her daughter
was also lured online by a much older sex predator
when her daughter, Heley, had just turned sixteen. Shauna, what
happened in Haley's case.
Speaker 5 (02:45):
Hailey did not recognize the danger in this situation that
she was getting herself into. When she was going to
stay with a friend and ended up being held against
her wills for three hundred and ninety nine days. And
the person that took her was anything but a friend.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
What exactly happened to Haley, Shawna?
Speaker 5 (03:06):
He took her and put her in a room first
and then ultimately kept her in a dog cage. He
starved her, did horrible things to her. Things I can't
go into because they're two graphics. But the worst things
that you could imagine, those are what he did to
(03:26):
my child.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
With me is a broken hearted mother, Shawna Burns, joining
us out of North Carolina. Her little girl, Haley, just sixteen,
was abducted by a man, a predator, a sex predator
that she met online. And to make matters worse, Shawna Burns,
isn't it true that Haley met her kidnapper and rapist
(03:50):
in a chat room where he was targeting young girls
with eating disorders?
Speaker 5 (03:55):
Yes, yes, he prayed. He prayed on a lot of
women in that chat room.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
How long did he have your daughter?
Speaker 5 (04:03):
Three hundred and ninety nine days?
Speaker 1 (04:04):
And during that time we did our best to help
find Haley. And when she was found, how much weight
had she lost?
Speaker 5 (04:13):
Shauna she weighed a bait about eighty six to eighty
seven pounds when she came back, and she was.
Speaker 6 (04:19):
A I cook.
Speaker 5 (04:21):
I cook every night, I cook every single night. So
my kid was a healthy weight when she left, and
she came back skin and bones. And one of the
hardest things was having to reintroduce food to her because
he had not let her have meat or dairy or
produce or anything like that on any regular basis, so
(04:41):
she could not eat it. She had to very slowly.
We had to do rice and then chicken, and that
was the hardest part because she'd been starved for so long.
When she came home, she just wanted to eat, but
she couldn't because then she would get sick.
Speaker 1 (04:53):
Shauna, isn't it true that Haley's kidnap her who met
her online kept her locked up and would only give
her food in exchange for enforced sex.
Speaker 5 (05:09):
Yes, And the more violent that the acts were, the
more food she got.
Speaker 1 (05:14):
Guys, you're hearing Shawna Burns describing what happened to her
daughter after she met a sex predator online. Same thing here.
This girl, now pregnant by the predator, has been kidnapped
straight out to Alexis Tereschuk joining US Crime online dot
(05:35):
Com investigative reporter. I want to go through what happened
when Sophia goes missing.
Speaker 2 (05:41):
Listen Sunday night.
Speaker 7 (05:43):
Sophia says her usual good nights and turns in around
nine pm. Monday morning, around eight am, Sofia's sister spots
Gary Days, black buick idling a block down the street.
Speaker 2 (05:55):
While she calls police.
Speaker 7 (05:56):
A family member goes to check on Sophia and finds
her room empty. The family reviews surveillance footage and at
seven forty eight am, the camera catches Day walking up
the driveway then running up to the home. The Franklins
immediately report Sophia missing.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
Me on the lookout for this sex predator.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
A forty year old male traveling in a twenty fourteen
Buick Lacrosse.
Speaker 2 (06:19):
He has changed license plates.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
He started off with an Arkansas plate B Brother B
Brother R read to zero L Lucy repeat bb R
two zero L. We believe, based on intelligence we have received,
he is now using a Pennsylvania plate k g W
(06:43):
five one eighty six, but is known to change plates. Alexis,
let's go back to that Sunday evening when Sophia said
good night to her family and goes to bed.
Speaker 2 (06:53):
What happened then a.
Speaker 8 (06:54):
Regular Sunday night, cold winter night. She goes to sleep
at nine o'clock. Nothing unusual, her parents did. Nothing was
unusual that night. They wake up in the next morning,
they go into her room, she is not there. Everybody panics.
Her sister notices about a block away from the house
that there is a car that she thinks is very suspicious.
(07:16):
So they go back. Sisters not in the house. They
search the house, They look around the house. Her dad
pulls up their security footage whether they have cameras outside
the house, and they see a man outside their house
kind of running towards their backyard on their security footage
that morning. They instantly are terrified for her and they
call nine one one and report her missing. And she
is only sixteen years old.
Speaker 1 (07:37):
Brian just turned just turned sixteen. Brian hits Gibbons joining
me Director Operations USPA Nationwide Security. He leads a team
of investigators specializing and locating missing people. Brian, this guy
had the whole thing planted. By the way he has
(07:58):
a wrap sheet. Is a sex predator. This guy was
idling the sister Sophia's sister noticed a black butte Lacrosse
engine running about a block away from the home when
they pull up that morning's video, as Alexis Trestut was describing,
(08:18):
around seven ish that morning, they see Day the perp
walking up to the home. As he nears the home,
he starts running toward the back of the home.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
The fact that he was lying in wait is very disturbing.
Speaker 9 (08:36):
Forsgibbons absolutely, Nancy, and that leads me to believe that
he was in communication with.
Speaker 2 (08:41):
Sophia prior to this pickup.
Speaker 9 (08:45):
We also know that he had an ankle monitoring bracelet
that he had removed or allowed to the battery to
die that day earlier that day, within twenty four hours.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Brian, when I hear ankle monitor, my blood boy? Okay,
why because people disable them and strict them all the time,
all the time. We hear about it discarded or cut
off or disabled ankle monitor, Yet we still continue.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
To do it. And now Sophia is gone pregnant.
Speaker 1 (09:20):
Can I tell you, Brian, how many cases just like
this and a shootout and badly, when the sex predator
realizes he's cornered, he's caught, he takes himself and the
little girl down with him.
Speaker 9 (09:34):
Absolutely, this is an extremely perilous time for Sophia, especially
with Day being desperate enough to remove his ankle monitor.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
I'm very surprised, and I'm gonna get off. Ankle monitor
has got bigger fish to fry, Brian. But I'm very
surprised when he removed his ankle monitor it did not
send some immediate alert to the monitor's supervisor. Wouldn't that
have happened? I mean, once you see the mind doesn't
move for a period of time, and when it is
taken off, it should send a disabling frequency to the monitor.
Speaker 9 (10:08):
In this case, I believe it did. Nancy within forty
eight hours. You can see in court documents that his
probation officer was already filing paperwork to that effect. So
the party's in Arkansas and you definitely need it here.
Speaker 2 (10:24):
Moved Zap forty eight hours.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Forty eight hours, Brian. You and I know the stats
backwards and forwards. The first three days, really, the first
twenty four hours are crucial. Forty eight hours you might
as well say forty eight days as far as I'm concerned.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
Just think about it, Brian.
Speaker 1 (10:49):
Sixty mph hour after hour after hour they are on
the run.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
Forty eight hours.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
Seriously, that's what you've.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Got for me.
Speaker 9 (10:58):
Yeah, that radius gets bigger and big as you're saying,
you know, forty eight hours is a massive amount of
time here.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Can we talk about Brian
Fitzgibbons very quickly before I tell you who this guy
really is that has a sixteen year old just turned sixteen,
pregnant we think three months pregnant by him and they're
(11:31):
on the run. Can we talk about in the vehicle
because I believe that's the best possibility, the best chance
we've got of finding Sophia alive. Okay, tell me what
you know about this black Buick Lacrosse and what's the
possibility of a navigation nav system in this So.
Speaker 9 (11:50):
These twenty fourteen Buick Lacrosse are equipped with an Intelllink
navigation system. Now, the important piece here is that the
Intello link, the brain behind it that communicates to both
cellular and satellite data, is driven by on Star. That
on Star module, whether or not Day has an active subscription,
(12:12):
can be located with a court order.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
So on Star he's able to.
Speaker 1 (12:18):
Pause, pause, pause, See not everybody knows what you're talking about.
But when you said court order, let me tell everybody,
and I have series XM, serious XM and others can
be forced to hand over their tracking information, including nav systems.
(12:38):
We just saw this in the Alex Murdlock double murder trial,
where his NAV system in his suburban told us everything
we needed to know about the time he gunned down
his wife Maggie and son Paul and then took off
to hide out at Mommy's house.
Speaker 2 (12:56):
Really, you could even see.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
When he opened the door to leave the crime saying,
when he turned the car on, put it in drive,
took off, when he lowered the window on the passenger
site to throw out his wife's cell phone, then let
the window back up and took off. It's very advanced,
but that was in a brand new suburban. This is
a twenty fourteen Buick Lacrosse.
Speaker 2 (13:17):
And you said intell a link.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
What how old is intell link And isn't it true
they have to be updated in order to remain current.
What is intellink And how does that help me find
this vehicle?
Speaker 9 (13:32):
So intell alink is effectively the interface that the driver
is going to use to connect their phone to use
navigation systems and just like you said, those maps would
need to be updated now driver behavior. Nowadays, not many
people are actually using the navigation system on the dash.
That being said, the intellolink system is driven by the
(13:56):
GPS that on stars communicating out to the satellite or
cellular networks to give that vehicle a brain.
Speaker 2 (14:06):
For lack of a better term.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Sixteen year old Sophia Franklin's online chad with an unknown
man makes Sophia's family's worst nightmare of reality.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
Where is Sophie?
Speaker 1 (14:17):
This girl just turned sixteen and is already three to
four months pregnant by this predator.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
That's right, And you know.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
What, for those of you just joining us, I want
to heed you to hear again about who is this
forty year old perv. Listen.
Speaker 5 (14:40):
It's not a good dude.
Speaker 10 (14:42):
He targets young females, uses the internet as you see,
travel to Wisconsin.
Speaker 2 (14:47):
And bag once.
Speaker 4 (14:49):
Gary Day, forty lives in Cabin, Arkansas, and has been
divorced four times, most recently from the mother of his
two sons, ages three and four. Day is still serving
probation for endangering the wor welfare of his oldest son
and was recently charged with domestic battery against the child.
Day is not permitted to leave the state of Arkansas
without permission from his probation officer.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Well he did. That was from our friends at News
three Now, and we're learning more.
Speaker 4 (15:15):
Listen, law enforcement discovers the black Buick Lacrosse is registered
to Day's mother and should have Arkansas plate number BBR
two zero L, But forty five minutes later, the car
is spotted heading south on Highway one point fifty one
near sun Prairie, Wisconsin, with Pennsylvania plate number KGW five
one eighty six. Police advice that Day may continue to
(15:36):
switch license plates and believe he may be traveling back
to Arkansas because his mother lives there, but cannot say
that with complete certainty. Drivers in Illinois and Missouri are
asked to keep a close eye out for the twenty
fourteen Lacrosse.
Speaker 11 (15:49):
We do know that he's switching plates right now and
putting different plates on the vehicle, which makes it a
little bit more difficult for law enforcement. But we're still
working through the logistics of that friends, News three Now.
Speaker 1 (16:02):
Guys, that is beaver Dan Police Chief John Cruisier. Okay,
let me make sense of what I'm hearing straight out
to doctor Bethany Marshall, renowned psycho analys joining us from La,
author of deal Breaker, and you can see her now
on Peacock, Doctor Bethany. Thank you for being with us,
Doctor Bethany. Okay, you know, I might as well get
(16:23):
comfortable for you to tell me everything that's going on
up here right now. But just jumping out at me,
he's forty, he's almost forty one years old, and he's
driving his mommy's car.
Speaker 12 (16:36):
Let's just start with that. I caught that too, Nancy.
I mean, this is a guy, you know. I think
he's probably so prolifically involved in his perversion and his
sex addiction and pursuing underage girls that he probably doesn't
even I know he has a job, he's an insurance
home inspector, but I doubt he even functions very highly
(16:56):
in society, Nancy.
Speaker 2 (16:58):
He probably lives off.
Speaker 12 (16:59):
His mother, and the fact that he has child abuse
charges against his own son and then he's gravitating towards
minor women tells me that this guy likes to have
a lot of power over his victims. He's probably all
syrupy and sweet when he meets these girls.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
He probably tries.
Speaker 12 (17:17):
To alienate them from their parents. He probably tells them
that he understands them, that nobody else understands them, But
the minute Sophia disagrees with him. I'm sure this is
one menacing individual. This is a guy who looks nice
on the outside but is very cruel deep down. And
(17:39):
the idling in front of the house, I mean, that
is so creepy to me, Nancy. His whole day is
spent just canvassing for girls. I don't even know how
he has time to do much else because his whole perversion,
his whole obsession, is wrapped around this.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Speaking of joining me is veterine trial lawyer, former felony
prosecute now defense attorney Darryl Cohen, a partner with Cohen
Cooper A step and Allan. Darryl, thank you for being
with us, Darryl. How many times in a bond forfeiture
calendar when somebody wouldn't show for court would say go
(18:17):
to his mom's house. I'm sure he's hiding under the
bed or in the closet right now. I mean another thing,
aside from his driving his mother's car, didn't his employer.
I believe that he worked at insurance company. Correct me
if I'm wrong. Alexis and doctor Bethany, didn't they notice
the big fat ankle monitor he was wearing. Why would
(18:40):
you keep someone employed not just with a.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
Police arrest, but with a conviction, With a.
Speaker 1 (18:47):
Conviction and a big honkin ankle monitor.
Speaker 13 (18:51):
Nancy, these things happen. You have an ankle monitor because
you're not a terrible criminal as far as the system
is concerned. You have an ankle monitor because they don't
want to incarcerate you. You have an ankle monitor so
you can be tracked. They have an ankle monitor that
(19:11):
shouldn't come off, that shouldn't lose its battery. But if
and when it does, that's when the company that owns
those ankle monitors should immediately immediately notify law enforcement.
Speaker 1 (19:26):
Okay, see, we all know what you did right in there.
I know you got your law degree. But is there
a magician hiding deep inside your soul? Because you I
ask you this and he tried to show me that.
It's like pulling a different rabbit out of the hat.
That's not what I asked for. You're talking about what
(19:47):
a great person he is, and you're suddenly talking about
it's the ankle monitors companies fault that they didn't catch him.
Speaker 2 (19:56):
Let's just hear who we're dealing with.
Speaker 14 (19:59):
Listen and Grace Day bring their four year old baby,
Carter to the emergency room with what they think is
a broken leg. Doctors do not believe the parents's story
that Carter's foot got caught in the sink drain during
a bath, and also discover bruising on Carter's cheeks and ears.
Arkansas DCFS gets involved in the case, and Gary Day
claims he was not present when Carter sustained the injury,
(20:22):
but admits it happened several days ago. Both parents are
charged with endangering the welfare of a minor for not
seeking medical attention for the baby earlier before.
Speaker 1 (20:31):
Darryl Cohen defense attorney pipes in and tries to blame
the baby for that getting his foot caught in a drain.
Joining me right now is special guest doctor Stacy Vaughn,
vice president of Growth and Prevention at child help dot Org,
one of my favorite groups, child help dot Org. Doctor
(20:54):
Stacy Vaughan, thank you for being with us. Did you
hear that this incident occurred days before? And they are
just bringing him to the emergency room with what they
believe they broken leg. The child has been suffering. It's
only four months old with a potential broken leg. And
they try to say his foot got caught in the
(21:16):
sink drain, the sink drain during a bath.
Speaker 2 (21:22):
Wow.
Speaker 1 (21:23):
I wonder if his ear and his face got caught
in the drain too, because they're covered in bruises. But
guess what they get to take the baby home?
Speaker 15 (21:32):
Yeah, Nancy, And that's so typical of what happens when
children are brought into emergency rooms with a cover story
and we learn, you know, through medical exams and tests
that there are multiple injuries prior. But why this wasn't
reported to dcf s in that state, and why that
(21:53):
child wasn't removed, I don't understand that.
Speaker 1 (21:56):
And you know what, doctor Stacey Vaughn, it didn't end there.
Speaker 2 (22:00):
Listen.
Speaker 16 (22:01):
Four years later, Grace Day files a police report claiming
her husband hurt Carter. Grace tells officers she found bruises
on the four year old's arm and shoulder, and Gary
Day admitted he lost it when he found Carter climbing
on a piece of furniture after he cleaned up a
mess Carter made in the bathroom with toothpaste. Carter tells
cops his dad sometimes turns into the Hulk and says
(22:23):
this isn't the first time Day has hurt him. Gary
Day is charged with domestic battery, but the state does
not have enough evidence to prove the case and the
charges are dismissed.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
I do not understand that at all, Daryl Kohen, Can
you just take your defense hat off for just one
moment and go back to your glory days when you
were on the right side of the law.
Speaker 2 (22:44):
Really, they didn't have enough evidence.
Speaker 1 (22:47):
You've got a child with a prior where he brought
the child in with a potential broken leg. Now the
same child is covered in bruises, the mom brings him in,
and they don't have enough evidence to go forward.
Speaker 13 (23:00):
Why maybe, Nancy, they felt like they had enough to
push it enough to have him arrested and to give
him DA's time, let him be on perrobation, which really
means I am waiting trial. Maybe they didn't feel that
they could prove it was him who did it as
(23:21):
opposed to mom. And maybe just maybe they were too
lazy or didn't have enough forensic evidence to prove it
was either one of them and they didn't want to
take the child away.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
Okay, Darryl, yes, you no. Do you have any facts
supporting anything you just said?
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Are you just.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
Spinning it out like rubel Stiltskin, Right, You're spinning no facts.
Speaker 13 (23:45):
Just basic knowledge of the law, you see, Nancy, basic
knowledge of the way the system works, whether we like
it or not.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Doctor Bethany Marshall before Darryl can say something else, it's
the same for second verse, same as the first. The
child is brought in at four months. The child is
covered in bruises with potential broken leg at four months,
with some kakamami story that his foot got caught in
the sink drain. The sink drain is about that big, okay,
(24:17):
but he's got a potentially broken leg. Then four years later,
targeting the same child out of the family, the child
is covered in bruises and the state doesn't go forward
with it.
Speaker 2 (24:30):
He walks away.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
And now so Fia is pregnant and missing with a
known predator.
Speaker 12 (24:38):
You know, Nancy, it made me wonder if he is
in pregnating women so that he can have access to children.
I mean, the crime doesn't just stop with you know,
predating on underage women. It's also impregnating them so he
can have more children around him, so that he can
abuse them and be cruel to them. You know, Nanncy,
(24:59):
we we know of the two crimes against the four
year old. Where are all the other undergage girls that
he's probably predating upon?
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Two?
Speaker 12 (25:08):
This is just the tip of the iceberg, Nancy. This
is Sophia and this is a four year old. There
are other girls out there. There are other heartbroken parents
who's trying to alien they alienate their.
Speaker 1 (25:21):
Daughters from them.
Speaker 12 (25:22):
This story is going to grow and spread.
Speaker 2 (25:24):
This guy has a lot.
Speaker 12 (25:25):
Of time on his hands to take advantage of children.
Speaker 3 (25:29):
Trouble unfolds in Wisconsin when sixteen year old Sophia Franklin
is lured from her home by an older man. Police
plead for help in finding Sophia.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
What is he talking about? An older man? It makes
it sound like maybe he's twenty one, he's going on
forty one, as she has just turned sixteen and she
is at least four months pregnant. So he started statutorily
raping her when she was fifteen. Fifteen, Guys, there were
(26:04):
so many red flags listen days before her disappearance.
Speaker 7 (26:08):
Sophia's parents discover a strange Google account on her phone
and give Beaver Dan Pde permission to investigate it. They
find disturbing messages between Sophia and Day. Dave repeatedly threatened suicide,
and Sophia attempts to console him, telling Day he needs
to live for their daughter, who she has preemptively named
Ava quote. I know how much you wanted a girl,
(26:31):
and I know how much you care for your children.
Day simply responds, tell her, I'm dead.
Speaker 1 (26:36):
Okay, wait, tell the unborn baby girl that they just
turn sixteen year old little girl is carrying, he says,
tell her, I'm dead. Threats of suicide are common amongst
child sex predators, and here it is again, joining me
right now a special guest in addition to doctor Bethany
(26:57):
Marshall and Shawna Burns, to Toyan Jordan joining us. She
is the chief parent officer at Bark Parental Controls, author
of Parenting and a Tech World. The parents noticed strange
Google accounts that couldn't break in, so they bring in
the sheriff, and what they find is very distressing. It's
(27:20):
not a new story to Tanya.
Speaker 6 (27:21):
It's not a new story, Nancy. Unfortunately, so many children
are being harmed by predators online in places and spaces
that parents have no idea exists. So the reason that
we know about the rate at which children are harmed
online on places like Gmail, et cetera, is because at
(27:42):
BARK we helped to protect over seven point four million
children across the nation, and just over the course of
twenty twenty four, we analyzed almost eight billion activities across
places like Gmail, Google docs, text, email, YouTube, over thirty apps.
And children are being harmed and grew in places that
parents might think are perfectly safe.
Speaker 1 (28:03):
Straight out to Shauna Burns joining Us. Shauna's daughter Haley
was lured online. She was missing approximately a year. She
was kept in a cage, starved, sex abused, beaten. Shauna,
before your daughter was kidnapped, her purp was lying about
(28:25):
who he was and contacting her online, and you had
no idea.
Speaker 5 (28:30):
No, we had absolutely no idea.
Speaker 17 (28:32):
It's it's exactly what your prosecutor friend was saying earlier.
He presented it to her that we would never understand her,
we would never be able to.
Speaker 5 (28:43):
Just accept her the way that she was, and.
Speaker 17 (28:47):
That he could, and that he could help her with
her innorexia, and that he could help her to get
to her ideal weight, and that we were always going
to want.
Speaker 9 (28:57):
To find.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
Her ideal weight. She's just a little girl. She doesn't
need to be worried about her ideal weight. He preyed
upon her, finding her in a chat room. She was actually,
as I recall, using a computer at school. Isn't that right, Shauna?
Speaker 9 (29:14):
Yep.
Speaker 5 (29:14):
Every bit of communication happened with them at school.
Speaker 1 (29:17):
So you had no way of knowing, and in your mind,
Heley was perfectly fine, no indication that this was happening. Guys,
same thing here with Sophia. Listen.
Speaker 14 (29:32):
Sophia Franklin, sixteen is raised in beaver Dam, Wisconsin, in
a large, loving family. She's the second oldest of her
six siblings, A proud golden Beaver at beaver Dam High
sings in choir and attends church with her family at
Bible Baptist every Sunday.
Speaker 1 (29:47):
Alexis Tereschuk joining me Crime Online dot Com investigative reporter.
This little girl, Sophia, who is now probably being held
and some interstate motel with the car hidden somewhere and
being brought an egg McMuffin from McDonald's in exchange for
(30:08):
statutory rapes all day long. That's what's happening to her
right now. That's true.
Speaker 8 (30:13):
She has been missing.
Speaker 2 (30:14):
She was taken from her home.
Speaker 8 (30:16):
She is pregnant by this man who is, as you said,
he's almost forty one years old. This has been ongoing
for months. Her parents have tried to stop this. They
contacted the police immediately. They showed the police their phone.
They said, she is still talking to this predator. Nothing
is stopping him.
Speaker 5 (30:31):
Nothing.
Speaker 8 (30:31):
He has an ankle monitor only he is able to drive,
he's able to go out in public. He is able
to get to her. He's cross state lines, violated every
bit of probation, and still was able to get her.
Speaker 2 (30:44):
And she left her home.
Speaker 8 (30:45):
And she is not old enough to, according to law,
to be able to be making these decisions on her own.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
Thanks Crime Stories with Nancy Grace, a missing teen girl
we believe about four months pregnant by a known child predator.
(31:13):
He has kidnapped her and they are on the run
in a twenty fourteen black Buick Lacrosse joining me an
All Star panel. But let me just tell you all
the warnings were there and there's a backstory.
Speaker 2 (31:29):
Listen.
Speaker 7 (31:29):
Gary Day is four years into a six year probation
sentence and is used to surprise visits from his probation officer.
But in December, the forty year old seems extremely nervous.
When the officer stops by, the supervisor also catches a
glimpse of a woman running out the back door. He
immediately chases her down and after an intense line of questioning,
(31:51):
gets out that she is just sixteen years old and
from Wisconsin.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
This is what happened. By the way, when you are
on probation or parole, are subject to surprise visits from
probation or parole officers. That's what happened here and the
perp it's very nervous when the probation parole came to
the door and then a little girl runs out the
(32:18):
back who Sophia.
Speaker 10 (32:21):
Listen, when they went to check on him, somebody around
at the back door, and that turned out to be
a sixteen year old female from Wisconsin.
Speaker 4 (32:28):
Sophia Franklin is removed from Day's home and taken from
a medical examination while authorities contact her family. Her parents
are shocked and horrified to learn their daughter has been
with a predator and even more a paul to learn
she's pregnant. Sophia is returned to Wisconsin as quickly as possible,
and her parents take every step possible to protect her
from day and help their daughter heal.
Speaker 1 (32:49):
Dever From our friends at CBAS Chicago, Alexis Tereschuk joining
us clime online dot com Alexis, how did she end
up in his home before the kidnapped?
Speaker 8 (33:02):
They started talking to each other online. She then convinced
her parents that she wanted to go stay with a friend.
It was summertime. She wanted to go visit and stay
with his friend, so they said okay. They believe she
was going to stay with his friend. In the meantime,
he had been telling her that he was going to
come get her. He did. He came and got her.
She went and stayed at his house. He crossed state
(33:24):
lines to get her. He took her back to Arkansas
from Wisconsin, and that's where she was saying and her
friend was helping her lie to her parents. They were
all lying and saying that she was with a friend.
Nobody knew that she was with this old man predator.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
Oh my stars. Doctor Bethany Marshall. One little week or
two sleep away during the summer turns into this, and
when his parole probation officer knocks on the door, they
see a girl running out of the back.
Speaker 2 (33:56):
It's her.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
He has been targeting her and statutorally raping her for
so long. That's how she got pregnant.
Speaker 12 (34:07):
He was grooming her. He was alienating her from her parents.
He was making her feel special and unique and desirable
and understood in ways that she imagines nobody else can.
He made her feel that the family going through the
Baptist church was sort of all wrong, in a perverse
(34:27):
kind of life, and that the life he could offer
her was great. Little does he know, does she? Little
does she know? He's driving his mother's car. He probably
has no money, nothing to offer her. He's a pervert.
He's abusive. He doesn't even treat his own children kindly.
He probably has other girls he's grooming, so when she
(34:47):
ages out, he can move on to the next victim, Nancy,
because that's what they do. They only victimize for a
certain period of time until the control slips.
Speaker 2 (34:57):
Then they lose interest in the.
Speaker 12 (34:58):
Victim and they go on to another one. It's not
like stalkers who stay in love with the victim, maybe
for years at a time.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
These predators only.
Speaker 12 (35:08):
Want the children as long as they can have power
over them and alienate them from the parents, and then
when that power slips, Nancy, they are not interested anymore.
Speaker 2 (35:18):
That's what I'm worried about.
Speaker 1 (35:19):
When she wakes up in that roadside motel and realizes
she wants to go home, he's already threatened to commit suicide.
What will happen? Then to Tania Jordan joining US Chief
Parent Office at BART Parental Controls, author of Parenting in
a tech world.
Speaker 2 (35:37):
To Tanya, it's.
Speaker 1 (35:38):
Always lies, and these predators actually target the child online.
They find things out about them like, oh, she goes
to Bible Baptist church. Oh she plays soccer. Oh she
goes to beaver Dam High School. They find out things
by looking up the child's profile online. Then they start
(36:01):
befriending the child. Oh I play soccer too, Oh I
was a beaver My cousin goes to that high school,
so she graduated last year. You probably don't know her.
Blah blah blah, and they start spanning the tale.
Speaker 6 (36:15):
To Tanya, Nancy, it is so important for every parent
and every caregiver to realize that there's over half a
million predators online at any given time that we know of,
and that's according to the FBI. So please don't think
not my child. It's not a matter of if, but
when they're going to encounter somebody trying to message them
(36:35):
online to groom them, befriend them, and worse. And that's
why we've got to have these conversations proactively.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
Please don't think not my kid. There's a very famous
quote that says, if that is the law, then the
law is an ass truer words we're never spoken.
Speaker 2 (36:52):
Listen to this.
Speaker 14 (36:53):
Unfortunately, law enforcement has a hard time holding Day accountable
at the age of content in Arkansas is sixteen, so
Day is not committed a chargeable sex crime. Day is
charged with violating this probation, contributing to the delinquency of
a minor, and interfering with custody. The Franklins push for
more serious charges in Wisconsin, but for now are only
able to obtain a no contact order with Day.
Speaker 10 (37:14):
It's an antiquated law rules. We're going to work on
changing that. I'm going to work with some of our
legislators and go to reach out to them, let them
know that that's something we we probably should change, especially
with all the trafficking and the issues that we have.
Speaker 2 (37:27):
Probably should change.
Speaker 1 (37:30):
Okay, that's the Arkansas Sheriff John Steally, and that's my
friends at five News and antiquated law Darryl Cohen.
Speaker 2 (37:41):
And antiquated law. That you know what that says to me.
Speaker 1 (37:43):
It's been around so long you should know you have
to fix it, but nobody's done anything. And now Sophia
is with a forty one soon to be forty one
year old predator and some motel getting statutorily raped and
exchange her in egg McMuffin.
Speaker 2 (38:03):
That's what's happening.
Speaker 13 (38:04):
And see, in Arkansas, it is not statutorily raped, whether
we like it or not, and I don't. She has
the right as a sixteen year old to engage in
sex as long as it's voluntary. Other states.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
In Arkansas, in Arkansas, but wait a minute, wait a minute.
In Wisconsin, the age of consent is eighteen. I believe
they started having sex relations if you can call it that,
when she's fifteen, because she's sixteen and four months pregnant.
But that said, so you're telling me it's okay for
him to go and get her out of Wisconsin, where
(38:39):
the age of consent is eighteen, take her across state
lines to Arkansas and rape her.
Speaker 2 (38:45):
And that's okay.
Speaker 13 (38:46):
I'm not saying it's okay. I'm saying the little you
will not prevent. Well, it sounds like I am, but
I'm not. I'm saying the losses that she can engage
voluntarily in sex in Arkansas when she is sixteen or.
Speaker 1 (39:01):
Okay, yet me rephrase my question. Isn't it a felony
to take a minor across state lines for the purposes
of sex? Think Jared Fogel, the subway guy?
Speaker 2 (39:14):
Does that?
Speaker 1 (39:15):
Jog your recollection regarding the black and white letter of
the law.
Speaker 2 (39:18):
Daryl Cohen, do I.
Speaker 13 (39:20):
Like what happened?
Speaker 12 (39:20):
No?
Speaker 1 (39:21):
The man Act is the man answering?
Speaker 13 (39:23):
That is a federal law. Did he violate?
Speaker 2 (39:27):
Okay?
Speaker 13 (39:27):
You know what likely he did.
Speaker 1 (39:30):
If I held you over a fire with your toes
dangling in the flames, you would never admit what he
did is a crime. Okay, let's deal with reality. Brian Fitzgibbons,
I'm never going to get the right answer out of
Daryl Cohen. I completely understand that. That's why I win
so many cases. Can we talk about how we're going
(39:52):
to find her?
Speaker 9 (39:53):
At this point, Nancy, We've got to be looking at
Number one, Can we track the vehicle? If that's simple possible,
we have to start looking at cell phones? Where is
Gary Day getting money to survive? At this point, those
are the three top issues that I would be looking at.
It's number one, the vehicle tracking, number two cell phone tracking,
(40:14):
and then the third The third spot would be how
is he staying alive here? How are they eating? Where
are they staying? Where is he getting funding?
Speaker 5 (40:22):
Well?
Speaker 1 (40:22):
I can guarantee you this fitz Givens, they ain't at
the RITZ. If you know or think you know anything
about the location of Sophia, please dial beaver d MPD
nine two zero eight eight seven four six one two
repeat nine two zero eight eight seven four six one two,
(40:44):
or the Amber Alert tip line eight eight eight three
zero four three nine three six repeat eight eight eight
three zero four three nine three six, or reach out
to our friends at child help dot Org. You can
find them online or at eight hundred for a Child
(41:05):
eight hundred four two two four four five eight. I
can't stress how many cases like this end in further tragedy,
Nancy Gray signing off goodbye friend,
Host
Nancy Grace
Popular Podcasts
40s and Free Agents: NFL Draft Season
Daniel Jeremiah of Move the Sticks and Gregg Rosenthal of NFL Daily join forces to break down every team's needs this offseason.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
The Bobby Bones Show
Listen to 'The Bobby Bones Show' by downloading the daily full replay.